Confirmed with Link: Canadiens Will Pick 5th (Hughes Presser in OP) NO POLITICS

[Schooner Guy]

You have very little faith in this new management. Was it Slaf and his usage over whoever your pick would have been? I like the way they are heading so far myself. 5oa will be a good player whether Smith, Benson or any of those “not Bedard Fantilli or Michkov” picks.

You hit the nail on the head. He was disappointed because he was all hands on deck with Wright. The same player who has been healthy scratched recently in AHL playoffs because of his performance not long after another poor OHL playoff performance.

If we pass on Michkov, I'll trust that the people with far better insight of the situation than us have done their due diligence.

 

[sampollock]

Hurray up draft.... now is the time

 

[willzyix]

Curious because you guys probably watch more than I do, but why is Reinbacher considered low upside?

I think he has all of the tools to be a top pairing D. He’s good on D, good skater, high IQ, great size, and has a great first pass.

He doesn’t have flashy tools, but tbh a lot of flash in player games gets stripped away when they hit the NHL because it just doesn’t work.

not saying he’s the definitive best player at 5 but I don’t think he’s falling much past that.

 

[Beendair Donedat]

I see more people are hopping on the Reinbacher bandwagon, that's good!

I fully expect Hughes to take him, especially if all the big Centers are off the board, he's a big right hand shot defenseman, uses his size effectively, great skater, and will be a very effective NHLer. Simply checks too many boxes and addresses a glaring organizational hole.

You're looking at an exceptional group of young defensemen down the road if he is taken:
Guhle
Xhekaj
Barron
Kovacevic
Harris
Reinbacher
Hutson
Mailloux
Struble

That's as deep of a defensive prospect pool as there is in the NHL.

 

[sampollock]

pick will be Smith... so let's focus on him LOL

 

[Kennerback]

You guys are depressing af

Their feeling of impending doom is probably justified. I personaly think they’ll do something really stupid, like Christer Rockstrom going to bat for Sandin Pellikka instead of taking Michkov.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Bc a soft 50 goal regular season perimeter scorer means nothing in the playoffs if they have no room in tight checking games. CC hasn't even lasted through the rigors of the regular season, on a team with no expectations and now is in a holdout pattern for a huge contract?

He's simply too small. And opposing teams will eat him alive. We have had 30 years of small forwards and they dont last. Val bure, ribero, oleg petrov, saku, samsonov, gionta, gomez, Cammalleri, desharnais, etc...

It's insane to think CC will be different. Look at the remaining teams - not one has a small player leading them.. his value to this team is as a complimentary player (nothing more) an asset in the group, but if we are going to pay big bucks on him we are locking ourselves in for continued futility..

He should sign a reasonable contract at $5.5m aav, he'll be rich for life. But at least this will allow hugo to build big and fast around him, so he can actually play.

Thank god hugo isn't buckling. He will be traded. Mark my words.. some other team will blindly throw $10m his way, just like pipsqueek johnny hockey or playoff warrior debrincat.. interesting how Tkachuck is twice the player in playoffs now..

He had one injury and it was sustained prior to the season. He had no issues the year before, but that is legitimately the only major injury he's had.. ever?

And he's not in a hold out pattern for a large contract. The contract negotiations are difficult because he burned his 1st year ELC, his 2nd year he was neutered by Ducharme and then dynamic with MSL. This year, he was incredible again, but had the shoulder injury and surgery. So he doesn't have a full year of production to put on the table and say I'm worth this vs. this comparable. So the dance is between both club and player. Predictably the Canadiens want to lock Caufield up at a good contract at long term, while Caufield may be pushing for a bridge deal because he could make more if he puts up a full season at last year's pace.

Kirby Dach took awhile to hammer out and he didn't get overpaid and we ended up getting good term and good money, a win-win.

As for the rest, it's just bad and you are rightfully being panned for it.

 

[The Last Red]

Bc a soft 50 goal regular season perimeter scorer means nothing in the playoffs if they have no room in tight checking games. CC hasn't even lasted through the rigors of the regular season, on a team with no expectations and now is in a holdout pattern for a huge contract?

He's simply too small. And opposing teams will eat him alive. We have had 30 years of small forwards and they dont last. Val bure, ribero, oleg petrov, saku, samsonov, gionta, gomez, Cammalleri, desharnais, etc...

It's insane to think CC will be different. Look at the remaining teams - not one has a small player leading them.. his value to this team is as a complimentary player (nothing more) an asset in the group, but if we are going to pay big bucks on him we are locking ourselves in for continued futility..

He should sign a reasonable contract at $5.5m aav, he'll be rich for life. But at least this will allow hugo to build big and fast around him, so he can actually play.

Thank god hugo isn't buckling. He will be traded. Mark my words.. some other team will blindly throw $10m his way, just like pipsqueek johnny hockey or playoff warrior debrincat.. interesting how Tkachuck is twice the player in playoffs now..

So is Joe Pavelski. Oh, wait a minute . . . Nevermind. I aslo recall CC being pretty effective two years ago in his only playoff run to date, as a 20 year old rookie no less. I understand that Pavelski also scores from the dirty areas, and that's something that CC will have to incorporate more into his game as he gets more experienced but to trade such a lethal shooter is just nuts.

 

[Adam Michaels]

He had one injury and it was sustained prior to the season. He had no issues the year before, but that is legitimately the only major injury he's had.. ever?

And he's not in a hold out pattern for a large contract. The contract negotiations are difficult because he burned his 1st year ELC, his 2nd year he was neutered by Ducharme and then dynamic with MSL. This year, he was incredible again, but had the shoulder injury and surgery. So he doesn't have a full year of production to put on the table and say I'm worth this vs. this comparable. So the dance is between both club and player. Predictably the Canadiens want to lock Caufield up at a good contract at long term, while Caufield may be pushing for a bridge deal because he could make more if he puts up a full season at last year's pace.

Kirby Dach took awhile to hammer out and he didn't get overpaid and we ended up getting good term and good money, a win-win.

As for the rest, it's just bad and you are rightfully being panned for it.

Not to mention, Cole isn't the only contract Brisson has to deal with. He is also negotiating with Anaheim for a Zegras extension, who is also coming off his ELC, among others. He's also surely busy handling the PLD situation in between all of that.

So it's not like Caufield is his only focus.

It's also common for negotiations to halt at some point before they resume tlks and hammer the final details down.

 

[417]

He had one injury and it was sustained prior to the season. He had no issues the year before, but that is legitimately the only major injury he's had.. ever?

And he's not in a hold out pattern for a large contract. The contract negotiations are difficult because he burned his 1st year ELC, his 2nd year he was neutered by Ducharme and then dynamic with MSL. This year, he was incredible again, but had the shoulder injury and surgery. So he doesn't have a full year of production to put on the table and say I'm worth this vs. this comparable. So the dance is between both club and player. Predictably the Canadiens want to lock Caufield up at a good contract at long term, while Caufield may be pushing for a bridge deal because he could make more if he puts up a full season at last year's pace.

Kirby Dach took awhile to hammer out and he didn't get overpaid and we ended up getting good term and good money, a win-win.

As for the rest, it's just bad and you are rightfully being panned for it.

Why do people take contract negotiations between players and teams so personally?

Hold out pattern for more money?

Firstly, all players should try to get as much money as they can...otherwise, what's the point? Teams meanwhile have an objective to try to maximize every dollar on the salary cap and that's also fine.

Secondly, as you said, negotiating a contract, doesn't mean you're holding out.

 

[SlafySZN]

He had one injury and it was sustained prior to the season. He had no issues the year before, but that is legitimately the only major injury he's had.. ever?

And he's not in a hold out pattern for a large contract. The contract negotiations are difficult because he burned his 1st year ELC, his 2nd year he was neutered by Ducharme and then dynamic with MSL. This year, he was incredible again, but had the shoulder injury and surgery. So he doesn't have a full year of production to put on the table and say I'm worth this vs. this comparable. So the dance is between both club and player. Predictably the Canadiens want to lock Caufield up at a good contract at long term, while Caufield may be pushing for a bridge deal because he could make more if he puts up a full season at last year's pace.

Kirby Dach took awhile to hammer out and he didn't get overpaid and we ended up getting good term and good money, a win-win.

As for the rest, it's just bad and you are rightfully being panned for it.

Why are you making so much sense?

Caufield obviously should sign whatever is proposed to him without a doubt and sign QUICK! because you know, that means he doesn’t want to play here if he doesn’t take the first contract proposed to him without negociation and he should be traded. Him not being signed may 26th is a tragedy.

 

[NORiculous]

You probably can't. Arizona will snap Reinbacher up at 6.



He can still be good offensively without QBing our PP because other players on the team are better in that role. The fact that we have Hutson and Mailloux coming up is one of the reasons why Reinbacher is attractive, you can't have an entire D core with offense focus and only being OK in their own end.

Ryan Suter doesn't QB a PP1. Shea Weber shouldn't have done it and didn't have to when Josi was there, but was there for his shot. Slavvin doesn't QB a PP1.

You can be a #1D in the NHL without QBing a PP and you can still put up points on defense without QBing the top PP unit. It's not a requisite here.

Having someone who can log almost 30 minutes a night in the play-offs, who integrates offensively, shuts down offense and can relaunch our transition game and offense is a valuable, valuable commodity and we saw what happened to Tampa when Cernak went down. They crumbled.

Cernak is very very solid and every team needs a guy like that to win. But I wouldn’t call him a #1 guy either.

Anyway, I don’t completely disagree but I still think Reinbacher would be disappointing at #5 (or trading down for him) because the Habs have more pressing needs and because next draft has plenty of solid D.

Don’t you want to see a Michkov playing with Dach?

 

[AHShadow]

Bc a soft 50 goal regular season perimeter scorer means nothing in the playoffs if they have no room in tight checking games. CC hasn't even lasted through the rigors of the regular season, on a team with no expectations and now is in a holdout pattern for a huge contract?

He's simply too small. And opposing teams will eat him alive. We have had 30 years of small forwards and they dont last. Val bure, ribero, oleg petrov, saku, samsonov, gionta, gomez, Cammalleri, desharnais, etc...

It's insane to think CC will be different. Look at the remaining teams - not one has a small player leading them.. his value to this team is as a complimentary player (nothing more) an asset in the group, but if we are going to pay big bucks on him we are locking ourselves in for continued futility..

He should sign a reasonable contract at $5.5m aav, he'll be rich for life. But at least this will allow hugo to build big and fast around him, so he can actually play.

Thank god hugo isn't buckling. He will be traded. Mark my words.. some other team will blindly throw $10m his way, just like pipsqueek johnny hockey or playoff warrior debrincat.. interesting how Tkachuck is twice the player in playoffs now..

Did we all just forget that the Tampa Bay Lightning went to the playoffs three years in a row when their best players are all 6ft and below?

Obviously, they're bigger than Caufield, but they definitely don't have any Tkachuck-like forward on their roster.

We won't be able to win with 10 Caufields on the team, but we definitely can win with 1.

 

[Frankenheimer]

We won't be able to win with 10 Caufields on the team

That would be awesome.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Not to mention, Cole isn't the only contract Brisson has to deal with. He is also negotiating with Anaheim for a Zegras extension, who is also coming off his ELC, among others. He's also surely busy handling the PLD situation in between all of that.

So it's not like Caufield is his only focus.

It's also common for negotiations to halt at some point before they resume tlks and hammer the final details down.

And also the team has other focus too. They're no doubt working hard on the upcoming NHL draft, talking to teams about other trades and moves they can make when the cup finals are over.

There's no rush here, it will get done.

Why do people take contract negotiations between players and teams so personally?

Hold out pattern for more money?

Firstly, all players should try to get as much money as they can...otherwise, what's the point? Teams meanwhile have an objective to try to maximize every dollar on the salary cap and that's also fine.

Secondly, as you said, negotiating a contract, doesn't mean you're holding out.

I don't know man it's really f***ed up. Like all this hate and vitriol toward Kotkaniemi from the fan base honestly disgusts me.

The guy was rightfully unhappy with the treatment from his GM and Coach (a common pattern in the Bergevin era, it's not like it's an outlier) and was given a f***ing gift horse by Carolina.

People treat NHLers like trading cards and think everyone's singular motivation is to win at all costs. I don't think any single person here would accept a salary markedly less than they were worth to help their corporation advance their agenda. Not that we aren't invested in the success and growth, but we have our own lives and things to take care of.

Why are you making so much sense?

Caufield obviously should sign whatever is proposed to him without a doubt and sign QUICK! because you know, that means he doesn’t want to play here if he doesn’t take the first contract proposed to him without negociation and he should be traded. Him not being signed may 26th is a tragedy.

Chicken little fanbase

Cernak is very very solid and every team needs a guy like that to win. But I wouldn’t call him a #1 guy either.

Anyway, I don’t completely disagree but I still think Reinbacher would be disappointing at #5 (or trading down for him) because the Habs have more pressing needs and because next draft has plenty of solid D.

Don’t you want to see a Michkov playing with Dach?

Hedman is their number 1, obviously, but you can't just have one defenseman. The Habs are uniquely positioned, should they draft Reinbacher, to have a very deep and young defense core with a little of everything.

The Habs have a pressing need at RHD and we never know what happens next draft, we could literally be picking after all the RHD are gone. A bird in hand is worth more, right? I can't imagine the argument for taking Leonard or Dvorsky or Benson is any more convincing than taking Reinbacher. We aren't talking about a group of players there with PPG+ potential as we sit here today.

And yeah of course I want one of the big 5, I haven't seen a single person advocate to take Reinbacher ahead of Michkov. We are all just talking about the alternatives if they won't take the risk.

 

[SlafySZN]

And also the team has other focus too. They're no doubt working hard on the upcoming NHL draft, talking to teams about other trades and moves they can make when the cup finals are over.

There's no rush here, it will get done.



I don't know man it's really f***ed up. Like all this hate and vitriol toward Kotkaniemi from the fan base honestly disgusts me.

The guy was rightfully unhappy with the treatment from his GM and Coach (a common pattern in the Bergevin era, it's not like it's an outlier) and was given a f***ing gift horse by Carolina.

People treat NHLers like trading cards and think everyone's singular motivation is to win at all costs. I don't think any single person here would accept a salary markedly less than they were worth to help their corporation advance their agenda. Not that we aren't invested in the success and growth, but we have our own lives and things to take care of.



Chicken little fanbase



Hedman is their number 1, obviously, but you can't just have one defenseman. The Habs are uniquely positioned, should they draft Reinbacher, to have a very deep and young defense core with a little of everything.

The Habs have a pressing need at RHD and we never know what happens next draft, we could literally be picking after all the RHD are gone. A bird in hand is worth more, right? I can't imagine the argument for taking Leonard or Dvorsky or Benson is any more convincing than taking Reinbacher. We aren't talking about a group of players there with PPG+ potential as we sit here today.

And yeah of course I want one of the big 5, I haven't seen a single person advocate to take Reinbacher ahead of Michkov. We are all just talking about the alternatives if they won't take the risk.

Do you think people and medias in Anaheim talk about Zegras contract everyday, trying to dictate his intentions and try to say he doesn’t want to be there because he isn’t signed may 26th?

 

[WeThreeKings]

Do you think people and medias in Anaheim talk about Zegras contract everyday, trying to dictate his intentions and try to say he doesn’t want to be there because he isn’t signed may 26th?

Oh yeah, my twitter is lit up with the same shit.

Can't win with Zegras!!! Trade him for Milan Lucic

 

[Ozmodiar]

That would be awesome.

Who would coach them? Snow White?

 

[BLONG7]

You guys are depressing af

Habs and Leaf fans love to create drama when there is none.......

 

[MD thaivuN]

I'd be annoyed if we picked Reinbacher, not because he's not a good pick or prospect. But because this team has been focusing on drafting Ds for many years now, and we still need a premium quality RD prospect lol

 

[ZUKI]

He only did lateral move. So as much as he did not have really any bad trade, he also had nothing more than a few good trade. He had no vision, no plan.

The man inherited 2 free buy out, prime Price, Subban and Pacioretty. Gallagher, a 3rd overall, 30YO Plekanec and Markov.

And with the inheritance he had, he did not took any f***ing risk to add to them. Only players acquired on the cheap that were not moving the needle.

So for you, 2 x free buy out, a 3rd OA , draft selection a 30 years old Plekanec , is a part of a good

 

[waffledave]

Why do people take contract negotiations between players and teams so personally?

Hold out pattern for more money?

Firstly, all players should try to get as much money as they can...otherwise, what's the point? Teams meanwhile have an objective to try to maximize every dollar on the salary cap and that's also fine.

Secondly, as you said, negotiating a contract, doesn't mean you're holding out.

I'm sure that dude is willing to take a paycut to help out his employer.

 

[sandviper]

I think we are in an easy position. We take whoever is left… the ONLY way that doesn’t fly is if the powers that be don’t rate Smith in the top5 but rather in a lower tier where he’s comparable to the likes of Leonard Benson and such.

Michkov at 5 is a no brainer, I won’t even entertain any possibility of skipping him.

Oh, I'm 100% with you. I just hope management doesn't try to galaxy brain this. I just got to hope though if they skip on Michkov or Smith that it's because their scouts have truly identified something we're not seeing or aware of.

 

[417]

I'm sure that dude is willing to take a paycut to help out his employer.

There are players who certainly do, and if that's the case with Caufield...more power to him.

But it should never be the expectation.

But i'm also very "pro player" in these situations, I'm never mad at guys for wanting to maximize their career earnings. Get every single red cent you can, because the second they're done with you, they won't think twice!

I think we are in an easy position. We take whoever is left… the ONLY way that doesn’t fly is if the powers that be don’t rate Smith in the top5 but rather in a lower tier where he’s comparable to the likes of Leonard Benson and such.

Michkov at 5 is a no brainer, I won’t even entertain any possibility of skipping him.

I'm far from a prospect expert, but i'm really hoping one of the /Ducks/Blue Jackets/Sharks end up taking Michkov and we don't have to make that call because i'm not sure it's as much of a no-brainer as you're making it.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Oh, I'm 100% with you. I just hope management doesn't try to galaxy brain this. I just got to hope though if they skip on Michkov or Smith that it's because their scouts have truly identified something we're not seeing or aware of.

They wont skip on Smith but it's likely he's not there to skip on.. and therein lies the root of all discussions on the other options.

Nobody is confident we'd take Michkov.. and we've seen nothing to make us feel comfortable that they would, to this point.