Confirmed with Link: Habs sign Nick Cousins (1 year, $1M AAV)
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WG
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Notwithstanding the rules around it, buying out Weise makes no sense.
Scenario 1. Ride it out, Weise to AHL. Cap hit is about 1.3M, then Weise is gone.
Scenario 2. Buyout, 2/3 of 2.35 M = about 1.8M. 2019 Cap hit = 1.2M. 2020 Cap hit, 0.6M.
WG
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I would be shocked if the Habs sign Gardiner now. That puts one of Mete or Kulak (or Chiarot) in the pressbox.
Guns n Roses
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Cousins just might end up a Brandon Prust for us (fan favorite!).
Prust in his first two (or three seasons with us...not the last season).
It's a possibility (27 pts is 3rd line material...and super for 4th line...$1mil for 1yr is not worth complaining about! this could be bargain of the year for our Habs!! Cousins will play with lots of energy/heart for a 2yr contract).
Weal and Cousins are the type of VERY solid 4th liners who can play well on the 3rd line sometimes in case of injuries (82 games is a long season).
And why is Ryan Poehling being pushed to LW by so many Hab fans? Poehling could be our future no.1 center...he shouldn't be pushed away from the CENTER position. What the ****!! (and if he's LW...it better be short-term and not long-term...he should be center as soon as possible). Hat-trick in his first game and his 4th goal is the game winner in shootout...what does a center have to do here to get some respect!?
Drouin - Domi - Cousins/Weal/Poehling!!
Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Byron - Poehling/Kotkaniemi - Weal/Cousins/Armia
Lehkonen - Poehling/Kotkaniemi - Weal/Cousins/Armia
Thompson
Suzuki (end of season?)
Caufield (end of season? or 2020-2021?)
P.S.: and some here still want Gardiner? huuuuuge NO!! Gardiner is expensive soft butter. You don't win in playoffs with this kind of dman.
Prust in his first two (or three seasons with us...not the last season).
It's a possibility (27 pts is 3rd line material...and super for 4th line...$1mil for 1yr is not worth complaining about! this could be bargain of the year for our Habs!! Cousins will play with lots of energy/heart for a 2yr contract).
Weal and Cousins are the type of VERY solid 4th liners who can play well on the 3rd line sometimes in case of injuries (82 games is a long season).
And why is Ryan Poehling being pushed to LW by so many Hab fans? Poehling could be our future no.1 center...he shouldn't be pushed away from the CENTER position. What the ****!! (and if he's LW...it better be short-term and not long-term...he should be center as soon as possible). Hat-trick in his first game and his 4th goal is the game winner in shootout...what does a center have to do here to get some respect!?
Drouin - Domi - Cousins/Weal/Poehling!!
Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Byron - Poehling/Kotkaniemi - Weal/Cousins/Armia
Lehkonen - Poehling/Kotkaniemi - Weal/Cousins/Armia
Thompson
Suzuki (end of season?)
Caufield (end of season? or 2020-2021?)
P.S.: and some here still want Gardiner? huuuuuge NO!! Gardiner is expensive soft butter. You don't win in playoffs with this kind of dman.
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1909
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Cousins, Weal, or Poehling are NOT first line material at all !
Tatar can play both wings. Byron, too. If no deal is done to replace Shaw on one of the top two lines, Byron gonna play up there in the top-six.
We are far from being sure that Poehling is NHL ready yet. He mifgt start at AHL level.
My lines if season would start tomorrow:
Drouin-Domi-Gallagher or Tatar
Tatar - Danault- Byron or Gallagher
Cousins or Lehkonen- KK- Armia or Weal
Cousins-Weal-Lehkonen or Armia
extra: Thompson and-or McCarron
Mete-Weber
Chiarot-Petry
Kulak-Juulsen
Reilly-Folin
Price
Kinkaid
Captain Mountain
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Juulsen/Fleury/Brook replaces Benn. Montreal's at the point now where they have to start graduating D. Montreal currently has 8 D-men under contract in the NHL and 7 under contract in Laval. It makes little sense to have any of those guys playing in the ECHL or limited minutes in the AHL.
Captain Mountain
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Breaking up the Tatar-Danault-Gallagher line is both unlikely and a terrible idea right now.
Playing Kulak on the 3rd pair after him being Montreal's best LHD the season before is a bad idea. Playing Drouin in top-6 minutes at ES right away is a really bad idea.
You had me and then you lost me. I agree that Tatar-Danault-Gallagher are very likely to start the season together again.
But I think Chiarot will definitely be given a chance to play next to Petry, and Mete has been better than Kulak when paired with Weber so that leaves Kulak on the 3rd pairing at the beginning of the season. If Chiarot-Petry doesn't work, then he comes back up on the 2nd pairing.
Drouin is definitely gonna have a spot in the top 6 to start the season. We're short on top 6 forwards as it is and you'd want to leave Drouin on the 3rd line so we can play Lehkonen and Byron in the top 6 with Domi? No chance. If Drouin is still in Montreal when the season starts, you need to show some confidence that he can rebound and put him in a position to succeed. He's one of our most talented forwards and the most expensive one. You don't start him out of the top 6 just because he had a rough stretch to finish last season.
Barring any other trades/signings (fingers crossed), I see something like this:
Drouin-Domi-Lehkonen
Tatar-Danault-Gallagher
Cousins-Kotkaniemi-Armia
Byron-Poehling/Thomson-Weal
You could switch Byron and Cousins, and Weal and Armia I guess but Byron and KK really didn't have any chemistry last year and Byron-Thomson-Weal was a good 4th line. Byron could also have Lehkonen's spot on the first line. Anyway, we're clearly lacking a top 6 winger so I expect a revolving door in that spot until something works for a significant stretch.
Captain Mountain
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From both a results and a expected results perspective, Kulak-Petry (and Kulak-Weber) were Montreal's best D pairings. By a lot. Those pairs were among the better combinations in the entire NHL. Chiarot has utility (especially defensively), but he was mostly carried by Buff in Winnipeg. You reward good play. Kulak demonstrated he can play in the top-4 and do it really well. Why mess with that confidence and results for a guy like Chiarot? Makes no sense whatsoever. In addition, we should have learned by now that Petry doesn't work well with defense-heavy D-men. He struggled with Emelin and was a disaster with Alzner. Why expect Chiarot to be any different.
As for Drouin, we're talking about if the season started tomorrow. And Drouin absolutely has to re-earn a spot in the top-6 right now. Lehkonen, Tatar, Gallagher and Byron deserve to be ahead of him right now. Montreal tried handing Drouin a spot on a silver platter twice now. Now he should have to earn it.
1909
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Byron can play in a top-six role. No business to be on a 4th line.
angusyoung
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For some reason he sounds highly touted. To replace Shaw for a ton less with with hopeful upside?
Can see it now the Habs make a line of Cousins,Weal and Domi and call it the 'yotes line. lol.
Can see it now the Habs make a line of Cousins,Weal and Domi and call it the 'yotes line. lol.
I won't disagree or agree! I have no idea what the lineup will look like when October is here!!?
I know most of us see Weal and Cousins on the 4th and some like me see one or two of them on the 3rd if they play well, but who will play on the first? (if Domi and Drouin are still together...and we're not even sure about that). Gallagher? Maybe they'll keep him on the 2nd line? Byron? They might try out other players for that 1st to see if there's any chemistry.
Ryan Poehling: some here are saying future 1st line center...future (like me!)...others are saying 4th liner or 3rd liner for this season. A few are saying AHL. Imo, he's gonna be a good one and sooner than later. That first game of his was not a fluke, imo. It's just the beginning...
And many here were saying Shaw wasn't a first liner...but he can play on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, imo...and well, but he's not here anymore, so I'm thinking someone else will get promoted on the 1st line? As usual we'll have to wait and see.
Not sure they will replace Shaw via UFA...still have to wait (not a lot of forwards left!)...I was hoping Ferland would become a Hab, but the Canucks took him.
Yeah and also for the 3rd line, as well...but we've seen him on the 4th...I don't think the coach is giving him the 4th liner label...it's just to add speed to the 4th line and have 4 good lines instead of just 2 or 3 good lines. With Byron's speed on the 4th...every line can have speed. Plus, Byron always gets lots of PK since he's awesome for breakaways.
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Maybe but that's where he played at the end of last season. He will probably be tried with Drouin and Domi but from what I remember, it didn't really work last season. Besides, if the lines turn out to be something like what I said, the 3rd and 4th lines will have almost as much ice time and Byron will play on the PK and maybe on the PP.
Kulak-Weber worked for a couple of games but the pairing was broken and that spot was given back to Mete for a reason. Kulak made too many mistakes on the first pairing.
Lehkonen and Byron deserve to be ahead of Drouin because of what? Because they work hard? Drouin still outscored them by a pretty wide margin and at the end of the day, production is what you want from your top 6 forwards. You don't start a season with your best forwards on the 3rd line. Would you have been in favor of Galchenyuk starting the season as a 4th line LW?
Captain Mountain
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Huh? Montreal did't really have a 1st pair. Kulak-Petry and Mete-Weber basically split time. Kulak-Petry was the offense oriented pair (drive offense and transition) and Mete-Weber was the defence oriented pair (tougher starts, focus on preventing goals). For the role Petry plays on D, Kulak is a significantly better fit than a Chiarot-type. Roles matter.
Byron deserves to be ahead of Drouin because he's much better at ES. He's basically better in every category save playmaking. He seems pretty obvious.
Lehkonen's closer, but at ES he's better defensively and play driving to a greater degree than Drouin is better offensively.
Here's the thing about Drouin. He's been mostly terrible at ES his entire NHL career. I'm not saying to take him off of PP1, but most of that production difference (all of it and more in the case of Byron) is because of special teams.
I was fine playing Galchenyuk on the 3rd line, I took issue when he was either played below empirically worse players and when he wasn't used on the PP enough. Neither is really the case with Drouin.
1909
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I still hink Byron could be used on a second line (not ideal, but...) with Danault and Tatar. let the big guns play together (Drouin-Domi-Gally).
S Bah
Registered User
Expecting good things from Nick Cousins, sounds like the he will fit right in with the work ethic of our Habs, another player that loves being a Hab, Great for the playoffs!!!...
26Mats
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IF Tatar-Danault-Gallagher is broken up (unlikely), another option is to reunite Byron-Danault-Lehkonen. They play well together. That way Kotkaniemi gets to play with Tatar.
Estimated_Prophet
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They made the right decision, anyone who gives Gardiner term is going to sorely regret it.
As it stands right now it looks like Cousins will bump Thompson to the 13th forward and Chiarot bumps Reilly to the press box alongside either Folin or Juulsen.
I really like the way the lineup is constructed other than Drouin not fitting anywhere. Hopefully he can extract his head from his digestive tract.
WG
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The lineup still has a gaping hole at LD. And aside from dead cat bounce I'm not sure how the PP is going to be a whole lot better. Bergevin's moves this summer haven't really addressed those glaring problems.
Looking at the contracts Johannson, Dzingel and Ferland (once fairly coveted UFAs) got in this 'second wave' of signings, I don't think that Gardiner is going to get the 7X7 some people predicted. If he could be signed at 3 years x 5-ish it would be worth a go.
Maybe Drouin could be traded for a legit top 4 LD, but the team's wing depth isn't really that great, so a JD trade for a D leaves the top 6 winger depth as Tatar, Gally, plus two guys who really profile better in the bottom 6 (Byron, Armia, Lek, Weal).
Estimated_Prophet
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We have 3 NHL D, perhaps none of them should ideally be on a top pairing but our D is set. It may not be ideal but there is not a gaping hole.
Gardiner is not a 1st pairing D. He had inflated numbers with Toronto and is a turnover machine who is also one of the softest defenders in the league. Throw in the back problems and this is why he is not signed.
Each one of our left D's are superior defensively to Gardiner. We are better off going with what we have and addressing any needs by trade as we are overflowing with assets and cap space. No need to throw our chips in with Gardiner at this point.
Anyways.....We are in a Cousins thread people.
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A55P2
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Who cares if Kulak is on the third pair? Then the third pair just becomes much better than last year. Kulak-Juulsen is a much better pair than Benn-Folin. They'll just play more. If Chiarot-Petry don't mesh well, you put Kulak there.
No idea how some make a big issue out of this.
No idea how some make a big issue out of this.
Estimated_Prophet
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What is of importance here is that MB just signed both Chiarot and Kulak to 3 year deals and they are clearly happy with Mete from the amount of ice time he received in the 2nd half. So as far as MB is concerned there is not a gaping hole at this point so there is no use speculating on him acquiring another LD.
Strangely you alluded to the fact that they won't be signing a left D in an earlier post due to the fact that there isn't any room.
If something goes wrong with one of them he will look to address it at that time but he is clearly done with it for now, The consensus with Habs management and on this board is that both Mete and Kulak looked good at the end of the season and deserve a shot. Chiarot is a proven NHL defender who is an upgrade on Benn as he is a much better skater as well as being bigger, stronger and nastier. Not crapping on Benn as a liked him more than most but Chiarot is a superior player.
Can we please end this discussion in this thread as it is a Nick Cousins thread......
While Byron is not a 4th Liner he damn sure isn’t top 6 material either. Excellent 3rd Liner, nothing more.
