Lafleurs Guy
Guuuuuuuy!
- Jul 20, 2007
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Good moves here for sure. Some folks didn't like the Price contract when it went down but I knew it was a good one. Max is great value. Emelin's is good (though I thought it was crazy to offer him this before he came back.)I was thinking about our overall contract situation on Sunday, after our victory against the Leafs. Basically, I was thinking of their signing of Clarkson, and just how much it will hurt the Leafs in the long run...
And I realized there's plenty of teams who also have similar contracts. Hell, Montreal was known for having 2 of those up until recently. But it's long past. Even better: we have quite a number of young, competitive players who are signed for very advantageous contracts that, when compared to the rest of the contracts currently signed in the NHL, are quite cheap.
Look for a moment at Bergevin's signings:
- Carey Price. 6y x 6,5M. Compared to Lundqvist's signing today, that's a helluva discount! Count this year, we still have 5 seasons of Carey under contract.
- Max Pacioretty. 6x 4,5M. We still have 6 seasons of Max. How many "big" 30-goal scorers are signed for such a long period at that price?!
- Aleixi Emelin. 4x 4,1M. The shutdown defenseman I believe everybody understand is making the world of difference in our 2nd pairing, which stabilizes our entire D-corps. We still have him for 5 seasons.
- Travis Moen. 4x 1,85M. I know many people thought Moen just wasn't pulling his weight in the past year, but he's changed a lot recently. Actually, you could even claim his resurgence has coincided with Desharnais's resurgence as well, and both of these players' slump have been simultaneous. Maybe Moen is a bit overpaid, but he's also providing some reliable defensive depth with size to our forward, and he's quite the energy player. We still have him for 3 years.
- Brandon Prust. 4x 2,5M. Even if he's been a little weak lately, I don't think anyone can challenge the impact he's had on our team overall. One of Bergevin's best signing. We still have him for 3 years.
I believe Bergevin's most criticized long-term signing was David Desharnais. 4x 3,5M. Let's be honest; even if Desharnais stops his current streak and ends up being a complete waste, it's not like his 3,5M is a crippling contract for our organization. It's not an Albatross Contract.
And if Desharnais finds his cruising speed and doesn't have another slump, then it's a solid signing.
The other players currently signed with us for 3+ years, but who haven't been signed by Bergevin are as follow:
Tomas Plekanec. Still with us for 3y x 5M$. Again, I don't think anyone can even challenge the idea that this is a good situation for us. Plekanec has been at the top of our center's depth chart for the past years, and only the emergence of true stars will push him down.
Josh Gorges. Who will be with us 5y x 3,9M. Arguably the most overpaid of our long-term signing after Desharnais. However, he's proved time and again to be a reliable shutdown guy who's great at playing position, a solid leader in the locker room and a fantastic PKer. If our organisation needs to shed something in our defensive corps, then trading Gorges would fetch us quite a return.
Rene Bourque, who will be with us for 3y x 3,33M. A streaky player who, in my opinion, is rarely a defensive liability. He may not always hustle in the offensive zone, but he's often at the right spot in our own zone. But when he does hustle it out in the O-zoneI think the only player harder to throw off the puck may be Eller. I wouldn't consider him a "bad contract" by any measures. Like Gorges, he's our most likely trade-bait contract.
So you look at the contract tying up the Habs for the next 3+ years, and you realize just how flexible our situation is, by virtue of the quality of the contracts we've signed with many of our young core. The "Fantastic Contracts" (Price, Pacioretty & Emelin) SHOULD NOT BE TRADED. They constitute the most important part of our current strong lineup.
I understand with the resigning of players like Eller, Subban and Markov, cap space might be tight in the very near future. But on the other hand, we can safely say that the future is bright and we will be able to accommodate the future contracts of our burgeoning stars in Gallagher and Galchenyuk.
What do you think?
On the downside though, we can't ignore Briere or the length of DD's deal. Both of those were puzzling.
And as I've said many times in the past, I hated the way we went about negotiations with Subban. I still think we're lucky he didn't just tell us to row a boat and demand a trade.
