Montreal claims Halpern on waivers

[Intangiblezz]

Healthy roster:

Pacioretty-Desharnais-Gallagher
Bourque-Plekanec-Gionta
Galchenyuk-Eller-Ryder
Prust-Halpern-Armstrong
White

Subban-Gorges
Markov-Emelin
Bouillon-Diaz
Tinordi

Maybe trade Moen and a prospect for a #6 or #7 physical D-man and send Tinordi back down and this is a team that can make a deep playoff run.

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

What the hell? We already have Dumont, White and Noke??

And why are we bringing back ex-habs players? Wtf is that?

We suck at faceoffs and our penalty kill sucks, both things that Halpern is good at.

Can never have too much depth going into the playoffs and we didn't give up anything for him.

 

[Em Ancien]

Our yearly faceoff guy move. About time. Maybe Bergevin can start being different from all our past GMs and actually make a move during the summer so we're not stuck doing this again.

 

[Hoople]

He was pretty solid with the Habs in 10/11. Constantly high 50%s on faceoffs.

My guess:
4th line = Moen - Halpern - Armstrong

White - bench/injured and will miss a couple weeks

Hopefully Dominic Moore is next...he'd be the ideal 4th C.

Yep. Bring back Tom Pyatt, Palushaj, Darche and Cammalleri as well. And see if we can get Campoli, Gill, Hamrlik and Spacek back.

We were a successful team with those guys.

Somewhere, Clode Julien is laughing so hard that he is hyperventilating.

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

Jesus, we are becoming like the Devils and Hurricanes with the constant re-acquisitions of former players.

I thought Halpern looked done every time I saw the Rangers play this year. At least he can still win draws and it costs nothing but $.

 

[No More Subban]

What the hell? We already have Dumont, White and Noke??

And why are we bringing back ex-habs players? Wtf is that?

Nah, dumont needs to spend more time in the ahl. White i think has a lower body injury and nokes has been out for awhile.

 

[sharks9]

Good! Hopefully he can help our PK

 

[vokiel]

Yep. Bring back Tom Pyatt, Palushaj, Darche and Cammalleri as well. And see if we can get Campoli, Gill, Hamrlik and Spacek back.

We were a successful team with those guys.

Somewhere, Clode Julien is laughing so hard that he is hyperventilating.

NO!... we're getting Lapierre back.. This summer ...

 

[Moen is Gone]

Weird definition of ''dead weight''. IMO, dead weight is a guy who cannot even play his role. Halpern can absolutely play his role.

RDS definition of "dead weight" means they won't be able to do bi-weekly segments about the guy's uncle named René, or his grandma's own tourtière recipe

 

[Captain Mountain]

Our yearly faceoff guy move. About time. Maybe Bergevin can start being different from all our past GMs and actually make a move during the summer so we're not stuck doing this again.

At least he didn't cost a 2nd rounder.

 

[TRG]

This is hilarious. In Antichambre the other day they were saying that under Bergevin and Therrien we won't see any more dead weights like Halpern and Smolinski.

Funny considering most "experts" on Antichambre are dead weight.

 

[Demon Wolf]

I like this move. Fills a need, experienced guy, will be good to have in playoffs. He was very good during his last stint here.

 

[Captain Mountain]

Yep. Bring back Tom Pyatt, Palushaj, Darche and Cammalleri as well. And see if we can get Campoli, Gill, Hamrlik and Spacek back.

We were a successful team with those guys.

Somewhere, Clode Julien is laughing so hard that he is hyperventilating.

Halpern was great for us when he was here, and it didn't cost anything to get him. Whats your problem?

 

[Price is Wright]

Not 6'4".

Not 240lbs.

Not good.

 

[No More Subban]

So will he play tonight? New york isnt that far from montreal.

 

[Et le But]

I can't believe people are complaining about adding a face-off guy/grinder who cost the team literally nothing in terms of assets and essentially nothing when it comes to face off stats. Because he's not 6'5" and won't fight Thornton?

I thought Halpern looked done every time I saw the Rangers play this year. At least he can still win draws and it costs nothing but $.

For what it's worth the advance stats guys over at EOTP plus Mathman have already looked it over and apparently the numbers show Halpern has been the Rangers most effective PKer and is an almost neutral posession player despite brutally difficult usage.

I have barely watched the Rags this year so I can't back those numbers up, he did look even slower than he did on the Habs, but he's an intelligent and gutsy player so it really doesn't surprise me he's still useful.

 

[Kriss E]

That doesn't help our size problem.
We won't get past a 2nd round if we stay small like that.

We don't have a size problem, that's a myth. You don't dominate teams at ES like we do if you have a size issue.
Our players aren't the biggest, but we are very greedy and combative.

Could we get bigger? Absolutely. But is it a problem? No. Guys like Gionta, DD, Gallagher, Bouillon, Gorges, may be smaller but they don't get intimidated by anybody. They don't shy away from any form of contact. They aren't scared to take a hit to make a play or crash the net.

We don't have a size issue. We were a smaller team a couple of years ago and made the ECF. Our goaltending was out of this world, but still, it just goes to show, smaller teams can rally together and go deeper.
There's no reason to think our team won't be able to rally this year. They've built the confidence over this season of coming back despite being down.

 

[TennisMenace]

According to Brooks.

Yawn

 

[BLONG7]

Yep. Bring back Tom Pyatt, Palushaj, Darche and Cammalleri as well. And see if we can get Campoli, Gill, Hamrlik and Spacek back.

We were a successful team with those guys.

Somewhere, Clode Julien is laughing so hard that he is hyperventilating.

Claude is too busy eating chicken, and taking acting lessons to be laughing...

 

[Hoople]

Healthy roster:

Pacioretty-Desharnais-Gallagher
Bourque-Plekanec-Gionta
Galchenyuk-Eller-Ryder
Prust-Halpern-Armstrong
White

Subban-Gorges
Markov-Emelin
Bouillon-Diaz
Tinordi

Maybe trade Moen and a prospect for a #6 or #7 physical D-man and send Tinordi back down and this is a team that can make a deep playoff run.

No way.

Trade Moen to New Jersey for Stephen Gionta.

Trade Prust to Boston for Chris Bourque.

Then trade Emelin to Tampa Bay for Marc-Andre Bergeron.

We will then be set.

 

[Agnostic]

More options on the defensive side of the puck. Even if it's just to get through an injury period it's a good heads-up move by Bergevin.

If his faceoff pct keeps at this pace it will pay dividends.

 

[dreamingofdrouin*]

$700k, ufa at the end of the year 56.7% on the draws.....i like this gm....no risk with potential for high reward. I was surprised when they dropped him in the first place, glad he gets another go. Might mean the talbot rumours are actually nothing though

 

[Demon Wolf]

Healthy roster:

Pacioretty-Desharnais-Gallagher
Bourque-Plekanec-Gionta
Galchenyuk-Eller-Ryder
Prust-Halpern-Armstrong
White

Subban-Gorges
Markov-Emelin
Bouillon-Diaz
Tinordi

Maybe trade Moen and a prospect for a #6 or #7 physical D-man and send Tinordi back down and this is a team that can make a deep playoff run.

Moen is worth a hell of a lot more than a #7 d-man, are you mad?

Moen is money in the playoffs. He'll come around.

 

[Natey]

Jeff Halpern? Loved the guy while he was here. Has been nearly 58% in the faceoff circle since leaving MTL.

The only thing that sucks.. is that I really liked what Dumont was bringing. Also not sure if Halpern can play 10-minutes, effectively like Dumont has been playing.

If he's here to replace Ryan White, while putting Dumont back on the 3rd line - fantastic.

I'm guessing the White injury is more serious than previously thought?

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

Reading the Rangers' board it seems fans were surprised to see him waived and most of them mentioned he's been very good defensively and on the PK this year. I think he'll help this team quite a bit.