Post-Game Talk: Habs win in Philly by the skin of their teeth

[morhilane]

Slaf at C is a bad idea. Newhook can do a good job at 2C. He seems pretty comfortable in that spot.

Slaf at C is the exact same idea as Demidov at C (or Laine at C that Columbus tried). It's trying to convert a guy who's been winger most his career into a center. And yes, it's a bad idea.

Newhook has only looked comfortable at center with Gallagher/Roy and Armia on his wing at the end of last season. He haven't looked good anywhere this season and he's been demoted to the 3rd line already.

 

[Goalfield13]

Slaf at C is the exact same idea as Demidov at C (or Laine at C that Columbus tried). It's trying to convert a guy who's been winger most his career into a center. And yes, it's a bad idea.

Newhook has only looked comfortable at center with Gallagher/Roy and Armia on his wing at the end of last season. He haven't looked good anywhere this season and he's been demoted to the 3rd line already.

I admit I am not so well-versed on Demidov to have much of an opinion on the matter. The player himself said he likes to play C. I don't think Slaf ever stated as such, nor do I think he ever would.

Newhook has had flashes at every position with us. Last year, he was essentially our secondary scoring playing C and W with a bunch of difference players. Newhook is who he is: a swiss army knife in our middle 6. Like I said, I don't mind him being 2C to keep the seat warm. I see him being a Lehkonen type player with us in the future. You need those kinds of guys. I think many expect too much from him.

 

[Naslundforever]

Hopefully Slafkovski is good to go next game.

Add Condotta also in the lineup.

Caufield-Suzuki-Slafkovski
Newhook-Dach-Heineman
Anderson-Evans-Gallagher
Kapanen-Condotta-Armia

Until Laine is back...

Dvorak and Pezzetta out.

2x wins with dach not at C no Slaf in the 1st line. Team needs vet 1c or a real good 2c imo.

I woke up unsure if I caught the end of the game I have become numb. Def fell asleep on the 3rd.

 

[Goalfield13]

2x wins with dach not at C no Slaf in the 1st line. Team needs vet 1c or a real good 2c imo.

I woke up unsure if I caught the end of the game I have become numb. Def fell asleep on the 3rd.

I think Slaf losing weight was a bad idea for him. He isn't dominant along the boards anymore. I don't blame him for the team's woes, though. He was still useful out there and getting a lot of nice apples. He's still super young and a work in progress. Dach, though, is the better choice on that line right now for sure. Let Slaf have easier competition on the 2nd line.

 

[StCaufield]

Gally, Anderson, Dvorak and Savard bring very little to the table.

What MSL is doing with so little veteran talent on the roster is impressive

Happy to have Gally on the team. He brings something but that contract

 

[LaP]

Their AAV is not hamstringing the team in anyway ($5.7M cap space)

It’s not an exaggeration look at that Evans line analytics vs opposition and Gallaghers 5-on-5 analytics..

Oh yeah don’t forget Andersons contribution to the #3 PK in the league thus far

It will become a problem soon though. We are adding 11.2 millions to our cap next season with Guhle and Slaf extension. We could free up ~8.5 million by letting Dvorak, Armia and Savard go and replace them with ELC but after next season we got to resign Dach and Hutson. The money spent on the bottom 6 is not a problem now but that's something KH has to keep an eye on cause sooner than later it will be a problem.

 

[StCaufield]

I think Slaf losing weight was a bad idea for him. He isn't dominant along the boards anymore. I don't blame him for the team's woes, though. He was still useful out there and getting a lot of nice apples. He's still super young and a work in progress. Dach, though, is the better choice on that line right now for sure. Let Slaf have easier competition on the 2nd line.

He’s barely into the season but he looked find on the boards from what I see. The last game not so much because his shoulder was hurting

 

[Captain Mountain]

It will become a problem soon though. We are adding 11.2 millions to our cap next season with Guhle and Slaf extension. We could free up ~8.5 million by letting Dvorak, Armia and Savard go and replace them with ELC but after next season we got to resign Dach and Hutson. The money spent on the bottom 6 is not a problem now but that's something KH has to keep an eye on cause sooner than later it will be a problem.

Dach likely isn't due for much of raise beyond his QO atm. The contract's of Laine and Matheson are also up and its not clear if either will be back (and we have no idea what Laine will even be worth what he's paid now given that he wasn't before). Price's LTIR contract is also gone and the cap will likely rise.

Going into the 2026 offseason right now, Montreal has slightly half of a full roster with slightly less than half of the cap committed. Montreal would have to go truly gangbusters in free agency/trades and guys like Dach, Barron and Xhekaj would have to make crazy leaps forward starting this season for Anderson's and Gallagher's AAVs to hamstring them.

 

[Habano]

Only in Habs fandom is winning back-to-back games not enough to satisfy the mob looking for their witch-hunt

Weren't you just crapping all over X?

 

[salbutera]

It will become a problem soon though. We are adding 11.2 millions to our cap next season with Guhle and Slaf extension. We could free up ~8.5 million by letting Dvorak, Armia and Savard go and replace them with ELC but after next season we got to resign Dach and Hutson. The money spent on the bottom 6 is not a problem now but that's something KH has to keep an eye on cause sooner than later it will be a problem.

Price’s cap hit comes off the books + there will be a significant spike in cap ceiling w revenues VGK, Sea and Utah bring in

Weren't you just crapping all over X?

What??

 

[Milhouse40]

I think Slaf losing weight was a bad idea for him. He isn't dominant along the boards anymore. I don't blame him for the team's woes, though. He was still useful out there and getting a lot of nice apples. He's still super young and a work in progress. Dach, though, is the better choice on that line right now for sure. Let Slaf have easier competition on the 2nd line.

Mixing what we saw last year and so far this year........it's hard to judge.
But when Slaf is back, it's hard to break something that's working.

Dach - Suzuki - Caufield
Slafkovsky - Newhook - Armia
Anderson - Evans - Gallagher
Kapanen - Dvorak - Heineman

Newhook looked a lot better last year at center and he was playing with Armia on his wing, that's actually when Armia put up all those goals at the end. Although on the wing, in the first 2 games last year Newhook/Slafkovsky also showed some chemistry.

 

[HespelerGreenFlash]

Of course Gallagher and Anderson don't play up to their salary. But they're playing reasonably, much better than whatever value, including negative value, that we'd accrue If we traded them.

Agreed. And EVERY team in this league have a contract similar to the Habs

 

[LaP]

Agreed. And EVERY team in this league have a contract similar to the Habs

Few players are paid 6.5 millions. Most teams have maybe 5 players paid 6.5+ millionss. Avs have 5 MacKinnon, Rantanen, Landeskob, Makar and Toews. NYR has 5 Panarin, Zibanejad, Kreider, Fox and Trouba. Vegas has 5 Eichel, Stone, Hertl, Pietrangelo and Hanifin. Dallas got 5 Seguin, Benn, Hintz, Robertson and Heiskanen.

People act like half the league is paid 6.5 millions. Again it's not a problem for now but it will likely be a problem before the contract is over. KH needs to be ready and he needs to have a plan.

 

[admiralcadillac]

That wasn't the context I was discussing, but nevertheless, couldn't disagree more.

12M$ could easily have been spent for better roster utility the past two summers... I'm honestly shocked anyone would debate that.


Analytics are a nice complimentary tool. They don't capture the full picture, this isn't Moneyball.

Anderson is the 4th forward in PK ice time fyi, again here you exaggerate his impact.

And...

Dallas, top pk. Top 4 fwds on PK combined salary = 3.5M

Nashville, #2PK. Top 4fwds on PK combined salary 5.6M.

But tell me again how Anderson's salary, for what he brings, isn't an issue lol

It's fine to acknowledge that he & Gally are providing decent depth forward play (I'd still call it mediocre), but that doesn't change the reality that in a cap system, paying 12M$ for what they bring isn't great.... And to my first point, MSL has perhaps the weakest over 25 talent to work with in the league (maybe 2nd to SJ)

What are we doing with the cap space anyways right now? Honestly

 

[morhilane]

Few players are paid 6.5 millions. Most teams have maybe 5 players paid 6.5+ millionss. Avs have 5 MacKinnon, Rantanen, Landeskob, Makar and Toews. NYR has 5 Panarin, Zibanejad, Kreider, Fox and Trouba. Vegas has 5 Eichel, Stone, Hertl, Pietrangelo and Hanifin. Dallas got 5 Seguin, Benn, Hintz, Robertson and Heiskanen.

People act like half the league is paid 6.5 millions. Again it's not a problem for now but it will likely be a problem before the contract is over. KH needs to be ready and he needs to have a plan.

People act like the cap increase means the money is spead better across the line-up, when in truth it still all goes into the top players's pocket until league minimun is increased to match...

 

[LaP]

What are we doing with the cap space anyways right now? Honestly

Dunno i mean now nothing next summer who knows? If another Eichel becomes avalaible at one point having 8-9 millions of cap space might be a good thing. Having this cap space spent on the 4th line for 3 more years not so much.

Mixing what we saw last year and so far this year........it's hard to judge.
But when Slaf is back, it's hard to break something that's working.

Dach - Suzuki - Caufield
Slafkovsky - Newhook - Armia
Anderson - Evans - Gallagher
Kapanen - Dvorak - Heineman

Newhook looked a lot better last year at center and he was playing with Armia on his wing, that's actually when Armia put up all those goals at the end. Although on the wing, in the first 2 games last year Newhook/Slafkovsky also showed some chemistry.

I can't stress enough how much better Newhook looked at center. Maybe it was just luck and it was a good sequence at the right time but i'd like us to try him there again just to see cause on the wing meh ... i like your lineup btw. We can replace Armia with Roy and recall Tuch and move Kapanen to center after the TDL.

 

[salbutera]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1850729096658948411

To put into perspective the putrid drafting record of top-6 F post 1972 - Richer is the only player drafted by the org thereafter (1984) to appear on the list…

 

[Sorinth]

It will become a problem soon though. We are adding 11.2 millions to our cap next season with Guhle and Slaf extension. We could free up ~8.5 million by letting Dvorak, Armia and Savard go and replace them with ELC but after next season we got to resign Dach and Hutson. The money spent on the bottom 6 is not a problem now but that's something KH has to keep an eye on cause sooner than later it will be a problem.

There's also another 4m being freed up from Allen & Petry retentions. But yeah the year after things might be interesting, some potential big money deals for Dach & Hutson, Laine & Matheson as UFAs, and Gallagher & Anderson still here.

Now because of the way buyouts work later is actually better then sooner, so sure if we can find a trade that's probably best for everyone. But the backup plan is to simply buy them out if needed in the last year of their deals and being patient until then.

On the plus side, Price's contract will be gone so that helps with the flexibility. But in the end the real wild card is going to be Laine since right now we don't know if he's someone we will want to re-sign or what type of contract he could even ask for.

 

[Habano]

Price’s cap hit comes off the books + there will be a significant spike in cap ceiling w revenues VGK, Sea and Utah bring in


What??

 

[salbutera]

I posted that here not on X

Post-Game Talk: - Habs win in Philly by the skin of their teeth

I'd try Caufield-Suzuki-Dach Heineman-Newhook-Slaf I'd put Kapanen on the second. He's better without the puck than Heineman and provides a right hand option for faceoffs.

forums.hfboards.com

And it’s true Xhekaj’s poor play reading is causing his miscues … driven by lack of high end hockey IQ

 

[Trabdy2]

I know people don't like to hear this, but I think Dach is best playing 1RW with Cole and Nick. He compliments them very well. Dach is a good winger.

I think Slaf should be put on the 2nd line waiting for Demidov to come join him. Newhook can keep the 2C seat warm for Kapanen/Hage in the meantime..

I think it'll be hard to move Dach off that line once Slafkovsky comes back because of how well that line seems to be working. As much as I'd like Dach to be a center long term, I'm not convinced that it's the best position for him. I'm not opposed to giving him more opportunities, but I honestly see Newhook as a more natural center than Dach, which is saying something because I don't see a very natural center in Newhook either.

 

[Trabdy2]

I think the Armia Top 6 experiment needs to come to an end ASAP. I just don't think he can play a Top 6 game. He's a strong penalty killer and he can contibute in a bottom six role, but he just doesn't have the offensive IQ for the Top 6 and plays just fall apart with him. We need to try something new. It might be time to call up Roy.

Xhekaj had an up and down game. Really need more consistent play reading from him.

Hutson seems to be learning to pick his spots more when it comes to driving offense, which is good to see.

Evans continues to contribute with strong play. Happy to see it.

I can't wait for Guhle and Slafkovsky to come back.

 

[1909]

I think the Armia Top 6 experiment needs to come to an end ASAP. I just don't think he can play a Top 6 game. He's a strong penalty killer and he can contibute in a bottom six role, but he just doesn't have the offensive IQ for the Top 6 and plays just fall apart with him. We need to try something new. It might be time to call up Roy.

Xhekaj had an up and down game. Really need more consistent play reading from him.

Hutson seems to be learning to pick his spots more when it comes to driving offense, which is good to see.

Evans continues to contribute with strong play. Happy to see it.

I can't wait for Guhle and Slafkovsky to come back.

Roy won’t be called up soon. Slaf will come back, and Laine is one month away.

 

[Goalfield13]

I think it'll be hard to move Dach off that line once Slafkovsky comes back because of how well that line seems to be working. As much as I'd like Dach to be a center long term, I'm not convinced that it's the best position for him. I'm not opposed to giving him more opportunities, but I honestly see Newhook as a more natural center than Dach, which is saying something because I don't see a very natural center in Newhook either.

I agree 100%. Newhook has more natural center skills, though Dach is the more talented player overall.