2024 Offseason Habs Thread -- news, musings, whatnot

[angusyoung]

Chris Nilan just got married. Love is in the air in Montreal. Congrats Knuckles!

Was he not already married to Jamie?

 

[HuGort]

Price's cap is basically unspendable before the season unless other players are starting the year on IR like Dvorak last year. Good luck finding a player that is willing to attend camp on a PTO and only sign a contract after Price goes on regular season LTIR. Bergie, the gift that keeps giving!

Allowed to go 10% over in summer

 

[Beer and Chips]

Was he not already married to Jamie?

Don't know just saw the notice of him marrying in Hawaii.

 

[angusyoung]

Don't know just saw the notice of him marrying in Hawaii.

Guess they were never married till now as Jamie is from the big island,so it must be her. Good for them!

 

[Miller Time]

I think he is more than capable of increasing his tally by an additional 10 goals.

He's gone through something similar before in his final season with cbj, and he bounced back just fine. No reason he can't do the same this year.

I thought the same thing heading into last year....

Instead he dropped by 12 goals and "increased" his plus / minus by 10 (& not the good increase )

Hope your optimism is rewarded better than mine lol

 

[HABitual Fan]

Allowed to go 10% over in summer

Yes, but must be compliant by opening day before Price goes on in season LTIR. That is why I said you need someone to go on regular IR like Dvorak was last season in order to pass the cap limit.

 

[The Real Timo]

Not sure if cancelling cable for the summer I don’t watch baseball… Maybe for the golf but also I should just get out more.

Outside is overrated. There are people. It’s not good.

 

[Naslundforever]

Outside is overrated. There are people. It’s not good.

I got a fitbit, fancy asics shoes, went for two jogs along the canal, hurt my calf and I’m right back here watching the WHL. Way overrated. Some of the people looked good though not gonna lie.

 

[JianYang]

I thought the same thing heading into last year....

Instead he dropped by 12 goals and "increased" his plus / minus by 10 (& not the good increase )

Hope your optimism is rewarded better than mine lol

What would he be rebounding from in the prior year though?

He had a 25 goal pace. I don't think there is a whole lot more there. Heck, that would be on the high end of what I'm thinking in terms of a rebound this upcoming season.

 

[Miller Time]

What would he be rebounding from in the prior year though?

He had a 25 goal pace. I don't think there is a whole lot more there. Heck, that would be on the high end of what I'm thinking in terms of a rebound this upcoming season.

Fair.
I thought that the injury subdued his first full year with MSL & was optimistic that he had 30goals in him and a .5ppg pace...

That he regressed in a full, relatively healthy 2nd season in this environment tells me he may well be another Rene Bourque... 1 step away from being out of the league.

 

[Treb]

I find it weird no one got any info on Davidson, Guindon, Tourigny and Nurmi.

We can guess at the decision, but at this point I would expect someone to have said something on some of them.

 

[Kents polished head]

It's too bad we have a plethora of bottom-6 players (some of whom are overpaid) already.

Because there's a guy named Dakota Joshua this summer who's expected to hit the UFA market and who in my opinion is the ultimate bottom-6 player on a good team. I learned to know him in the playoffs, everytime I watched Canucks games he stood out. Big banging body who plays the game the right way and who can chip in offensively.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Looking at the UFA crop, this is what I think

Kick Tires but won't really go anywhere

• Sam Reinhart
• Elias Lindholm
• Teuvo Teravainen
• Brett Pesce

Genuine Interest

• Jonathan Marchessault (3-4 year deal)
• Jake DeBrusk
• Dakota Joshua for grit and size in the bottom 6

Secondary Targets

• Anthony Mantha on a short term reclamation deal
• Jack Roslovic on a short term reclamation deal
• Yakov Trenin for size in the bottom 6 and center flexibility

 

[Kents polished head]

Looking at the UFA crop, this is what I think

Kick Tires but won't really go anywhere

• Sam Reinhart
• Elias Lindholm
• Teuvo Teravainen
• Brett Pesce

Genuine Interest

• Jonathan Marchessault (3-4 year deal)
• Jake DeBrusk
• Dakota Joshua for grit and size in the bottom 6

Secondary Targets

• Anthony Mantha on a short term reclamation deal
• Jack Roslovic on a short term reclamation deal
• Yakov Trenin for size in the bottom 6 and center flexibility

I would love it if we signed Dakota Joshua. I just don't think there's realistically any room for him in the current state of things. Really like Trenin as well, but to a lesser extent.

As for the higher-tier guys, Marchessault is attractive, mainly because of the shorter term his deal could come with. But Lebrun recently stated he things somehow Vegas will get a deal done.

DeBrusk just smells, looks and feels like a Habs to me. Would not surprise me if we signed him.

Slafkovsky - Suzuki - Caufield
DeBrusk - Dach - Anderson
Joshua - Newhook - Gallagher
Roy/Heineman - Evans - Armia

I guess it could be worse. Our 5th overall pick eventually pegging at Anderson's spot would have that much of an impact on the overall quality of that lineup.

 

[Lshap]

Was he not already married to Jamie?

Allowed to go 10% over in summer

At first glance, these looked like replies to the same subject. Sure, Nilan's already married, but he's allowed a 10% surplus during the summer!

 

[Andy]

I really don't want Jonathan Marchessault. It sceams a player who won't be productive for his entire contract and who will take up a roster spot in 2 years of someone more deserving.

 

[417]

Looking at the UFA crop, this is what I think

Kick Tires but won't really go anywhere

• Sam Reinhart
• Elias Lindholm
• Teuvo Teravainen
• Brett Pesce

IMO, at least 2 of these players won't even make it to free agency.

Genuine Interest

• Jonathan Marchessault (3-4 year deal)
• Jake DeBrusk
• Dakota Joshua for grit and size in the bottom 6

I'm a big Joshua fan, don't know if there's room for him given we've got a lot of dollars tied into bottom 6 guys already (Gallagher, Anderson, Armia, Dvorak). But agreed they need this type of player.

He's going to get a nice contract this summer based on what he did this year.

Secondary Targets

• Anthony Mantha on a short term reclamation deal
• Jack Roslovic on a short term reclamation deal
• Yakov Trenin for size in the bottom 6 and center flexibility

Mantha is a guy I could see them signing on a short term reclamation deal as you just wrote...Roslovic is going to sign with an American team, probably in the Midwest/northeast.

Trenin fits in the same category as Joshua...would definitely have interest.

 

[Kents polished head]

I really don't want Jonathan Marchessault. It sceams a player who won't be productive for his entire contract and who will take up a roster spot in 2 years of someone more deserving.

The guy who would be more deserving of a roster spot than Marchessault in the next two years and who doesn't already has a spot on the roster is not in the organization as we speak today.

There's literally no forward prospect coming up in the near future.

 

[Andy]

The guy who would be more deserving of a roster spot than Marchessault in the next two years and who doesn't already has a spot on the roster is not in the organization as we speak today.

There's literally no forward prospect coming up in the near future.

If there isn’t any forward good enough to beat out Marchessault then the team is very far away from being in a playoff spot and thus shouldn’t waste their time with him.

 

[Kents polished head]

If there isn’t any forward good enough to beat out Marchessault then the team is very far away from being in a playoff spot and thus shouldn’t waste their time with him.

The road from being a bottom-5 team to being a cup contender is not black-or-white. And absolutely no team has gotten from point A to point B solely drafting players.

At some point these players are going to need to play meaningful games before they turn 30.

Plus, I'm not sure what "If there isn't any forward good enough to beat out Marchessault" means. The guy just scored 42 goals and won a Conn Smythe the year prior. He was the 12th goal scorer in the league this season. Beating him out is not what I would call a common occurence.

 

[Andy]

The road from being a bottom-5 team to being a cup contender is not black-or-white. And absolutely no team has gotten from point A to point B solely drafting players.

At some point these players are going to need to play meaningful games before they turn 30.

Plus, I'm not sure what "If there isn't any forward good enough to beat out Marchessault" means. The guy just scored 42 goals and won a Conn Smythe the year prior. He was the 12th goal scorer in the league this season. Beating him out is not what I would call a common occurence.

He’ll be turning 34 this year and is an undersized winger. The fit is not there

 

[Sorinth]

The guy who would be more deserving of a roster spot than Marchessault in the next two years and who doesn't already has a spot on the roster is not in the organization as we speak today.

There's literally no forward prospect coming up in the near future.

The forward we pick at 5th OA in a month will be coming up in the near future. Return to juniors/Europe for 1 year and then turn pro would be fairly normal expectation wise. Even 2 years in juniors and then turning pro would still mean Marschessault on a 3 year deal could be taking up a spot.

That said the cure for a vet taking up a spot of someone more deserving is for the coach to just not to do that, play the deserving guy in your top-6 and put the vet on the bottom lines or press box or trade them. The real question is how much of a drop in production will we see going from Vegas to Montreal as historically players underproduce in MTL.

 

[Be a Hab]

I would love it if we signed Dakota Joshua. I just don't think there's realistically any room for him in the current state of things. Really like Trenin as well, but to a lesser extent.

As for the higher-tier guys, Marchessault is attractive, mainly because of the shorter term his deal could come with. But Lebrun recently stated he things somehow Vegas will get a deal done.

DeBrusk just smells, looks and feels like a Habs to me. Would not surprise me if we signed him.

Slafkovsky - Suzuki - Caufield
DeBrusk - Dach - Anderson
Joshua - Newhook - Gallagher
Roy/Heineman - Evans - Armia

I guess it could be worse. Our 5th overall pick eventually pegging at Anderson's spot would have that much of an impact on the overall quality of that lineup.

Debrusk wants to go back home in Alberta. Either Edmonton or Calgary. He would look with the Oilers but that Nurse contract is so terrible, im not sure they can sign him because they’re going to need to sign Draisaitl and Bouchard

 

[Kents polished head]

The forward we pick at 5th OA in a month will be coming up in the near future. Return to juniors/Europe for 1 year and then turn pro would be fairly normal expectation wise. Even 2 years in juniors and then turning pro would still mean Marschessault on a 3 year deal could be taking up a spot.

That said the cure for a vet taking up a spot of someone more deserving is for the coach to just not to do that, play the deserving guy in your top-6 and put the vet on the bottom lines or press box or trade them. The real question is how much of a drop in production will we see going from Vegas to Montreal as historically players underproduce in MTL.

I'm not saying we should sign Marchessault at all cost. By all means, we should totally avoid going head first into bidding wars for the time being. And we should be careful about how a guy would fit in here.

That being said, if the past learned me anything, it's that we should not just peg prospects/young players in roster spots. Not so long ago we had Bergevin saying he would not try to get a Ryan O'Reilly or a guy like that because he had to think about what it was going to cost to keep Kotkaniemi and Poehling... derp.

I think it's time we start making this team a bit more competitive. Does that mean trading youth and picks away to do so? Absolutely not. But signing a UFA costs no asset, and in that particular case, we have a guy who beat all odds, by all means is a tremendous leader, who just scored 42 goals and is the reigning Conn Smythe winner.

If you ask me, I'd much rather have a guy like Caufield revolving around that guy than Back Street Zegras.

I'd speak differently if we had a cupboard full of offensive prospects waiting for a callup, but in reality we have none.

It's also time this team starts playing some meaningful game and that the players feel some pressure at some point. Development at all cost is great and all but these guys have to learn to win. And some veteran presence is essential for this to happen.

Then again. What makes Marchessault interesting is that he wouldn't come with the long-term commitment a Lindholm or a Reinhart would cost. So there would be plenty of opportunity to re-adjust.

 

[Sorinth]

I'm not saying we should sign Marchessault at all cost. By all means, we should totally avoid going head first into bidding wars for the time being. And we should be careful about how a guy would fit in here.

That being said, if the past learned me anything, it's that we should not just peg prospects/young players in roster spots. Not so long ago we had Bergevin saying he would not try to get a Ryan O'Reilly or a guy like that because he had to think about what it was going to cost to keep Kotkaniemi and Poehling... derp.

I think it's time we start making this team a bit more competitive. Does that mean trading youth and picks away to do so? Absolutely not. But signing a UFA costs no asset, and in that particular case, we have a guy who beat all odds, by all means is a tremendous leader, who just scored 42 goals and is the reigning Conn Smythe winner.

If you ask me, I'd much rather have a guy like Caufield revolving around that guy than Back Street Zegras.

I'd speak differently if we had a cupboard full of offensive prospects waiting for a callup, but in reality we have none.

It's also time this team starts playing some meaningful game and that the players feel some pressure at some point. Development at all cost is great and all but these guys have to learn to win. And some veteran presence is essential for this to happen.

Then again. What makes Marchessault interesting is that he wouldn't come with the long-term commitment a Lindholm or a Reinhart would cost. So there would be plenty of opportunity to re-adjust.

All fair points, and it may be semantics but I just find stuff like "we have no offensive prospects" to be slightly misleading even if somewhat true, for all intents and purpose have 1, the guy we are about to draft. I'm fine with disregarding Mesar, Farrell and even Roy to some degree since they are varying degrees of long shots, but whether it's Demidov, Lindstrom, Iginla, Sennecke, etc... they will be seen as a guys who can and should play in our top-6 within 1-2 years.