Player Discussion John Merrill: a.k.a. Joe Dirt, a.k.a. Letterkenny Extra Edition

[Miller Time]

Of course, but it helps. Why do you think teams do these moves every year. Look at Tampa last year. Adding a couple pieces of sandpaper helped put them over the top after failing for years.

It's about building the best all around team.

Big difference adding rims to a lambo vs adding rims to a Lada.

It doesn't help nearly enough to offset how poorly the roster is built... Yet another superficial move that ultimately has no value for the franchise.

 

[Doc McKenna]

Very good pick up.

Mete is an AHL dman
Kulak is waiver fodder
Ouellet is an AHLer
Leskinen belongs in Finland
Chariot is hurt

Regardless of needing a top4 puck moving dman, which i concur....one of you complainers please enlighten me on how or why we dont need a bottom pairing D. Needed it as much as the puck mover.

Bergevin got us Toffoli, Anderson, Allen, Edmundson, Perry, Staal, brought over Rom. Thats GM of the year work. Enough with the Berg hate. Cant change the whole damn team(despite being on the way to do just that really)

Very good pickup?? Come on. Bergie could take a dump in a CH pattern and you would congratulate him on another smooth move.

 

[River Meadow]

Very good pickup?? Come on. Bergie could take a dump in a CH pattern and you would congratulate him on another smooth move.

hahaha

 

[Runner77]

A tenure and legacy based on zero vision

But I heard he's a maestro.

 

[Miller Time]

Picking Vatanen off waivers would've made more sense... & Cost zero assets.

 

[Gillings]

John Merril, Whose taking his place?




In montreal

 

[Runner77]

I actually like this dman. It's just not fixing the most glaring problem with this team. We cannot move the puck from our own end, and it has been an issue since markov and subban were gone.

As @417 as just posted and certainly, several of us in the past, it appears that this GM does not prioritize PMDs as core assets.

Also, it's completely inexcusable that he did not prepare Markov's successor when Markov was already 33 years old the day Bergevin's tenure started as GM.

Looking like we're continuing with a shutdown D corps featuring mostly oversized specimens, for the immediate future.

 

[Doc McKenna]

Merrill will be a solid #6 d-man. When Chiarot is back, Kulak goes in the stands.

IF we are excited about chairot then we have bigger issues than trading for this #7 dman.

 

[eklund the clown]

I don't mind it since it cost almost nothing, hopefully this means no Kulak once Merrill and Chiarot are in the lineup.

The problem is with most of MB deals is we give up nothing but basically get nothing but losing more cap space for 4th liners and #6 D . a 3d round pick and a 5th for Stall and now another 5th round pick . We are getting nowhere here.Just spinning our tires.When old Cory Perry lately who was on the taxi squad is arguably your best player you know you are in trouble.

 

[Milhouse40]

If this move is the only one MB will make on defense to improve his D-squad, then it's not a good one. It's not going to fix or improve the team overall. That doesn't fill our need to have another D able to move the puck up, help the offense, improve our transition and help on the PP. Merrill is kind of the total opposite of what this team actually need.

If there's another D coming to improve that need, then Merrill move become a good insurance trade.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

Hall of fame Staal is not playing for us. Should have retired already Staal is the one playing for us and he contributes nothing to this team. Markov's impact on this team is still glaringly obvious to this day and his contribution has yet to be replaced.

This is old story. Markov was asking long term contract, he hired unprofessional Berezin as his agent.
He went to Russia play for a team where he was one of the worst D. TBH, he was at his very last mileage in the NHL. I wish he would had his 1000th at the Bell Center like Plekky but that's all. He would have help a little bit for a year. He was good in regular season and bad in PO, the most important season.

As for say who replace Markov, who replaced Koivu, who replaced Lafleur or Richer? Who replaced Dryden or Roy?

The past remains the past. The future of our D is Harris, Romanov, Norlinder, Ghule, Fairbrother, Strubble, etc.

 

[Kriss E]

I find these kind of things overstated.

If the Leafs win, it's cause their best players played like their best.

If Matthews, Marner and company play like shit...Nick Foligno can bleed all he wants, they're not winning.

All contenders try to add in that depth and sand paper. It makes sense for Toronto. It wouldn't make much sense for us.

 

[LaP]

This is old story. Markov was asking long term contract, he hired unprofessional Berezin as his agent.
He went to Russia play for a team where he was one of the worst D. TBH, he was at his very last mileage in the NHL. I wish he would had his 1000th at the Bell Center like Plekky but that's all. He would have help a little bit for a year.

As for say who replace Markov, who replaced Koivu, who replaced Lafleur or Richer? Who replaced Dryden or Roy?

The past remains the past. The future of our D is Harris, Romanov, Norlinder, Ghule, Fairbrother, Strubble, etc.

Everything point out to Markov willing to accept two years. People should stop to spread FUD there's no proof he wanted more than two and two would have been fine.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

Everything point out to Markov willing to accept two years. People should stop to spread FUD there's no proof he wanted more than two and two would have been fine.

Something went wrong in the negociations. Berezin wasn't a professional agent. We don't know what happened in the negos. Maybe it was MB fault, maybe it was Markov fault. Some gossips says Toronto refused to pay 5M to Markov. All this is obscure and confused.

 

[Harry Kakalovich]

I'm slightly worried about the team's direction. It seems like they will lose Danault and Tatar for nothing. Personally I don't see a good team yet. I do like the youth prospects but I would have preferred to sell. Maybe I'm wrong who knows.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

This is old story. Markov was asking long term contract, he hired unprofessional Berezin as his agent.
He went to Russia play for a team where he was one of the worst D. TBH, he was at his very last mileage in the NHL. I wish he would had his 1000th at the Bell Center like Plekky but that's all. He would have help a little bit for a year. He was good in regular season and bad in PO, the most important season.

As for say who replace Markov, who replaced Koivu, who replaced Lafleur or Richer? Who replaced Dryden or Roy?

The past remains the past. The future of our D is Harris, Romanov, Norlinder, Ghule, Fairbrother, Strubble, etc.

I don't think anyone expected MB to replace Markov with an equivalent. Markov isn't easy to replace and it would take time to do that.

But you have to do a hell of a lot better than Karl f***ing Alzner.

 

[TannedBum]

Edmundson.. Chiarot.. Merrill.. Gulag..

 

[WeThreeKings]

I'm slightly worried about the team's direction. It seems like they will lose Danault and Tatar for nothing. Personally I don't see a good team yet. I do like the youth prospects but I would have preferred to sell. Maybe I'm wrong who knows.

Bergevin doesn't believe in windows so he can't properly assess his team and understand what to do.

 

[Doc5]

I'm slightly worried about the team's direction. It seems like they will lose Danault and Tatar for nothing. Personally I don't see a good team yet. I do like the youth prospects but I would have preferred to sell. Maybe I'm wrong who knows.

We absolutely need to trade Tatar for something, preferably a first. That’s the only way we can continue Craig Rivet’s legacy.

 

[salbutera]

If this move is the only one MB will make on defense to improve his D-squad, then it's not a good one. It's not going to fix or improve the team overall. That doesn't fill our need to have another D able to move the puck up, help the offense, improve our transition and help on the PP. Merrill is kind of the total opposite of what this team actually need.

If there's another D coming to improve that need, then Merrill move become a good insurance trade.

As I posted from Arpon Bash’s article the org philosophically doesn’t believe in the criticality of point producing Dman

 

[JianYang]

Very good pickup?? Come on. Bergie could take a dump in a CH pattern and you would congratulate him on another smooth move.

Pingu lol

 

[Price4Prez]

Very good pickup?? Come on. Bergie could take a dump in a CH pattern and you would congratulate him on another smooth move.

nice attempt at a clever pun but very empty argument on the actual subject.

Merill is miles better than Mete/Kulak/Ouelette/Leskinen. Stating otherwise is basically admitting you've never watched him play and just read a chart.

You just have a propensity to crap on anything and everything that isnt bringing in a top level talent.

As i said earlier. We DO need a top puck moving defensman and we DO need a top level forward to replace Drouin. That being said-it doesnt mean improving your other positions is bad.

It's a flawed perception in Habsland. It's always " we should have got an orange but we got an apple". Truth is, we need both the orange and the apple and at this moment- the apple was available for the right price.

Name me the last top d or top 6 forward that has been traded...and then tell me how many of those- 99% of people would have paid the price to get it done.

I'd be more focused on the whole puzzle as a Habs fan instead of worrying about MBs shit consistency if i were you.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

I don't think anyone expected MB to replace Markov with an equivalent. Markov isn't easy to replace and it would take time to do that.

But you have to do a hell of a lot better than Karl f***ing Alzner.

I agree on that. Every team with a long time valuable player who leaves or retires goes thru an abyss. Hiring Alzner was an huge mistake, such a mistake very few would predict h would end up that bad. I mean, Alzner had all the stats to show he wasn't that bad. There has been misvalue in his case and bad luck. We can say the same about Gomez who was paid around 9M$.

 

[Edgy]

This is old story. Markov was asking long term contract, he hired unprofessional Berezin as his agent.
He went to Russia play for a team where he was one of the worst D. TBH, he was at his very last mileage in the NHL. I wish he would had his 1000th at the Bell Center like Plekky but that's all. He would have help a little bit for a year. He was good in regular season and bad in PO, the most important season.

As for say who replace Markov, who replaced Koivu, who replaced Lafleur or Richer? Who replaced Dryden or Roy?

The past remains the past. The future of our D is Harris, Romanov, Norlinder, Ghule, Fairbrother, Strubble, etc.

All of this is irrelevant.

You mentioned Staal as being a hall of famer as if that was justification enough to get him while saying Markov was old. Bergevin did not get a hall of famer in his prime years that could help this team. He brought in a guy that is a 4th liner at best currently, and has not been an upgrade over Evans so far.

Bergevin's failure to replace Markov is not justified or excused by his predecessors failure to replace those players. His job was to make sure that there is a replacement for Markov and failed, just like the others failed to replace those players. All that says is we've had mediocre GMs and bad asset management, drafting and development since 1993, including Bergevin, which we all know.

All the young players you listed are prospects and have yet to prove they can translate their game in the NHL, until that happens, they don't count as a replacement for anyone.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

We absolutely need to trade Tatar for something, preferably a first. That’s the only way we can continue Craig Rivet’s legacy.

If we trade Tatar for a 1st rounder and trade that 1rst rounder in 14 yrs and on and on, the Craig Rivest legacy might go on for 100 years. Bergy have the chance to create some unique Guiness record never beaten.