HF Habs: Trade Proposal Thread #90: 2024-2025 season part III

The real question and the best thing Habs can do with all their cash, picks and prospects is not get a 2nd liners center but try and get a 1st line center.

If Suzuki is your second line center and you’re bringing in Demidov, that’s a massive improvement to your forward group. Add a no. 1 RHD and I think you have a contender level team.

Demi No.1 Laine(contract year)
Cole Suzuki Slaf
Newhook Beck Anderson
Heineman Kapanen Gally
Suzuki is a first line center. You want a player that can displace Suzuki. Okay. Pick him from this list:

MaxKinnon
Draisaitl
Mc David
Eichel
Hughes
Necas
Scheifle
Reinhart
Point
Crosby
Stutzle
Duchene
Aho
Strome
Barkov

How many on that list have the offensive and defensive mojo to move Suzuki to second fiddle? The first six names plus Barkov and Crosby maybe. The rest you're flipping a coin. And now tell me if any of those teams will trade those 8 players. Realistically, the answer is nope. And if they are willing we can't match what they'll want.

So Hugo is looking for a second line center.
 
Habs fans. We have a tank thread.
TankTherrien.gif
 
I just don’t understand this sentiment. I get it with guys like Savard and Armia who are older, but Evans is homegrown talent. Developed by the organization. He’s exactly what we need to be adding to our lineup as we try to get out of this rebuild, not subtracting.

With the cap going up exponentially I don’t get the hesitation to refuse to pay this guy. Who cares if we overpay by 500k per season? Once we lose Evans and realize Beck (or anyone else in our organization) can’t replace him we will be searching for a player exactly like Evans. He is in the discussion for the best penalty killer in the entire NHL.

We are losing Dvorak this offseason, now appear to be losing Evans so we will be left with one C on our roster, Suzuki. Dach is not a true centre for this team moving forward.
Who cares if we overpay a 4th liner? Okay Marc Bergevin.
 
Suzuki is a first line center. You want a player that can displace Suzuki. Okay. Pick him from this list:

MaxKinnon
Draisaitl
Mc David
Eichel
Hughes
Necas
Scheifle
Reinhart
Point
Crosby
Stutzle
Duchene
Aho
Strome
Barkov

How many on that list have the offensive and defensive mojo to move Suzuki to second fiddle? The first six names plus Barkov and Crosby maybe. The rest you're flipping a coin. And now tell me if any of those teams will trade those 8 players. Realistically, the answer is nope. And if they are willing we can't match what they'll want.

So Hugo is looking for a second line center.
Those players fall into 2 categories:
1) teams would never trade them
2) not an improvement over Suzuki

Most likely challenger will be a draft pick or prospect added to the pool and they develop well. They just have to continue to do that.
 
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i think Evans would be part of a package to NJD, as they could use his shutdown C depth for a long playoff run. If Nemec is the key piece coming our way, they will require Mailloux (min replacement).

Evans + Armia + Mailloux + CGY 1st for Nemec.
If they want Nemec it’s either:
- Slaf (2022 do-over). Rumour was NJ we’re gonna take him
Or
- Reinbacher. D for D.

And I don’t think either is likely unless there’s some behind-the-scenes discontent.
 
Everybody wants we draft a forward with our first, yet don’t consider the fact our defense and goaltending is killing us. We are the 3rd worst team for GA in the league. Yet we are 18th for GF and the addition of Demidov might push us in the upper third, or at least upper half of the league for offense.

Until Kent Hughes build a respectable defensive group, we stay bottom dwellers.
 
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I've been following Nemec's career since his D-1 season.

I really like the player and what he can bring to a team.

Though, I think this thread overvalue his value quite a bit.

He could become a solid second pairing D. But he'll never become a player as impactful as Dobson... For exemple.

Really smart, poised and calm. I'm thinking Ryan Ellis type of D.
 
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Suzuki is a first line center. You want a player that can displace Suzuki. Okay. Pick him from this list:

MaxKinnon
Draisaitl
Mc David
Eichel
Hughes
Necas
Scheifle
Reinhart
Point
Crosby
Stutzle
Duchene
Aho
Strome
Barkov

How many on that list have the offensive and defensive mojo to move Suzuki to second fiddle? The first six names plus Barkov and Crosby maybe. The rest you're flipping a coin. And now tell me if any of those teams will trade those 8 players. Realistically, the answer is nope. And if they are willing we can't match what they'll want.

So Hugo is looking for a second line center.
5 guys on that list have already been traded. You never know who’s available and who become availabl in the future for whatever reason.

If Habs can land a Center as good or better the. Suzuki, it would make them a better team overall than just getting a better 2nd line center. This isn’t a shit against Suzuki, just saying Habs should aim higher on improving the roster.
 
The Devils have a top 3 PK so not sure why they'd be interested in Evans. Avs/Panthers/Knights/Oilers would make more sense. Most interesting asset from the 4 teams would be Calum Ritchie but if the Avs agree to it, that should set off all kinds of red flags for Hughes lol.
Devils top PK forwards are top 6 players (Mercer and Hishier). They might be looking to ease the burden.

And trading with the Avs guarantee a bust. :sarcasm:
 
Who cares if we overpay a 4th liner? Okay Marc Bergevin.
Clearly not what I said, but ok. Enjoy toiling in the bottom 5 of the league for the next several years because that is where we are headed.

Suzuki is a first line center. You want a player that can displace Suzuki. Okay. Pick him from this list:

MaxKinnon
Draisaitl
Mc David
Eichel
Hughes
Necas
Scheifle
Reinhart
Point
Crosby
Stutzle
Duchene
Aho
Strome
Barkov

How many on that list have the offensive and defensive mojo to move Suzuki to second fiddle? The first six names plus Barkov and Crosby maybe. The rest you're flipping a coin. And now tell me if any of those teams will trade those 8 players. Realistically, the answer is nope. And if they are willing we can't match what they'll want.

So Hugo is looking for a second line center.
Suzuki is a first line centre, but not on a cup winning team. Ideally he’s a 2nd line centre. We need to find someone better.
 
Way too much
I dont think so. Nemec is a legit top 4 RHD. Very hard position to come by. I would gladly give them mailloux + CGY 1st (assuming ~15oa). Evans is gone regardless (his only value is that of a playoff team - useless to us), and Army doesnt fit our plans.

Starting 25/26 season our D should look like:
Guhle - Nemec
Hutson - Reinbacher
Xhekaj - Carrier

Hugo needs to get a #1/2C desperately. Lets say Cozens or similar.

The rebuild is over after this year. And with the cap going up, there is no reason we can't be competitive from the get go next year.

Cc-Suzuki-Slaf
Demidov - (acquired) - Laine
Dach - Beck/Hage - Heinneman
Kappanen - Beck/Hage - Xhekaj/Tuch
 
I don’t see Casey Mittelstadt mentionned here. 2nd line center who can reach 60pts/year. Reasonable contract for 2 years after this one. We can probably get him for a combination of Evans and either some other ufa players like Armia or Savard and prospect.

Switch Dach to the wing and with the arrival of Demidov next year and Beck staying in the lineup, we get deeper and better upfront.

Mittlestadt is soft as baby shit. We'd all hate his guts here. He can't even fit in Colorado's offense.
 
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking now, too. His agent thinks he can get $4.75m-$5m in UFA. Montreal is probably offering $3.75m-$4m.
Realistically $1M diff is negligble if the CH want to keep him. Id say he is the best 4C in the league. Is tgat worth 5M$ × 5 (cause thats what he's looking at). Tough call.. depends on Beck/Hage/Kap. If they arent ready, then Evans might be the better option even at $5M × 5.. and he will get that.

For us, he should be signing for 4M x 4 to maintain a salary hierarchy:

SC Roster
Line 1: Demi7.5 - Suz7.8 - cc7.7
Line 2: Laine7.0 - (2C)7.5- Slaf7.6
Line 3: Dach4.5- Evans4.0 - Heinneman3.5m
Line 4: Kap2.5- Beck3.0- Xhekaj1.5
~56m$ on F with room to spare
... if Hugo can pull a real historic trade and acquire a Pettersson then I would let Evans walk as our C depth becomes stronger.
 
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Mittlestadt is soft as baby shit. We'd all hate his guts here. He can't even fit in Colorado's offense.
Is there a player we wouldn't hate except Crosby?

Half our fans hated Subban and most hate the best goalscorer we've had in the millennium in Patches.

Even Carey Price had a very vocal hate group as the best goalie of his generation.
 
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