Pre-Game Talk: Countdown thread to 24-25 Season (T - 12 hours)

[HomaridII]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843740331239674236

This is without price.

 

[Habs]

That;s cause he ain't got any.

Did they really halt the McGroarty trade for a fear of giving up on future AllStar Barron? lol if true

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Another lottery pick wouldn't be the end of the world with how some of the draft eligibles have started out. Martone and Misa are absolutely dominating the OHL right now.

I think Demidov's going to be a pretty major spark plug to our offence next year, and once some of our dead weight contracts like Dvo/Gally/Anderson expire it's going to give us a pretty big boost.

We'll also have a ton of cap space.

 

[morhilane]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843740331239674236

This is without price.

They don't need more space, no point putting Price on it too.

But using two players supposed to come back in 2-3 months is interesting. Looks like the plan is to move some salary so they don't have to use LTIR once RHP/Laine are healthy.

 

[BaseballCoach]

Puckpedia came up with 28 submitted rosters out of the 32. And guess what? Montreal is among the 4 missing

Just wanted to know who they did paper. Did they put RHP on LTIR prior to submitting?
Last year Montreal did expressively announce its paper transactions on Twitter, did the league veto it this year?

https://puckpedia.com/news/2024-25-nhl-opening-rosters?s=09

Papered Xjekaj and Struble, and LTIRed RHP. Lost $108k out of the $88M.

Now they need to add Laine to the LTIR list to get Xhekaj and Struble on the roster.

Remember, Laine is supposed to be coming back. If RHP comes back around the same time, his cap hit should be covered by the players we demote to make room for the two guys coming back. One trade of an expiring contract and we might be ok to finish the season without Price going on LTIR, so long as there are not many injuries.

 

[BaseballCoach]

I don't give a crap how many points he leeched all you have to do is watch him to see that he cant pass to his right side and fails basic line holds 4 or 5 times a game that's pretty f***ing terrible imo.

Faleshood or gross exaggeration. Doesn't add to credibility.

 

[ReHabs]

They don't need more space, no point putting Price on it too.

But using two players supposed to come back in 2-3 months is interesting. Looks like the plan is to move some salary so they don't have to use LTIR once RHP/Laine are healthy.

The cap "loss" they'll suffer with this scheme is RHP's caphit, more or less, and that's negated by the fact the club will send someone down.

We have like 16m in cap space with Price on LTIR. We're good for space.

 

[morhilane]

Papered Xjekaj and Struble, and LTIRed RHP. Lost $108k out of the $88M.

Now they need to add Laine to the LTIR list to get Xhekaj and Struble on the roster.

Remember, Laine is supposed to be coming back. If RHP comes back around the same time, his cap hit should be covered by the players we demote to make room for the two guys coming back. One trade of an expiring contract and we might be ok to finish the season without Price going on LTIR, so long as there are not many injuries.

Waive RHP once he's healthy. His injury happened mid-July, he's going to require quite a bit of "back in-shape" period and the AHL is probably a better spot than sitting in the NHL.

That leave about $2m overcap to deal with.

 

[BaseballCoach]

Waive RHP once he's healthy. His injury happened mid-July, he's going to require quite a bit of "back in-shape" period and the AHL is probably a better spot than sitting in the NHL.

That leave about $2m overcap to deal with.

No, much less, closer to $1.1M cuz Laine will take the place of a player whose cap hit will disappear.

 

[SwiftyHab]

Looks like a lot of us nailed the Kapanen vote but missed Heineman

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Yeah it's not exactly a satisfying process to watch game in game out over multiple years but we're pretty much just in a holding pattern until some of these young guys get from the 19-22 range into the 23-26 age range while the bad contracts filter out (and guys like Hage/Demidov/Reinbacher filter in). I keep harping on this point but we lost our entire veteran core and had Gallagher decline heavily in summer 2021 and that aggregate loss combined with the black hole of the 2010-2017 drafts is what's keeping us in this slow and steady position right now since we need young players to be floor and ceiling raisers when Savard and Matheson are the only vets of any real consequence on the roster.

There's just a gaping hole where the core from the 2021 playoff roster used to be and it's not easy to fix it short term. In basic terms we have Dvorak where Danault/KK used to be, Savard where Weber used to be, and Montembeault where Price used to be. Teams aren't going to trade us a a 23 year old top pair D and we're not in a position to go sign a veteran like Chris Tanev to upgrade on Savard, so we're just kinda just waiting until Guhle, Hutson, etc. and the young forwards are ready to take the big step. I think we'll be able to get some good floor raisers next summer with Dvorak/Armia gone, and I am hopeful that by next summer Anderson with only 2 years remaining will be tradeable just to free up the roster spot even if we have to retain or pay to dump him.

Exactly. Everything is setup for this summer to see the big changes that everyone wants. The organization hasn't exactly been quiet about that. A lot of veteran contracts will be over freeing up roster and cap space.

Anderson becomes more tradeable with retention and if we need to add a sweetener we have the assets to do that.

This year is really about the growth of our young players particularly on D. There's been almost a complete change over on D & goal from the Bergevin era.

Weber, Edmundson, Petry, Romanov, Kulak, and Chiarot are all gone. Only Savard is left (MB signing). They've promoted from within with Guhle, Hutson, Xhekaj, and Struble and added Baron. At the time of that trade, we didn't have a prospect that had that type of identity (offensive D).

Price & Allen are gone. We have Montembeault & Primeau.

The forwards have been harder to change over due to a severe lack of depth at that position in our prospect system, injuries at the NHL preventing trades, or just poor play from guys with big contracts (Anderson, Armia, Gallagher).

They've massively improved the forward depth: Slafkovsky, Dach, Newhook, Demidov, Hage, Beck, Mesar, added to Kapanen, Roy, Caufield, Suzuki is a nice haul after only 3 drafts.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843740331239674236

This is without price.

Interesting. Once Laine is ready to play they'll move Price to LTIR.

This way they get to use the full value of Laine's LTIR then Price's mid-season. We'll have tons of cap space to make trades.

 

[Rapala]

People should just mute Sportnets for the rest of the week.
Maybe month.
Or until January.

I reported my muting habits every time it happened last season which is every freakin' time TVA has the french game...
Full Mute both networks even though I like Maxime Lapierre.

TSN is also unbearable depending who is doing our game even Mike Johnson started to became annoying exposure sickness no doubt.
So In English I found myself down to Tessa and Pounder as the only people I would even consider listening to.

RDS is still tops with Houde and Denis even though Pierre's vision seems to be slowly going.
Every so often he'll describe stuff that never happened out there.
Foster Hewitt was very good at that in his declining years I think he forgot he was no longer a Radio Guy and that we'd notice

I don't like the RDS' intermission but I'm not sure if it's just Alain Crete.
I keep asking myself why is a chipmunk hosting a hockey panel.
Finally there is Daniele Savageau who sends me scurrying for a smoke even though I don't smoke and haven't in more than a decade.
That is my unplugged take on Hockey Broadcasting in our region.

 

[SwiftyHab]

We need an amazing PGT/GDT for tomorrow’s home and season opener vs da Leafs! Is anyone out there a hero who can do us proud? @Grate n Colorful Oz just pulled off a great one for SKA. Disregard. Didn’t see the sticky GDT signup thread. @donghabs98 will do us the honour. I do think that @Grate n Colorful Oz should do more as I’m pretty sure he’s the basterd son of the mythical self-exiled king if GDTs @Runner77

 

[Sugi21]

What’s the scouting report on Barre-Boulet what does he bring exactly? Expectations?

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

What’s the scouting report on Barre-Boulet what does he bring exactly? Expectations?

Small skilled player, so maybe some extra offense, but probably not.

He made it because Roy didn't really give a f***, otherwise ABB would be in the AHL.

 

[morhilane]

Interesting. Once Laine is ready to play they'll move Price to LTIR.

This way they get to use the full value of Laine's LTIR then Price's mid-season. We'll have tons of cap space to make trades.

Once Laine is reactivated his LTIR space disappear, it doesn't get added to Price's. And if you are going to use LTIR to be able to fit ~$2m for an entire season, you failed as a GM to clear some cheap contract to accrue space. It's way better to accrue space than use LTIR.

Red Wings are only $1.3m under the cap and their accrued cap space at the TDL will be ~$6.1m.
Flyers are $2.2m under the cap and their accrued cap space at the TDL will be ~$10m.
Stars are $2.3m under the cap and their accrued cap at the TDL will be ~$10.7m.

Habs could have easily started $2m under the cap had management realized that trying to squizze something out of everything you don't want on your line-up isn't how this work and that you don't need to use all 23 players roster slots either. But instead, Habs will probably have near $4m overage deducted on next year cap ceiling.

 

[Sugi21]

Small skilled player, so maybe some extra offense, but probably not.

He made it because Roy didn't really give a f***, otherwise ABB would be in the AHL.

Ok sounds about right. Thought I heard one of the announcers say he was a pp specialist in the minors so hopes must be he can help out the pp but judging by the preseason idk about that!

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

What’s the scouting report on Barre-Boulet what does he bring exactly? Expectations?

Real question is 'what does he not bring?'

 

[BaseballCoach]

Once Laine is reactivated his LTIR space disappear, it doesn't get added to Price's. And if you are going to use LTIR to be able to fit ~$2m for an entire season, you failed as a GM to clear some cheap contract to accrue space. It's way better to accrue space than use LTIR.

Red Wings are only $1.3m under the cap and their accrued cap space at the TDL will be ~$6.1m.
Flyers are $2.2m under the cap and their accrued cap space at the TDL will be ~$10m.
Stars are $2.3m under the cap and their accrued cap at the TDL will be ~$10.7m.

Habs could have easily started $2m under the cap had management realized that trying to squizze something out of everything you don't want on your line-up isn't how this work and that you don't need to use all 23 players roster slots either. But instead, Habs will probably have near $4m overage deducted on next year cap ceiling.

That would take a monster year from Slafkovsky.

 

[morhilane]

That would take a monster year from Slafkovsky.

I'm optimistic.

 

[BaseballCoach]

I'm optimistic.

The only way Slaf's bonuses hit $3.5M is if he does any one of these, which will earn him $2.5M:

• Top Ten in NHL Forward Goals, Assists, points, or points per game (min 42 GP)
• Win any of the following trophies: Hart, Selke, Richard, Conn Smythe, Norris
• 1st or 2nd team All-Star

He can also earn $250,000 each for a maximum of $1.0M if he hits any of these:

• 20 goals
• 35 assists
• 60 points or 0.73 points per game (minimum 42 games)
• Top six in Time on Ice among forwards (in total and/or per game) on team (minimum 42 games) VERY LIKELY
• Top 3 in +/- among forwards on team (min 42 GP) VERY POSSIBLE
• All Star Game Selection
• All Star Game MVP

 

[The Real Timo]

Ok sounds about right. Thought I heard one of the announcers say he was a pp specialist in the minors so hopes must be he can help out the pp but judging by the preseason idk about that!

He probably still is… in the minors.

 

[Sugi21]

He probably still is… in the minors.

Touché

 

[Gustave]

The only way Slaf's bonuses hit $3.5M is if he does any one of these, which will earn him $2.5M:

• Top Ten in NHL Forward Goals, Assists, points, or points per game (min 42 GP)
• Win any of the following trophies: Hart, Selke, Richard, Conn Smythe, Norris
• 1st or 2nd team All-Star

He can also earn $250,000 each for a maximum of $1.0M if he hits any of these:

• 20 goals
• 35 assists
• 60 points or 0.73 points per game (minimum 42 games)
• Top six in Time on Ice among forwards (in total and/or per game) on team (minimum 42 games) VERY LIKELY
• Top 3 in +/- among forwards on team (min 42 GP) VERY POSSIBLE
• All Star Game Selection
• All Star Game MVP

I agree with you here, the rookie contract bonuses are usually overstated. Thanks for the rundown here.