Free Agent (Non?) Frenzy - Part VI

[Lafleurs Guy]

Well, no frenzy for our team - yet. We'll see how the summer shakes out. Continue here.

Click to read more...

 

[NobleSix]

Really losing a lot of faith in MB this summer

 

[Apoplectic Habs Fan]

No frenzy says you. Bergys wardrobe lineup is greatly improved

 

[SquiddFX]

No frenzy says you. Bergys wardrobe lineup is greatly improved

What's a free agent? You guys keep saying that but I have no idea what it means

 

[smirob]

What's a free agent? You guys keep saying that but I have no idea what it means

A 'free agent' or 'UFA/RFA' is something other teams add to address holes in their lineups without necessarily trading roster players.

Bergevin thinks our team is good enough to fulfill his goal of a playoff berth

 

[Lshap]

What's a free agent? You guys keep saying that but I have no idea what it means

A "Free Agent" is a summer blockbuster with exciting chase scenes and cap explosions. Some people believe the movie season revolves around them, while others remember that most Oscar-winning films only come out after October.

 

[Trembz]

A "Free Agent" is a summer blockbuster with exciting chase scenes and cap explosions. Some people believe the movie season revolves around them, while others remember that most Oscar-winning films only come out after October.

Lol!!!!!

 

[Winter Eclipse]

A "Free Agent" is a summer blockbuster with exciting chase scenes and cap explosions. Some people believe the movie season revolves around them, while others remember that most Oscar-winning films only come out after October.

And if no trade happens in October? What will you say then?

 

[Lshap]

And if no trade happens in October? What will you say then?

Who cares. I'll be out watching movies.

 

[Winter Eclipse]

Who cares. I'll be out watching movies.

Movies like More Excuses: October Trade and its sequel, More Excuses: Draft Day 2016?

 

[Zorba]

Movies like More Excuses: October Trade and its sequel, More Excuses: Draft Day 2016?

You forgot , More excuses: Top 6 never get traded

 

[Lshap]

Movies like More Excuses: October Trade and its sequel, More Excuses: Draft Day 2016?

Not bad.

But I'm more of a suspense/thriller fan. Looking forward to Bergevin starring in "Strangers on a Trade" and "Indiana Bergevin and the Traders of the Lost Forward". The surprise endings are worth waiting for.

 

[Soltantgris]

As long as MB improve the team on a regular basis, i'm good.

For next year ?

We do have Petry instead of Weiver/Tinordi.

We do have Kassian and 5th for an aging/slow Prust.

We do have depth in the bottom six with Mitchel/Flynn.

We do have a 27 years old rookie that had success in junior, AHL, SEL and swiss elite league (holloway).

We may have a scoring booste from youngster (Hudon, Ghetto, Scherback, Carr).

So for me the questions are :

Do we have a better team defensive/wise ? With petry, with our bottom dept, we may expect to allow few goals this year, maybe even less then last year.

Do we have a better team offensively wise ? With Kassian instead of Prust, with Hudon/gettho/scherback instead of benched PaP, we may have few more goals.

And with the addition of this adv. Stats guys, we may even hope that MT will have evidences that he is not maximizing his lineup (could lower DD and emelin icetime, increase galchy/eller time etc).

And finally, MB managed to create some cap space ! So the options are still out there.

 

[calder candidate]

Really losing a lot of faith in MB this summer

Not sure what everyone upset about there was like one good UFA this year the rest is all 3rd liner (everyone will agree that we have plenty of those already) or big question mark (like Semin).All the big Player (Kessel, Lucic, Saad, Sharp, Hamilton) that got traded had big contract which didn't really fit and in most case we didn't really have the asset or the team (TOR or BOS) would have never consider trading those player to Mtl.

 

[ROSSter]

Quelle frenzy monsieur?

 

[Hoople]

Who cares. I'll be out watching movies.

This is why you are one of the best posters here.

Well done sir. Well done!!

 

[Winter Eclipse]

Not sure what everyone upset about there was like one good UFA this year the rest is all 3rd liner (everyone will agree that we have plenty of those already) or big question mark (like Semin).All the big Player (Kessel, Lucic, Saad, Sharp, Hamilton) that got traded had big contract which didn't really fit and in most case we didn't really have the asset or the team (TOR or BOS) would have never consider trading those player to Mtl.

Again, it's his 4th off-season of doing sweet **** all to address our Top 6 forward corps.

 

[Winter Eclipse]

Not bad.

But I'm more of a suspense/thriller fan. Looking forward to Bergevin starring in "Strangers on a Trade" and "Indiana Bergevin and the Traders of the Lost Forward". The surprise endings are worth waiting for.

Unfortunately, I think we'll be stuck with "From Here to Eternity" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

 

[Cole Caulifield]

Again, it's his 4th off-season of doing sweet **** all to address our Top 6 forward corps.

It's not true that he has done nothing to fix the top 6. He has done some moves to fix the top 6. Some of them didn't work out and others were quick fixes.

PAP -> didn't work
Vanek -> Quick fix
Ryder -> Quick fix
Kassian -> remains to be seen if he can be a top 6 guy

And we're not even talking about prospects maturing into top 6 spots under MB (Gallagher, Galchenyuk).

 

[Montreal Impact FC]

Not bad.

But I'm more of a suspense/thriller fan. Looking forward to Bergevin starring in "Strangers on a Trade" and "Indiana Bergevin and the Traders of the Lost Forward". The surprise endings are worth waiting for.

Man what about the classic remake :

It takes two to tango II.
M.B. managers cut.

 

[NobleSix]

Not sure what everyone upset about there was like one good UFA this year the rest is all 3rd liner (everyone will agree that we have plenty of those already) or big question mark (like Semin).All the big Player (Kessel, Lucic, Saad, Sharp, Hamilton) that got traded had big contract which didn't really fit and in most case we didn't really have the asset or the team (TOR or BOS) would have never consider trading those player to Mtl.

Besides re-signings, Bergevin had one job this summer. One. He had to upgrade the top 6. While other teams in our conference got better, he sat on his hands and has, for the 4th offseason now, failed to aqcuire a solution to the top 6. Especially in a year that saw numerous quality top 6 players being moved.

Also, to add onto that, he has failed to lock up one of our 4 top 6 forwards and supposed future 1C. Its hard to keep backing Bergevin when he refuses to take leaps to improve this club.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Throw Lacroix From The Train

I'm sure Blou will make us a nice poster. I suggest MB for Billy Crystal and Therrien for Danny Devito.

 

[Soltantgris]

I'm a firm believer that most of the better deals/sig are deals/sig you don't do.

Look at Flyers, Leafs, Canes, Oilers, Sabres, Gainey era Habs, etc etc etc. Doing something for the sake of doing something is barely never good. 2 years ago, 3 teams overpayed for Clarkson, Clowe and Horton. Flyers did the same with an aging/declining Lecavalier, and so on. Filling some holes with the perfect player often cost a lot, and jeopardize mid term team's future. Sometime it's worth it (LosAngelese Mike Richards huge contrat) because it help win a cup. But sometime it's a nightmare (LosAngeles overpaying to get Sekera, and miss the PO).

The point is there is 30 teams/GMs out there, and they are fighting for a very little pie piece, and Habs are in a tricky spot, with brutal taxes. In these condition, MB took the developement route - trying to fill some needs when the right option is avalaible - mostly always keeping in mind his cap situation. Ex: Unloading cole for Ryder and 3rd, signing Petry, signing Briere/unloading briere, unloading Moen, Budaj, Diaz, Kristo, Prust, Sekac for younger players/picks. So we got Kassian, Weise, Thomas, etc plus picks. And never he jeopardized teams ability to manage cap situation.

He's far from perfect, but the team is getting better on a regular basis, and young talents keep coming in.

Another point. People keep talking about ''window'' for winning a cup. Players like Pacioretty or Subban are game changers, and they are the kind of guys you need to win a cup, right. But they are also very big asset in a trade situation. If/when habs need to resign Price/Pax/Galchy, it may be possible to use one of these guys and load with young talents and high pick. I mean, wise management allow a very long cup window, and im pretty confident MB is the right guy to get there.

For me, the 3 best signing of this UFA crop is Frolik, Sekera and Petry. We got one of these. Let's see how Petry strong possession number + Kassian + young guns will improve habs scoring number.

Enjoy

 

[JohnLennon]

Besides re-signings, Bergevin had one job this summer. One. He had to upgrade the top 6. While other teams in our conference got better, he sat on his hands and has, for the 4th offseason now, failed to aqcuire a solution to the top 6. Especially in a year that saw numerous quality top 6 players being moved.

Also, to add onto that, he has failed to lock up one of our 4 top 6 forwards and supposed future 1C. Its hard to keep backing Bergevin when he refuses to take leaps to improve this club.

This is what gets me. Everyone that is whining is basically just working off their own speculation. How the hell do you know he has been "sitting on his hands" and done nothing? I seem to remember Pierre Lebrun and other insiders saying that Bergevin was in on many of the top free agents of this offseason. How do you know what he has done and hasn't done? You have no idea how close he was to making any trades/acquisitions.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I think you have forgotten that there are 30 TEAMS in the league, and most of them want the same thing. Even if Montreal was the front-runner for some players, it doesn't mean we always get who we want. I think this is one huge issue I've noticed around here: posters think it is easy to acquire whatever they want, and totally forget that sometimes, players just want to go elsewhere, or things don't work out their way. There are 29 other teams to compete with this summer! And from all accounts, Bergevin has indeed made lots of effort to improve his team... some moves successful and some moves weren't. The blind complaints while ignoring this simple fact just astound me!

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

This is what gets me. Everyone that is whining is basically just working off their own speculation. How the hell do you know he has been "sitting on his hands" and done nothing? I seem to remember Pierre Lebrun and other insiders saying that Bergevin was in on many of the top free agents of this offseason. How do you know what he has done and hasn't done? You have no idea how close he was to making any trades/acquisitions.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I think you have forgotten that there are 30 TEAMS in the league, and most of them want the same thing. Even if Montreal was the front-runner for some players, it doesn't mean we always get who we want. I think this is one huge issue I've noticed around here: posters think it is easy to acquire whatever they want, and totally forget that sometimes, players just want to go elsewhere, or things don't work out their way. There are 29 other teams to compete with this summer! And from all accounts, Bergevin has indeed made lots of effort to improve his team... some moves successful and some moves weren't. The blind complaints while ignoring this simple fact just astound me!

There's nothing "blind" about these complaints. They have been well articulated by many posters and I think many are justified.

In regards to effort... it's great that he's been trying. At the end of the day though he's done nothing to really improve our core. People who are focusing on the last two weeks really are missing the point. He's had a year to do something about it. He didn't/couldn't re-sign Vanek? Okay. But we've needed help up there for a long time now and he's done zero about it. Meanwhile other teams have been making big deals while we've stood still. We've done nothing to fix the coaching staff or the PP either. It's one thing to be patient, it's another to be passive. It's all well and good to want stability on your team in terms of coaching staff but even if you aren't going to replace Therrien (something that should've happened long ago - record or not) then at least do something about Lacroix. Instead he's done nothing.

Petry was good. Kassian was good. But it's not enough. He has to do more right now. We can't sit back talking about transition and waiting for Sherbeck....