Confirmed Trade: [MTL/NSH] Alexandre Carrier for Justin Barron

[TheNumber4]

lol he just called him a top 10 dman. Hab fans are almost as delusional as Leaf fans.

Lol. Yeh he's not that right now, not even close. It's still early days, for all we know he could be the next Gostisbehere.

 

[Treb]

Like and agreed.

But also, the Habs paraded Petry around for years and years.

I guess the only classy fanbase are the Oil. We don’t bring up Kulak. Even though he’s been a complete beast for us at a bargain price.

I have no clue how you can consider Kulak a "complete beast" or 2nd+7th a "bargain price".

He's a 3rd pair D that went for 3rd pair premium price.

TOI/GP since he was traded to EDM:
2021-2022: 6th
2022-2023: 6th (5th if you don't count Ekholm 21 games)
2023-2024: 7th (6th if you don't count Stetcher 7 games)
2024-2025: 4th

His competition this year was Emberson (claimed from SJ as a depth D), Stecher (who's been around the league as a depth D), Dermott (who got claimed then waived after a few games) and Joshua Brown (who is an AHL/NHL tweener).

This is similar to when EDM valued Kassian because they couldn't get anyone else to play the role.

 

[TheNumber4]

I have no clue how you can consider Kulak a "complete beast" or 2nd+7th a "bargain price".

He's a 3rd pair D that went for 3rd pair premium price.

TOI/GP since he was traded to EDM:
2021-2022: 6th
2022-2023: 6th (5th if you don't count Ekholm 21 games)
2023-2024: 7th (6th if you don't count Stetcher 7 games)
2024-2025: 4th

His competition this year was Emberson (claimed from SJ as a depth D), Stecher (who's been around the league as a depth D), Dermott (who got claimed then waived after a few games) and Joshua Brown (who is an AHL/NHL tweener).

This is similar to when EDM valued Kassian because they couldn't get anyone else to play the role.

Well maybe you should watch some games and understand his role in Edmonton to better understand.

Here’s not “competing” with any of the guys you mentioned. He’s way ahead of them and is probably the reason those guys can even stay afloat.

In Edmonton, he’s played 3rd pair cause Nurse and Ekholm are ahead. But hes proved his worth being able to play up the line up, for example when Nurse was suspended in the playoffs, he came up huge. He’s also stepped into a 1st pair role and done well when Ekholm had injury. He can also play top 4 Right hand side on his off side in a pinch and does well in that role. Check his numbers with Nurse this year. In his normal role on the 3rd pair, paired with Desharnais he made up one half of one of the better 3rd pairs in the League by analytics. Essentially every role we throw at this guy, he’s game for it and handles it well. Not a bad review has ever been had of this player for those that watch him in this market. The “beast” nickname he’s earned in Edmonton is the result of his playoffs play, more accurately he’s been called a “playoffs beast” cause his game goes up a notch in the most important games.

He was also better than Broberg in every single year Broberg was around. Probably still better than him to this day if given similar usage. And look how people fawn over Broberg these days after his hot start to the season. There’s a reason Broberg never stole the job from Kulak.

He was acquired as a rental but signed a 4 year extension at a more than fair AAV. So we are getting 4 1/2 years of Kulak for that 2nd plus 7th. A deal no one in Edmonton regrets for a player that’s now squarely part of the solution and core.