Hoglander is the best player in the deal here by quite a bit. And they add a first. This heavily favours the Habs… what am I missing?
they’re attached to Xhekaj and I can’t blame them.
I don’t see why Vancouver gives up so much value for so little value in return.
To clear some cap and get rid of Poolman’s contract to accrue cap at the TDL rather than using LTIR.
We also are thin on the left side and we are thin down the middle. We have 3 centers and Suter who can play center but ideally we would want a permanent 4C (that is also right handed) to play that position and have Suter where Hoglander would normally be which is up and down the top 9.
Value wise seems a lot on our part, but this type of trade further increases our depth at pretty much all areas of our line up. Currently, we have Hughes and then Soucy and Forbort. If Soucy goes down with an injury which is a possibility, Forbort is playing 2LD. That is not ideal at all.
And with Xhekaj there’s potential for more ice time surprisingly than he would get with the Habs considering Matheson and Hutson will be taking up a large portion of ice time.
I barfed when I saw a smurf was being offerd for Xhekaj. Habs need more size and toughness not less.
Why? Habs need size and toughness. No more smurfs
Don’t need “smurfs”? With Slafkovsky, Dach, Anderson, Armia in your top 9?
We are exiting the rebuild. A late 1st is nice, but it's not what we need right now. We already have plenty of non-blue chip prospects.
Hoglander doesn't fit what we need in a top9 player based on our current core and prospect pool.
Exiting the rebuild? I mean I get that, but it’s likely Habs still consider this year to be more of transitional year and you don’t necessarily seem to have many great options after Slaf/Suzuki/Dach/Caufield. If anything, the assets you would get in this trade can be used as additional pieces to go along with other pieces you have to get players you’d want.
And that defense is pretty log jammed as it is.