Evans was the 2nd line center with CC and Newhook for a while earlier this season.
Post-Game Talk: Habs win one in Detroit on Laine's powerplay winning goal
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Grate n Colorful Oz
Pure Laine Hutson
Andrei79
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They lack a high end speedster on the first line, but they have Heineman and Newhook who are both fast and Anderson who's one of the fastest players in the league. Outside of Xhekaj, all of their defenseman are fast, with some like Matheson who rate in the 95th percentile. It's objectively a fast team.
Non Player Canadiens
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im not sure i agree but i appreciate the discussion (from you and others who responded).
also i think you forgot about Savard. maybe you mistook him for an iceberg out there
LaP
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It all depends on what Barron becomes. If KH made that trade he probably thinks Barron will never be more than a 3rd pairing guy like Beaulieu. Carrier will file a role for 2 years. He's a local player and historically local depth player have been doing well here. He can be swapped for a pick at the end of his contract if kids develop well. We are about to let many vets go at the TDL so we'll need to replace at least some of them. I assume KH did not want to put himself in a position where he had to sign guys in panic this summer. Carrier's position, experience, age and contract made all make sense. 3rd pairing dmen are not too hard to fill as long as Barron doesn't develop beyond that there's no loss outside of the admission that the Lahkonen trade did not work but in a rebuild many trades for picks and young players wont you have to be able as a GM to admit that and move on.
None of them are big, though. Slaf is pretty much the only big guy they've drafted, with Guhle, I suppose, once he puts on some muscle. They have acquired some bigger guys. The Leafs crapped on most of their late picks over the years, but the last few drafts they've found useful big guys even starting late first or mid second round. Could be a fluke, but it's a pretty good run.
Tuch and Xhekaj are coming up, but neither is expected to be top 6. They'll be needed bottom 6.
My concern is that the habs are pretty much maxed out on small players and they'll need to balance those guys in the playoffs. Acquiring a bottom 6 guy or two who can hit and play D is a lot easier than filling top 6 spots, but they will need another big top 6 forward or two, and at least one big guy on D who can play top 4 defence. Size is overvalued, so it's easier to find small guys in later rounds, no argument against taking Hutson or Caufield, but the habs are short of a scarce commodity.
I guess more physicality than weight? They have some big guys who are physical, like Xhekaj, Savard, maybe Anderson, Armia, but a lot of their bigger guys, like Guhle, Slaf, and Dach, don't play the body that much yet. It may work out as they age. Guhle has said he doesn't want to bulk up, and I understand it might hurt his game, but it might help him stay healthy and dish out more than he takes. I guess it goes back to Martin with much more focus on getting the puck than on hitting. It's a fine strategy in the regular season, but when you play a team a bunch of times consecutively and the forwards realize they won't get hammered going to the net the play changes.
My concern is teams with bigger, more physical, players wearing down the habs D in the playoffs, while the habs really don't have that many guys able to do that. The cup run showed the value of a few big guys who can defend, along with a captain who can get away with a lot of borderline stuff.
Shows what I know, I thought Cowan was a big guy, but he's 5'11, 185. Weird that their late picks got better once they needed them, though.
FLHabs
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That and also having a 3+ games winning streak. I don't think they won more than 2 games in a row this season.
