Proposal: Montreal and their Centre woes

[Halla]

I think i would do that as a Habs fan.

But i would tweeked it to fill both teams needs.

Galchenyuk, Plekanec (50% retained) and J.Benn

for

RNH and Nurse


Galchneyuk played his best games as a RW last year and would fill a need for Oilers on the first line, permitting LD to center 2nd line.

Plekanec fill the lost of RNH and is for for the 3rd line center spot.

Benn can split 2nd pair duties with Benning on the right side at a great salary and for 2 more years.

Maroon-CMc-Galchenyuk
Lucic-LD-Strome
Jokinen-Plekanec-Kassian
Slepishev-Caggiula-Letestu

Klefbom-Larsson
Sekera-Benning/Benn
Russel-Benning/Benn

RNH fills a big need for Habs long term and Nurse could take a big step up this year at 23 years old and playing more minutes with Weber and/or Petry.

Pacioretty-RNH-Gallagher
Lehkonen-Danault-Drouin
Hudon-Shaw-Byron
Martinsen-Mitchell-McCarron

Nurse-Weber
Alzner-Petry
Schlemko-Juulsen (if ready)/Davidson/Morrow

that is awful for the oilers. RNH and Galchenyuk are close in value
oilers then give up Nurse for pleks and benn? nope

 

[sansabri]

agreed but till then' he would easily be our top c... i wouldn't be against getting kadri, for the right price though... which would be pretty high i assume...

A lot of players could be our top C - but that doesn't change the fact that we need a legit 1C. Kadri doesn't solve our problems. Nor does RNH or any other 2C out there.

RNH fills a big need for Habs long term and Nurse could take a big step up this year at 23 years old and playing more minutes with Weber and/or Petry.

He really doesn't.

Bozak for Petry

Go away.

 

[Hostile Offer]

Bozak for Petry

Not a chance.

 

[Habs Halifax]

I'd rather give up Galchenyuk than Gallagher, let alone add Juulsen, Davidson and Plekanec to that

Not me. I rather keep Galchenyuk as he can play both wings. Hate to trade Gallagher but I think he would fit with the Oilers. It is really hard to decide between the two though.

Juulsen plays RD. We have Weber and Petry on the right side. If we can acquire Nurse (LD), then it makes more sense for our depth charts.

Pleky has 1 year left and if we acquire RNH, we can give him to the Oilers and this will help them at 3C and also help sweeten the deal.

Davidson helps the Oilers replace Nurse this year.

It's all about trying to address each team needs.

 

[LaP]

The difference is that the Habs have a better goalie and d core to make up for their issues up front.

We used to have a better d code. Now our defense starts and ends with Weber. The rest is a bunch of replaceable jersey fillers except for Petry but as a number 2 he is nothing special.

Overrating Benn and Schlemko wont make them magically better players.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Another overstatement. 1 LD is the glaring hole in our roster but the one thing that Markov provided that Alzner can't is powerplay production. I'm not concerned about the 9 points of 5 on 5 production difference between the two over 82 games and I'm convinced that Drouin will more than fulfill Markovs PP QB duties. Adding a top LD would make us better, but the loss of Markov isn't the Mountain it's being made out to be in my opinion.

I would love a 1D as I think an Alzner - Petry second pairing would be really good and I'm not sure Alzner is the best compliment for Weber. But we aren't the dumpster fire back there that people are pretending.

So now Drouin is expected to replace not only Radulov's offense but Markov's as well?

Big expectations for this kid.. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion, the media will want his head by Christmas.

 

[Kamiccolo]

We used to have a better d code. Now our defense starts and ends with Weber. The rest is a bunch of replaceable jersey fillers except for Petry but as a number 2 he is nothing special.

Overrating Benn and Schlemko wont make them magically better players.

Yep. Habs are 1 injury away from being the worst team in the NHL. Whether that is Price or Weber, their depth after those two is terrible.

No C depth.
1 declining top pairing D and nothing much after that
Stacked on wingers and relying on the goalie to do the heavy lifting to compensate having bad centers and defense.

Price is going to be burned out by Jan.

 

[Habs Halifax]

We used to have a better d code. Now our defense starts and ends with Weber. The rest is a bunch of replaceable jersey fillers except for Petry but as a number 2 he is nothing special.

Overrating Benn and Schlemko wont make them magically better players.

Exaggeration. Habs D is very good. The real problem is finding a partner for Weber with the depth we have.

???? / Weber
Alzner / Petry
Schlemko / Benn

Jerabek, Streit, Davidson, Morrow. There are lots of options and this group will be very solid (at defense). Creating offense 5/5 is another story.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Yep. Habs are 1 injury away from being the worst team in the NHL. Whether that is Price or Weber, their depth after those two is terrible.

No C depth.
1 declining top pairing D and nothing much after that
Stacked on wingers and relying on the goalie to do the heavy lifting to compensate having bad centers and defense.

Price is going to be burned out by Jan.

Major injuries to any team plays a factor. You don't know **** about the Habs so stop trying to pretend we are doomed. Same old story year after year... People predict we will miss the playoffs and we end up winning 3 division titles in 5 years. Yeah, we need to take the next step in the playoffs but lets not exgurate our playoff struggles with us being the worse team in the NHL with one injury.

Come on man! Get Real!

 

[LaP]

Exaggeration. Habs D is very good. The real problem is finding a partner for Weber with the depth we have.

75% of the team would have a good defense if you added a top 2 dman to their core.

Getting that top 2 LHD to replace Markov will be next to impossible. Other GMs will see MB coming from a mile.

 

[Hostile Offer]

Yep. Habs are 1 injury away from being the worst team in the NHL. Whether that is Price or Weber, their depth after those two is terrible.

No C depth.
1 declining top pairing D and nothing much after that
Stacked on wingers and relying on the goalie to do the heavy lifting to compensate having bad centers and defense.

Price is going to be burned out by Jan.

Yes, we rely on our star players a lot but what team doesn't? Who's gonna save Ottawa if Karlsson gets injured? Or Chicago if Toews suddenly disappears? This is a popular criticism especially on the Habs since we collapsed when Price went out for most of the season but hey, how did the Kings do last season without Quick?

Price didn't get burned out last year either, nor has Weber shown any signs of decline. Silly argument.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Yes, we rely on our star players a lot but what team doesn't? Who's gonna save Ottawa if Karlsson gets injured? Or Chicago if Toews suddenly disappears? This is a popular criticism especially on the Habs since we collapsed when Price went out for most of the season but hey, how did the Kings do last season without Quick?

Price didn't get burned out last year either, nor has Weber shown any signs of decline. Silly argument.

What? Aside from his first 10 games he was beyond average. He put up his lowest point total in 10 years (aside from lockout season) last year. You can say he is still good on D, but who is there to generate offense from the blueline? Subban, Markov, and Serg all gone.

Montreal has one of the least mobile D in the NHL. Teams are going to have fun in the slot with that sub par D group and C group. Price will need to stop multiple shots from the slot a night.

I would be surprised if they made the playoffs not in a wild card spot.

Bolts
Sens
Leafs
Sabres
Boston

Are ALL better teams, and almost all of them got better while the Habs got even worse.

 

[LaP]

Yes, we rely on our star players a lot but what team doesn't? Who's gonna save Ottawa if Karlsson gets injured? Or Chicago if Toews suddenly disappears? This is a popular criticism especially on the Habs since we collapsed when Price went out for most of the season but hey, how did the Kings do last season without Quick?

Price didn't get burned out last year either, nor has Weber shown any signs of decline. Silly argument.

Price did not just went out. He was replaced by statistically the worst number 1 in the league.

 

[Hostile Offer]

Price did not just went out. He was replaced by statistically the worse number 1 in the league.

That's true as well, we lacked a proper backup and his confidence shattered as the season went on.

 

[Habs Halifax]

What? Aside from his first 10 games he was beyond average. He put up his lowest point total in 10 years (aside from lockout season) last year. You can say he is still good on D, but who is there to generate offense from the blueline? Subban, Markov, and Serg all gone.

Montreal has one of the least mobile D in the NHL. Teams are going to have fun in the slot with that sub par D group and C group. Price will need to stop multiple shots from the slot a night.

I would be surprised if they made the playoffs not in a wild card spot.

Bolts
Sens
Leafs
Sabres
Boston

Are ALL better teams, and almost all of them got better while the Habs got even worse.

Complete BS! You know nothing about the Habs. Thanks for your silly opinion though

 

[Habs Halifax]

75% of the team would have a good defense if you added a top 2 dman to their core.

Getting that top 2 LHD to replace Markov will be next to impossible. Other GMs will see MB coming from a mile.

I'm talking about finding a partner that works well with Weber, not a elite level type guy. Emelin filled that role very well last year before he ran out of gas in the 2nd half. We don't need to "replace" Markov. We need to put the guys we have now in the best situations to suit their skill set.

Alzner, Schlemko, Jarabek, Streit, Morrow = Markov, Beaulieu, Emelin. Arguments can be made either way but the gap is not huge. No big deal here folks and just your typical panic in Montreal. Happens year after year. Markov will be 39 in this playoffs and people think he is still 35. Since Markov was 36, he has 3 pts in 18 playoff games. Time to move on

 

[Hostile Offer]

What? Aside from his first 10 games he was beyond average. He put up his lowest point total in 10 years (aside from lockout season) last year. You can say he is still good on D, but who is there to generate offense from the blueline? Subban, Markov, and Serg all gone.

Montreal has one of the least mobile D in the NHL. Teams are going to have fun in the slot with that sub par D group and C group. Price will need to stop multiple shots from the slot a night.

I would be surprised if they made the playoffs not in a wild card spot.

Bolts
Sens
Leafs
Sabres
Boston

Are ALL better teams, and almost all of them got better while the Habs got even worse.

The only thing true here is the fact that our D isn't very mobile, as Petry is basically our only well-skating dman. I guess it's also true that Weber put up his lowest point total in 10 years but it's not like it was a drastical drop, plus he played with Markov and freaking Emelin instead of Josi which is an obvious downgrade (don't even start to compare Nashville D to ours) and along with Price he was the backbone of a division winner. So that's your decline right there.

As long as we don't have any major injuries we're gonna be an easy playoff team just like last year, I think only Bolts and Leafs are ahead of us. That requires Price being a top notch goalie once again but who wouldn't trust in the best goalie on the planet?

 

[Gaud]

Major injuries to any team plays a factor. You don't know **** about the Habs so stop trying to pretend we are doomed. Same old story year after year... People predict we will miss the playoffs and we end up winning 3 division titles in 5 years. Yeah, we need to take the next step in the playoffs but lets not exgurate our playoff struggles with us being the worse team in the NHL with one injury.

Come on man! Get Real!

Hahah i agree with this, though my choice of words would have been different.
Price's injury 2 years ago does tend to support his argument though. I feel more optimistic about Montoya and Lingren than i did Condon/Tokarski/Scrivens though.

I expect the habs to make the playoffs this year, but i would be shocked if they won division. I expect the bolts to do that, and expect a stronger division overall compared to last year.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Price did not just went out. He was replaced by statistically the worst number 1 in the league.

Hmm...

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1991225

 

[Habs Halifax]

Hahah i agree with this, though my choice of words would have been different.
Price's injury 2 years ago does tend to support his argument though. I feel more optimistic about Montoya and Lingren than i did Condon/Tokarski/Scrivens though.

I expect the habs to make the playoffs this year, but i would be shocked if they won division. I expect the bolts to do that, and expect a stronger division overall compared to last year.

I have 3 Canadian cities battling for the division lead. Sens, Habs, and Leafs. Then I have the Lightning, Panthers, Bruins, Sabres.

Lighting lost Drouin, Bishop, Filppula, Garrison and replaced them with Kunitz, Girardi, Budaj, and Sergachev who may or may not make the team. If he does, he won't have a major impact. Vasilevskiy is very inconsistent if you as me. I still think they will score goals but their D and goaltending is not like it use to be.

 

[Hostile Offer]

Hmm...

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1991225

Excellent point. I especially agree on how we don't even need to look at how he was in the last 75% of his games that season.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Hmm...

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1991225

You are misinformed. It wasn't just Price who went down with an injury (Gallagher, Petry, Beaulieu, Subban, and others). It was a disaster all around for the Habs that year. Condon had a great year with the Sens last year but they had a healthy D and it was Condon's 2nd season. He likely learned a lot in his first season. Also, I don't see people saying the Kings suck without Quick? Quick played 17 games and the Kings finished 22nd with 86 pts (Last year). In 2015-2016, Price played 12 and the Habs finished 21st with 82 pts.

Go figure eh . Your evaluation of the Habs is from a "hater" point of view. We understand you don't know **** about our team so all is good

 

[LaP]

Hmm...

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1991225

This was as a number 2 behind Price. As a number 1 he crumbled under the pressure which is perfectly normal for a rookie. From December 1st to the end of the season he had a saves % of 0.899 and his gaa was 2.89. That is abyssal for a number 1.

We basically went from best goalie to worst goalie. That's like the Hawks replacing Kane by Tanner Glass for almost a whole season and be forced to actually ice Tanner Glass in their top 6 20 minutes a game.

 

[Roof Daddy]

I don't understand why some people are convinced that:
A) Nuge is being shopped
B) The Oilers are desperate to free up cap space.

We're fine cap-wise this year. Our forward depth is arguably the best in the league (Pens obviously are there too). Nuge is versatile enough to play up and down the lineup in a multitude of roles. But we're going to trade him for futures out of (phantom) desperation? No thanks.

Next season? Possibly, but with a bounce back season this year Nuge could be a hot commodity at the draft next year. I could see a team like Vegas being interested once they see how overmatched they are down the middle this year.

 

[Burke the Legend]

We used to have a better d code. Now our defense starts and ends with Weber. The rest is a bunch of replaceable jersey fillers except for Petry but as a number 2 he is nothing special.

Overrating Benn and Schlemko wont make them magically better players.

People are really underrating Montreal's D... It's a solid group of vets that will get the job done. The team will be top 3 once again in lowest GA, most of that achievement is on Price but the guys in front of him support him well too.

It's not sexy but it will be a very solid wall in front of Price that will be making very few mistakes. You will notice some trends in what MB has been doing:

1) Getting rid of guys who made a lot of critical mistakes and took stupid penalties, Barbereio Emelin, Beaulieu, Pateryn. All in favour of vets with size who make steady decisions.

2) brought costs down. Montreal's D was top 3 most expensive in the league the last few seasons, right now it's #9. Obviously that savings right now is sitting in free cap space, but that's room to improve the offence which I assume will happen at some point between now and February.

A lot of fans are angry about losing Markov, I loved him too, my favourite Hab, but let's face it he was old and slowing down, and not worth 5-7$ million.