Confirmed with Link: Alexandre Carrier acquired from the Predators in exchange for Justin Barron

[salbutera]

 

[salbutera]

 

[Archijerej]

The issue is: we’re approaching midway through the season and about a half dozen players are severely underperforming or underproducing or both.

Replacing or improving upon Savard would be closer to a “anti-Tank” move than not, you’d agree. But then why wait so long and have the Habs be so far behind before making an effort to claw back some quality for the roster?

I’m not complaining but wondering what is their vision for the season and the roster.

Again, the timing is often determined by outside circumstances (for example, Nashville giving up on the season only just now).

This season was definitely not planned as a tank. Putting aside the talk about the playoffs (caveated multiple times by Hughes) they definitely wanted to take a step forward. They had a hole in in the top 6 and they addressed it not merely by some generic UFA forward, but a player who can potentially be so much more. They kept Savard. They wanted to climb up the standings.

What's the plan now? Hard to tell based on this acquisition alone. Carrier is not going to change this team's fortunes. If they play better as a group, he could be very useful. If they fall apart, he won't make much of a difference.

I don't know what they're thinking, but I'm of the opinion that Dach not panning out puts a major dent in our rebuild. Not having a top-10 center, I assume the plan was to have a strong 1B behind Suzuki, in order to allow us to compete against the best teams out there. Without that, you're facing a prospect of having to spend your carefully accumulated assets not only on 1D, but on a borderline 1C as well. That costs a lot.

With that in mind I'm wondering if they're tempted to take advantage of what's probably the last season when they can coast to a top-5 selection without drastic consequences. We'll see what the're going to do with the goalie situation. If there's a follow up trade, then they're still hoping to see improvement this season.

 

[JianYang]

I think that's important to remember though when we're evaluating players.

Who knows, maybe Justin Barron goes to Nashville and plays with Roman Josi and suddenly becomes a reliable 20+ mins a night, reliable 2 way Dman lol.

It's very possible that Barron finds a niche eventually. He's still young enough.

The problem for montreal is that they have multiple guys on defense that will probably need a significant time investment and then you have to choose which of those guys you think are most worth that investment..... because you can't invest in them all. Barron became the casualty.

 

[yianik]

We have someone to replace Savard's role when we trade him. For more or less the same cap hit.

What you say makes complete sense as a possible motive for acquiring this player but I hope that's not the motive. You can't couple a 5 foot 11 sub 200 pound guy with Hutson. Even if Savard can get a late 1st, I would rather extend Savard for 2 years and keep him with Hutson as I think it's better development/ playing wise for Hutson to be paired with a big guy.

 

[LaP]

What you say makes complete sense as a possible motive for acquiring this player but I hope that's not the motive. You can't couple a 5 foot 11 sub 200 pound guy with Hutson. Even if Savard can get a late 1st, I would rather extend Savard for 2 years and keep him with Hutson as I think it's better development/ playing wise for Hutson to be paired with a big guy.

You can't couple Savard with Hutson either he's a 3rd pairing guy now. I think they got Carrier because they like him and he can support the offense. Probably to play with Xhekaj or Guhle. They'll likely look for a partner for Hutson next summer anyway this is what i would do. I think it's would be advisable to acquire a top 4 capable of playing defense to pair with Hutson.

 

[ReHabs]

What you say makes complete sense as a possible motive for acquiring this player but I hope that's not the motive. You can't couple a 5 foot 11 sub 200 pound guy with Hutson. Even if Savard can get a late 1st, I would rather extend Savard for 2 years and keep him with Hutson as I think it's better development/ playing wise for Hutson to be paired with a big guy.

Savard is more or less terrible right now. Extending him into our more competitive years would be foolish.

Yes we need a heavy veteran but it should be someone who is young and more capable than David Savard.

 

[ReHabs]

What's the plan now? Hard to tell based on this acquisition alone.

This is what I’m wondering too

If we coast to a bottom5 finish with Carrier then we shouldn’t have really bothered to acquire him and his chunky cap hit imo. I don’t expect he’ll be a difference maker but adding an actual NHL quality dman to the roster that lacks sufficient quality dmen will help a lot.

As for your concern about acquiring a top C, i also share this concern. I think the priority should be a top D because Reinbacher can then be rightfully treated as a bonus and not as a Has-To-Hit. I think we can get a 2C relatively easier because the rest of our top6 should be okay.

 

[Miller Time]

Not significantly. He did play on the same line with them but don’t know how long the experiment lasted before they figured out he was never going to be a difference maker.

Replace never hoing to be a difference maker with "wasn't ready at 20 to play on the top line of a cup contender" and at least this hot take is grounded in reality

 

[V13]

Lehkonen for Barron was a gamble that didn’t work out. Barron had a great profile when he was acquired and has shown flashes over the last couple seasons, but hasn’t been able to put it together. Hughes has turned that failed gamble into a useful player for the next couple years.

Seems like a productive outcome when we factor in the luck involved in developing a 20yo.

Truth be told Lekhonen would be our third or fourth most important forward right after Suzuki and Caufield and maybe Laine if he was still on the team.

The verdict is out on this one and we lost that trade badly. The positive though is that it gave Lekhonen a chance to win a cup with Colorado. He's a versatile workhorse and deserved such.

 

[26Mats]

Maybe HuGo don’t view this as a “lost season” w important BTB vs Det & CBJ on Monday coming up.

Could be 3-4 pts back of wildcard + jumping a handful of teams by Monday night

Anything is possible. But without Dach back to form (yet?) we have a glaring hole at 2c. That will be hard to overcome.

Maybe Laine ends up being the stop gap at 2c...

 

[Miller Time]

What's the plan now? Hard to tell based on this acquisition alone. Carrier is not going to change this team's fortunes. If they play better as a group, he could be very useful. If they fall apart, he won't make much of a difference.

Seems pretty clear that the plan remains the same...

Barron not able to make the jump they wanted to see and being replaced with a better short term fit to the roster needs is on par with the stated direction.

I guess one might argue they should've showed even more patience in hoping Barron finds his game, but with RB, Mailloux & Kony in the RD pipeline, and Savard showing his age, the swap for a vet RD that can handle ~20min a night this year & next makes a lot of sense.

Will be interesting to see how aggressively they target a top pair caliber RD this summer.

 

[Kennerback]

"

 

[Archijerej]

Seems pretty clear that the plan remains the same...

Barron not able to make the jump they wanted to see and being replaced with a better short term fit to the roster needs is on par with the stated direction.

I guess one might argue they should've showed even more patience in hoping Barron finds his game, but with RB, Mailloux & Kony in the RD pipeline, and Savard showing his age, the swap for a vet RD that can handle ~20min a night this year & next makes a lot of sense.

Will be interesting to see how aggressively they target a top pair caliber RD this summer.

In that case, it would only be logical to trade for an NHL-quality backup as well.

 

[Sorinth]

Truth be told Lekhonen would be our third or fourth most important forward right after Suzuki and Caufield and maybe Laine if he was still on the team.

The verdict is out on this one and we lost that trade badly. The positive though is that it gave Lekhonen a chance to win a cup with Colorado. He's a versatile workhorse and deserved such.

Lehkonen never even hit 30 points for us. He would mostly likely have spent the past few years rotating in and out of the top-6 alongside Armia, Anderson, Gallagher and/or being glued to Evans as part of a shutdown line.

We lost the trade but let's not pretend Lehkonen didn't take a huge step after the trade or that he would've taken that step no matter who he played with.

 

[Draft]

Truth be told Lekhonen would be our third or fourth most important forward right after Suzuki and Caufield and maybe Laine if he was still on the team.

The verdict is out on this one and we lost that trade badly. The positive though is that it gave Lekhonen a chance to win a cup with Colorado. He's a versatile workhorse and deserved such.

If you ignore all relevant context and risk associated with this trade tree, then yes. I wouldn’t trade Lehkonen for Carrier.

Gambled on the future, lost, recouped assets. We’ll be doing this rebuild until 2050 if we don’t take those gambles.

 

[Miller Time]

In that case, it would only be logical to trade for an NHL-quality backup as well.

Agree... Very curious wether the delay actioning this is because they still believe in Primeau, haven't found the right trade partner, or something else...

 

[Le Barron de HF]

What will you ever do with that username now that Hughes has dispatched your guy?

I did think about that. Tired of changing usernames (I had tomas tatahhh too lol)

 

[Miller Time]

If you ignore all relevant context and risk associated with this trade tree, then yes. I wouldn’t trade Lehkonen for Carrier.

Gambled on the future, lost, recouped assets. We’ll be doing this rebuild until 2050 if we don’t take those gambles.

Weird how some overvalue hindsight and undervalue or completely ignore context in assessing roster moves.

The trade value we got in that deal when it was made remains very positive.

 

[Miller Time]

Lehkonen never even hit 30 points for us. He would mostly likely have spent the past few years rotating in and out of the top-6 alongside Armia, Anderson, Gallagher and/or being glued to Evans as part of a shutdown line.

We lost the trade but let's not pretend Lehkonen didn't take a huge step after the trade or that he would've taken that step no matter who he played with.

This. And, posters seem to ignore the cap realities...

Extending Lekhonen would've been difficult given where our awful Bargainbin cap situation was... and likely would've precluded the Monahan deal.

People act like trades occur in a vacuum, but the reality is that a GM needs to balance a wide range of risks/rewards with every move.

 

[River Meadow]

Somewhere Chantal is jumping up and down about getting another lil petit gars de chez nous

This. And, posters seem to ignore the cap realities...

Extending Lekhonen would've been difficult given where our awful Bargainbin cap situation was... and likely would've precluded the Monahan deal.

People act like trades occur in a vacuum, but the reality is that a GM needs to balance a wide range of risks/rewards with every move.

I guess everyone is right..

Barron was the right deal to do.

Kent did a great trade,

It just didn't work out.

In Kent we trust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Habs Icing]

Interesting that few people are talking about Trotz trying to acquire Barron last year (according to himself in the Preds media scrum over the trade today) and it seems Preds have been high on Barron for a while.

They probably think they can fix him.

Broken table fix him or this dog is always horny fix him?

 

[Kennerback]

Somewhere Chantal is jumping up and down about getting another lil petit gars de chez nous



I guess everyone is right..

Barron was the right deal to do.

Kent did a great trade,

It just didn't work out.

In Kent we trust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With hindsight it’s a bad deal. We gambled and lost. Maybe Sakic knew when we got him that 20 year old Barron wouldn’t amount to anything. But it’s a very different gamble than Trotz now betting on the same player as a 23 year old.

 

[River Meadow]

With hindsight it’s a bad deal. We gambled and lost. Maybe Sakic knew when got him that Barron wouldn’t amount to anything. But it’s a very different gamble than Trotz betting on a 23 year old.

Nahhhhhh...

Many posters have me convinced now,

Kent did a fantastic deal on paper.....

Think about it,

A FORMER 1ST round drafted player, AND a 2nd!

Incredible value.

Kent is a genius.

 

[BargainBinSpecial]

Meh trade, Barron was busting here. Carrier has term and a higher caphit, but younger than Savard. So, I guess Savard is on the move.