Confirmed with Link: Simon Despres signs PTO with Laval (12-2)

DAChampion

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May 28, 2011
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Scherbak will need to go through waivers. And he will be claimed for sure. Also, Byron has two consecutive seasons of 20+ goals, I think he's earned to be more than a 4th liner.

Good point on Scherbak. Is that also true of McCarron?

Byron is not a real top six player.
 

Habs Icing

Formerly Onice
Jan 17, 2004
19,518
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If we send Mete, Fleury and Juulsen in the AHL it means one of them will not have a lot of TOI and will play against weak players. IMO we almost must keep one up. I don't understand people who say Mete must play in the AHL. If he plays as well as last year it's better to keep him up. Sending him down would be seen by him as a retrogression so if it happens it must be because he had a bad training camp. If he beats the other guys at training camp keep him up.
I agree and would also add that Juulsen proved he should stay here
 
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Adam Michaels

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Jun 12, 2016
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Good point on Scherbak. Is that also true of McCarron?

Byron is not a real top six player.

McCarron also has to go through waivers. But I would give zero effs if he ever gets claimed.

The only waiver exempt players this year are:

Juulsen, Mete, Sklenicka, Moravcik, Evans, Vejdemo, Alain, Verbeek, Bitten, Pezzetta, Lindgren, Waked, Addison, Audette, and McNiven. Also Kotkaniemi if he sticks around.

Every other player needs to go through waivers.
 
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Habs Icing

Formerly Onice
Jan 17, 2004
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Also, I'm little confused that you think it's so important to have French Canadians on the roster and then you list Oullet, who isn't French Canadian.
Ouellet is a Frenchman like Ted Cruz is a Canadian. Ouellet was born in France when his Canadian father was playing there. He grew up here.
 
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Habs Icing

Formerly Onice
Jan 17, 2004
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We have too many wingers.
Someone is bound to get traded :


Byron
Domi
Pacioretty
Scherbak
Shaw
Hudon
Armia
Deslauriers
Gallagher
Lehkonen

You have 10 wingers on your list. Captain Ready is a goner. That makes 9. Byron and Shaw will be on the injury reserve list at the start of the season so that makes 7 wingers. So we're short, not over.
 
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DAChampion

Registered User
May 28, 2011
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I mixed you up with a response from Victorious, where he made that claim, a post that you subsequently liked.

Additionally, stooping to personal insults really tells me everything I need to know about you and your ability to have a discussion here.

1) imply others are morons.
2) complain about personal insults.
3) don't apologise, and whine about likes.

Lol.
 

Habs Icing

Formerly Onice
Jan 17, 2004
19,518
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Good answer. Yes it looks promising. A few years ago Desharnais was it.

I wonder if Deslauriers will stick around.
If he plays like he did last year I don't see why not. I could even see him moving up to the 3rd line with Armia. The only problem I see with Deslauriers is that he doesn't bring his A game every night. But then again his style of play is difficult to bring every game.
 

VirginiaMtlExpat

Second most interesting man in the world.
Aug 20, 2003
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...
Moravcik - Petry
Mete - Després
Alzner - Juulsen
Intrigued by what you know about Moravcik. Between him, Després, Reilly, and Ouellet, that's at least four new defencemen who seem to bring much-needed mobility. If that is the case, I would look to move Alzner this year if a team runs into injury trouble on defense, even if the player strikes many as untradeable. The value of a player fluctuates over a season.

Or alternately, use these new guys as motivation for Alzner to come into camp in the best shape of his career, down 10-15 lbs while having done skating drills with an expert on the skating mechanics, and see if he lives up to his first-round draft choice pedigree.
 

BehindTheTimes

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Jun 24, 2018
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Intrigued by what you know about Moravcik. Between him, Després, Reilly, and Ouellet, that's at least four new defencemen who seem to bring much-needed mobility. If that is the case, I would look to move Alzner this year if a team runs into injury trouble on defense, even if the player strikes many as untradeable. The value of a player fluctuates over a season.

Or alternately, use these new guys as motivation for Alzner to come into camp in the best shape of his career, down 10-15 lbs while having done skating drills with an expert on the skating mechanics, and see if he lives up to his first-round draft choice pedigree.

Even if we can't move him, nothing says he has to play. Hopefully if one of these guys earns a spot they play.
 
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VirginiaMtlExpat

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Even if we can't move him, nothing says he has to play. Hopefully if one of these guys earns a spot they play.
Agreed. But between now, mid-July, and the start of the season, the new defense coach might have a quiet word with him and go over what he needs to do to get ice time, assuming that the team takes a purely dispassionate asset management approach with him.

My take on him is, while he is probably slow for his price tag, he could be a different player who could make a few strides towards living up to being chosen 5th overall, with the right training, even if to some this equates with polishing a turd or putting lipstick on a pig. Players are pliable to an extent, with inspired training and sufficient motivation.
 

BehindTheTimes

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Jun 24, 2018
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Agreed. But between now, mid-July, and the start of the season, the new defense coach might have a quiet word with him and go over what he needs to do to get ice time, assuming that the team takes a purely dispassionate asset management approach with him.

My take on him is, while he is probably slow for his price tag, he could be a different player who could make a few strides towards living up to being chosen 5th overall, with the right training, even if to some this equates with polishing a turd or putting lipstick on a pig. Players are pliable to an extent, with inspired training and sufficient motivation.

On a team with a deeper d I think you shelter/mask his deficiencies a bit better, but here, there is nowhere to hide. I don't think there would be any takers, but you never know. I certainly would be trying to move him if I'm MB.
 

VirginiaMtlExpat

Second most interesting man in the world.
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On a team with a deeper d I think you shelter/mask his deficiencies a bit better, but here, there is nowhere to hide. I don't think there would be any takers, but you never know. I certainly would be trying to move him if I'm MB.
I'm not suggesting a cosmetic repackaging of the current player. I'm saying: Have Richardson tell him this: "Work with dietitian Ms X and skating guru Ms Underhill these next 7 weeks, lose 12 lbs as well as a half a second on your best time skating around the rink, and you keep your place in the pecking order. Fail to do this, and you risk losing your spot to Reilly/Després/etc. and possibly being bought out."

My firm belief is that these deficiencies would be less significant than this past season.

Edit: I would also tie this condition to being within a short time-limit within Reilly/Després/X's time around the rink, so that Alzner does not dog it going around the rink the first time to set the baseline. If he is more than, say, 2 seconds beyond these guys, he will be confronted with his ineptitude.
 
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1909

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Didn't work at all between those two last year. Really bad idea.

And why play a youngster like Reilly out of position at RD?

I don't mind Mete-Després because Després, albeit a LHD, has NHL experience playing as a RHD. He brings size to a pairing with Mete, which I think is needed for the younger D.

Really, the only hope I have is that Moravcik ultimately slides in alongside Petry this fall, leaving the following tentative D:

Moravcik - Petry
Mete - Després
Alzner - Juulsen

But Schlemko, Reilly and Benn won't disappear from the face of the Earth by miracle. And Ouellet has a one way contract too.
 

1909

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While I'M a big advocate in bringing more local players....and feel that we are disrespecting the product....we won 24 Cups with lineups made of a lot of franco players because there were less americans and european players playing the game. And because there were actually more franco players playing the game on a prorata basis because now kids have more other sports to choose from. And in the end, if we really want to play the history card, I guess we should have more franco players....but we'd have to get anglo coaches and GM's has they have won more Cups than the franco ones.

The whole language debate is mostly driven by people who couldn't care less about the sport and the team. Still, I think we have to do a much better job 'cause if other teams disregard the Q, we should benefitiate from that. Other teams don't disregard other league but the Q? Great. Let's NOT do it. So that the Marchessault, Gourde, and others are ours.

And yes, Xavier Ouellet will be seen as a Franco Quebecer.

I know all that. And I don't wish for a lineup made of 50% Quebecers just for the sake of it. But when you have a chance to draft or sign young good Quebec UFA's, you should not miss the boat. As you wrote, other teams are not ashamed to sign these young guys. But it is always suspicious wen Habs do so.

By the way, Scotty Bowman is born in Montreal and is bilingual, and Toe Blake was able to give very good interviews in French. And Sam Pollock is gone since a long, long time.
 

Kimota

ROY DU NORD!!!
Nov 4, 2005
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Something I don't get with Duprés it's that he left the NHL basically cause he couldn't play because of injuries..? Then go to Europe because I guess it's less physical. Then in his interview about the tryout he said he has became a better play, he worked on new things that lacked in his game, etc...

But his play was never the issue, it was the concussions. So what's the issue here. He talked like his play was a problem, that is why he left. But I thought it was the injuries. If his concussions are gone, then he can play. Is it that his injuries somehow made him less effective?
 

Whitesnake

If you rebuild, they will come.
Jan 5, 2003
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I know all that. And I don't wish for a lineup made of 50% Quebecers just for the sake of it. But when you have a chance to draft or sign young good Quebec UFA's, you should not miss the boat. As you wrote, other teams are not ashamed to sign these young guys. But it is always suspicious wen Habs do so.

By the way, Scotty Bowman is born in Montreal and is bilingual, and Toe Blake was able to give very good interviews in French. And Sam Pollock is gone since a long, long time.

When radio hosts are talking about p'tit gars de chez nous...they are not talking about anglophones that learned english. They are not even talking about anglos from Montreal. Everytime those radio hosts and fans want to name des Ptits gars de chez nous playing for us, they ALWAYS missed Torrey Mitchell when he was with us. Do you think it would have happened if it was Thierry Michel? I would not have. So Bowman is an anglo. Toe Blake was an anglo. And Pollock is an anglo. And while he is gone since a long, long time, same with our success with francos. Most Cups coming from the Maurice, Henri and Jean Béliveau era.
 
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Saint Patrick

2 rings in my hears
Feb 14, 2007
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Considering these reclamation projects are low or no risk, I don't see what the issue is and what's "pathetic" about it. It's one of the few things that Bergevin has done that I think is smart.

Giving chances to guys like Semin, Fleishmann, Streit, Gelinas, Hemsky and Despres is a chance to add a guy, for literally nothing and if it works, great, and if it doesn't cut them loose, no harm no foul.

Fleishmann was able to carve out a spot and get flipped for an asset. I don't see what the problem is.

Like I said, Depres is a good gamble, he's from the area so you know he's going to give it his all, hopefully he's body will be able to follow. The "patheticness" I speak of is the fact that everyone knew those guys were done, specifically Semin, Streit, Gelinas and Hemsky. Sure you can take no risk gambles on players but most of these players are well documented. I was all for trying Semin, but he had declined dramatically, bringing him into a hot city like Montreal where everyone watches your every move was doomed to fail. People remember Semin in his prime and think somehow this team can bring that back (or some part of it), so clearly it failed. Again, why not, when you've got some sense of a team that can compete, these guys can support. Otherwise you use these guys who clearly arent able to keep up instead of playing your younger players and giving them a chance to learn.
 

TheViperOne

Registered User
Jul 26, 2005
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Low risk invites like this for francophone players, not a problem.

Trading away picks at the draft table potentially missing out on guys like Hillis just to get a pick to draft Samuel Houde, big problem.
 

Adam Michaels

Registered User
Jun 12, 2016
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Low risk invites like this for francophone players, not a problem.

Trading away picks at the draft table potentially missing out on guys like Hillis just to get a pick to draft Samuel Houde, big problem.

200.gif
 
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Bacchus1

Fill the net!
Sep 10, 2007
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I think he has demonstrated enough to earn a contract. Had some blunders at the start of camp, but has started to demonstrate some poise. Not sure if he will stick with the big club, but he has demonstrated more than some of our veterans ... Benn in particular.
 

Paddyjack

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Dec 10, 2007
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I think he has demonstrated enough to earn a contract. Had some blunders at the start of camp, but has started to demonstrate some poise. Not sure if he will stick with the big club, but he has demonstrated more than some of our veterans ... Benn in particular.

I think he should start in the AHL if he gets a contract. He did ok so far but even yesterday he was doing some crazy mistakes, against a C team. He would be a good insurance policy.
 
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EveryDay

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Jun 13, 2009
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I think he has demonstrated enough to earn a contract. Had some blunders at the start of camp, but has started to demonstrate some poise. Not sure if he will stick with the big club, but he has demonstrated more than some of our veterans ... Benn in particular.

I disagree with you on this, he was awful most of the time, making turnover after turnover against AHL competition... hope he's gone.
 
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Leon Lucius Black

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Nov 5, 2007
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He has been decent at times, however he was outplayed by guys like Ouellet, Valiev, Lernout and Moravcik. Was pulling for the guy given what he's gone through with concussions, but there is simply no room for him.
 
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