Confirmed with Link: Brett Kulak traded for Taormina and Valiev

[Miller Time]

Kulak is better than both.

curious to what you base this on?

 

[Habs 4 Life]

lol

haha I knew it!!!! f***ing Bergevin!!

 

[EveryDay]

curious asset decision...

live in Calgary, nothing i've seen of Kulak suggests he's a better asset than either Taormina or Valiev (imo Valieve has the most potential of the 3 to be a regular NHLer on a playoff team).

hard to see the point of this deal. Taormina is by far the best AHL player of the 3, Valiev the most potential... downgrade in asset management, another MB special

Taormina's the best of the 3 on PP, that's it. He's one of the worst player in the AHL at 5on5 last year.......Laval don't need another -30 from him this year. Kulak is pretty solid defensively and good as well on PK.

 

[Habs 4 Life]

curious to what you base this on?

Well he did play almost a full season last year in the league
I will be honest, I don't know much about him and I won't pretend I do, but it's a good thing when your a regular even if it's a #6
The guys shipped out are pretty much career AHL players
Maybe and hopefully Bergevin is close to trading Benn!!!

 

[417]

curious asset decision...

live in Calgary, nothing i've seen of Kulak suggests he's a better asset than either Taormina or Valiev (imo Valieve has the most potential of the 3 to be a regular NHLer on a playoff team).

hard to see the point of this deal. Taormina is by far the best AHL player of the 3, Valiev the most potential... downgrade in asset management, another MB special

Yet out of all 3 of these...

Brett Kulak was the one who played 71 NHL games last year, on a D corps that included the following names

Dougie Hamilton, Mark Giordano, TJ Brodie, Travis Hamonic & Michael Stone

Rinat Valiev & Matt Taormina, combined, managed to play 2 NHL games last year on a D corps that including the following names

Shea Weber (26 games), Jeff Petry, Victor Mete (49 games), Karl Alzner, Jordie Benn & David Schlemko

 

[Tyson]

so for Laval Rocket now.

Kulak-Lernout
Despres-Fleury
Moravcik-Sklenicka
Plant, Melancon

?

Weaker than I envisioned

 

[Miller Time]

Habs bring in a guy, for their AHL affiliate no less, who played 71 NHL games on a pretty deep defense last year...for 2 guys who combined played 2 NHL games.

And some are still finding a reason to crap on this

SMDH

Flames defense was very thin after their top5... organizational depth on D was weak even though their top-5 was very good... Kulak played ahead of Bartkowski and two 20-year olds (kylington/rasmussen).

as bad as we were last year, Kulak likely doesn't play 70+ games in our top-6 last year as he would not have beat out Benn, Mete, Rielly, Morrow et.

 

[Miller Time]

Yet out of all 3 of these...

Brett Kulak was the one who played 71 NHL games last year, on a D corps that included the following names

Dougie Hamilton, Mark Giordano, TJ Brodie, Travis Hamonic & Michael Stone

Rinat Valiev & Matt Taormina, combined, managed to play 2 NHL games last year on a D corps that including the following names

Shea Weber (26 games), Jeff Petry, Victor Mete (49 games), Karl Alzner, Jordie Benn & David Schlemko

Reilly and Morrow are both better players than Kulak.

 

[Adam Michaels]

If Després accepts his AHL contract, he will count among the veterans. Teams are allowed 5 veterans + 1 veteran who has played between 260-320 games (Agostino & Shinkaruk can be counted in this category). With Després, the team will have their 6 vets (Després, Chaput, Grenier, Agostino, Shinkaruk, and Froese). So Laval won't have to juggle the veteran spots like they did last season. They were forced to scratch one or two a game to comply to the veteran rule.

But Després on an AHL deal doesn't count on the 50-contract limit. Habs currently sit with 47. So I can see them offer Fleury his ELC to play in Laval, bringing the contract limit to 48/50.

 

[ThaDevilGirl]

Okay. Sure.

 

[417]

Reilly and Morrow are both better players than Kulak.

I don't doubt that they are...

I was just responding to your post where you wrote that nothing you've seen suggests that Kulak is better than Valiev & Taormina.

 

[Adam Michaels]

 

[417]

Flames defense was very thin after their top5... organizational depth on D was weak even though their top-5 was very good... Kulak played ahead of Bartkowski and two 20-year olds (kylington/rasmussen).

as bad as we were last year, Kulak likely doesn't play 70+ games in our top-6 last year as he would not have beat out Benn, Mete, Rielly, Morrow et.

What about the Habs?

Shea Weber finished 2nd in scoring amongst their Dmen last year...and he played 26 games.

And that was only 16pts shy of the teams leader, Jeff Petry, who more than tripled the amount of games Weber played.

 

[Miller Time]

Well he did play almost a full season last year in the league
I will be honest, I don't know much about him and I won't pretend I do, but it's a good thing when your a regular even if it's a #6
The guys shipped out are pretty much career AHL players
Maybe and hopefully Bergevin is close to trading Benn!!!

Games played isn't a great reference point as each team has different organizational depth and focus (prospects vs vets, speed/puck-moving vs size/physicality et).

Mete played almost 50 games for us last year, and would have played more if not for injury, yet on many other rosters he likely spends the whole year in the AHL.

Kulak played 70 games on a non-playoff team that had almost no NHL veteran depth on defense outside of their top-5. Kulak beat out Bartkowski, Wotherspoon & Golubef, and then a pair of 20 year olds.

Imo Rielly and Morrow are ahead of all of those guys, so likely Kulak doesn't even play a game for us last year, despite how weak our Defense was overall.


anyways, its a minimally important move... just unfortunate that MB is again downgrading assets, which makes little sense.

 

[Adam Michaels]

The Plekanec to Leafs trade worked out great for Calgary.

Both Rychel and Valiev ended up with the Flames.

 

[Bacchus1]

Seems like the Flames think that he is a NHL defensman, but that they have too much depth. Also, rumours are that he may have needed a fresh start after arbitration.

 

[Miller Time]

What about the Habs?

Shea Weber finished 2nd in scoring amongst their Dmen last year...and he played 26 games.

And that was only 16pts shy of the teams leader, Jeff Petry, who more than tripled the amount of games Weber played.

why on earth would you be referencing our top-pairing dmen?

Kulak is a depth player, who ended up in a situation/organization that allowed him to play 70 games... good for him. He doesn't play that many games for us last year despite how bad our defense was.

 

[Miller Time]

I don't doubt that they are...

I was just responding to your post where you wrote that nothing you've seen suggests that Kulak is better than Valiev & Taormina.

yes, because you assume/inferred that since Kulak played more NHL games than Valiev/Taormina, on a team that had a very good top 5, he's a better asset then them.

i was pointing out that Kulak only earned those minutes because the flames had very thin organizational depth... case in point, Reilly and Morrow as players who are clearly superior to him and neither managed full time roles in our weak squad.

there is a difference between skill and depth. Flames had a more skilled NHL defense group last year, but, one less deep in borderline NHLers than ours (no surprise, given that accumulating borderline NHLers seems to be the only area our GM excels at).

 

[417]

why on earth would you be referencing our top-pairing dmen?

Because we have been talking about both teams D corps, as a whole, last year...I brought up Weber & Petry like I brought up Hamilton, Giordano, Brodie, Hamonic.

Kulak is a depth player, who ended up in a situation/organization that allowed him to play 70 games... good for him. He doesn't play that many games for us last year despite how bad our defense was.

I'm well aware that Kulak is a depth Dman...but don't agree that he doesn't play that many games for us last year.

 

[habsgirl5000]

wow....cant believe MB pulled this one off.....expect the unexpected!!!

 

[417]

yes, because you assume/inferred that since Kulak played more NHL games than Valiev/Taormina, on a team that had a very good top 5, he's a better asset then them.

I don't assume that...only YOU have said that Valiev & Taormina are better.

They're all the same to me, organizational depth players.

I, again, just pointed out that Kulak among them all played 71 games on a MUCH deeper defensive corps.

You can draw whatever conclusion you want from that, and you have, I just don't agree with the conclusion you've reached

i was pointing out that Kulak only earned those minutes because the flames had very thin organizational depth... case in point, Reilly and Morrow as players who are clearly superior to him and neither managed full time roles in our weak squad.

there is a difference between skill and depth. Flames had a more skilled NHL defense group last year, but, one less deep in borderline NHLers than ours (no surprise, given that accumulating borderline NHLers seems to be the only area our GM excels at).

Got it sir!

 

[Miller Time]

Because we have been talking about both teams D corps, as a whole, last year...I brought up Weber & Petry like I brought up Hamilton, Giordano, Brodie, Hamonic.

I wasn't. I was specifically referencing that MB downgraded our organizational talent/depth in this move. The top end of the teams respective defense are irrelevant.

I'm well aware that Kulak is a depth Dman...but don't agree that he doesn't play that many games for us last year.

i wonder what you base that opinion on? Have you seen him play?

While i didn't watch many habs games last year (almost no full games actually), i watched more flames games (i live in calgary).

from what i've seen of Kulak, he's clearly a less effective NHL player than either Rielly or Morrow.

Taormina is not an NHL player, but he's proven himself to be a quality AHL player and, likely, more impactful there than Kulak.

Valiev, imo, has more upside as an NHL asset.

time will tell, of course. N0ne of them have top-4 NHL player written on them. MB is 1/2 in grabbing depth players from the Flames organization who blossom into contributors for us, so let's hope he's done it again with this move.

 

[417]

I wasn't. I was specifically referencing that MB downgraded our organizational talent/depth in this move. The top end of the teams respective defense are irrelevant.

Lol ok...but I did.

The top end of each teams respective defenses ARE relevant when I brought up the point that he played 71 games on a much more talented defensive squad.

i wonder what you base that opinion on? Have you seen him play?

I'm familiar with Brett Kulak

While i didn't watch many habs games last year (almost no full games actually), i watched more flames games (i live in calgary).

from what i've seen of Kulak, he's clearly a less effective NHL player than either Rielly or Morrow.

I don't disagree with that...but in addition to Mike Reilly & Joe Morrow who played NHL games for the Habs last year, you may not be aware, as you said, you didn't watch many Habs games, but I did, so i'll provide a refresher.

Brett Lernout, Mark Streit, Brandon Davidson, Jakub Jerabek & Rinat Valiev

all played games for the Habs last year.

So i'm sorry if I believe that had Brett Kulak been a Hab last year, he would of saw some NHL games as well.

But that's what I believe and I don't think you're really in a position to tell me i'm wrong.

 

[Lebowski]

I liked Valiev, but I don't know much about Kulak so I'll reserve judgement for now.

 

[Seb]

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