Go Habs Go!

[EagerBeaver]

When you are a GM who waits too long to trade a player who has devalued you are no different than a stock market investor who waits too long to sell devalued stock. It’s called being asleep at the switch. If we accept all the comments made about “Chucky” above,

(1) that he is a finesse center and not a power center as Montreal envisioned when it drafted him;
(2) he was used as exclusively as a winger with no competent centerman to create scoring opportunities;
(3) he was distracted on/off the ice;

Then his ultimate failure was entirely predictable and he should have been traded before the devaluation.

I attended a few Habs games in which Galchenyuk played well and in one of them, got player of the game. He has talent, it just needs to be coached out of him and used correctly.

 

[tiga]

They had been trying to trade him for quite some time now.

It was also hard I think to give up on him, he was the first player drafted by M Bergevin.

Titilleur
Oui le défi n'est pas seulement le recrutement pour Canadien mais le DÉVELOPPEMENT!
Semble que c'est son père qui le coach en Finlande et qu'on insistera pour qu'il joue seulement au centre.
Un avantage sur Chucky c'est qu'il joue déjà bien dans les trois zones.

 

[jeff teliska]

I want to make clear that i am not mocking the Coyotes for thinking Galchenyuk is a center!!
I think that he will start the season playing with Keller on his wing, on the number one line.
Stepan and Strome will compete for the second center spot.
I wish him the best!

 

[tiga]

EagerBeaver

From all that you point out, seems the player bears no responsibility... there are many bad things that can happen to a player in Montreal, there are also many good things, Galagher was drafted way below Chucky, both started in the NHL the same year... Nobody is even considering trading him... not the same player, not the same outcome... he is now even considered by many as capitaine material

 

[EagerBeaver]

Tiga,

I have coached sports (boys and girls) and I took it as my personal responsibility to make them the best player they could be and the best person they could be. Some players are harder to reach. There is no doubt about that. But when I coached the girls I treated them all the same and asked the same things of them. There was a great natural leader among those girls who made my job easier.

I am not so certain about how well the Montreal coaching staff did in reaching Chucky. Maybe he was hard to reach, maybe not. I always tried harder with such players but sometimes it just didn’t work. Was it my fault? I am not sure, maybe they would do better with another coach. I can think of one basketball player I had who I thought would be a great rebounder but he wasn’t. I benched him, in favor of a more productive player and he sulked. I then tried to reinsert him and it looked like he would initially do well and then he reverted back to the same lazy habits, poor boxouts, poor spacing, poor positioning. He lacked aggressiveness and instincts. But was a very smart and sensitive kid. In the end he wasn’t the rebounder I expected and his removal from starting power forward became permanent, and was for the best in the end. The team won the league with him on the bench. But I never got maximum out of that kid.

Was it his fault? Or was it mine? I look back now and I say I failed to reach that kid. That’s how I feel and it’s not a good feeling.

 

[tiga]

EB,
This is the type of openness and honesty I appreciate from this board,
I too have coached ... a lot, mostly baseball teams, 12-13 year olds, peewee, bantam.
Some I think I had a positive impact, but most, probably don't even remember me.
One that I do remember as an adult, became a successful business man and today I see his name on buildings, all over the city.
I take no credit in that, but I do remember talking to him for a very long time, when he was sulking after I took him off the mound one game.
And no we did not win the championship but we did remain friends he and I.

Chucky and the Montreal coaches...
a coach in any pro league has lots of stories like the one you shared.
I heard that Chucky, last Summer did consult a professional therapist.
He did that on his own and that was very well viewed by the team, a show of maturity.
The pressures of being a pro athlete in a market like Montreal, I don't know what that's like but I can imagine it not being easy... to say the least.
I'm also certain every one involved from player to coach, to trainer, parent and so-on does there damnedest successfully or not!

 

[Doc Holliday]

Plecky back with the habs?

Every day it seems i'm hearing that long-time hab centre Tomas Plekanec is likely to return with the Canadiens. He's never hidden the fact he'd want to finish his career in Montreal after being traded to the Leafs at the trade deadline late last season just prior to the playoffs, which the habs failed to qualify for.

Unless the habs end up signing a free agent centre it sure looks like "Plecky" will be back wearing the bleu, blanc, rouge next season.

 

[jalimon]

Plecky is a good 3rd line center now. He can help many team still. Problem with the Habs is that we were so weak that we had to rely on him to be top center...

 

[Doc Holliday]

Plecky is a good 3rd line center now. He can help many team still. Problem with the Habs is that we were so weak that we had to rely on him to be top center...

I agree and can't blame the habs for wanting to re-sign Plecky. I mean....who else wants to play for this team? They won't be competitive for as long as Carey Price & his big fat contract remains in Montreal. So go ahead and sign the only guy who still wants to play for the habs! :lol:

 

[Doc Holliday]

Habs & Jets make a trade

Marc "Bargain Bin" Bergevin has done it again. The habs GM just pulled off a minor trade with the Winnipeg Jets.

The Canadiens acquire forward Joel Armia, goaltender Steve Mason, a seventh-round draft pick in 2019 and a fourth-round pick in 2020 from the Winnipeg Jets, in exchange for defenseman Simon Bourque.

From the Jets' perspective it's a great trade for them. It gives them considerable cap space relief by getting rid of two contracts in order to give them cap space to re-sign free agent centre Paul Stastny, whom the habs were also rumoured to be interested in signing. Stastny played great for the Jets after being acquired at the trade deadline last season. Montreal would like to acquire Stastny in order to take care of their woes at the centre position. Now it looks unlikely since it's believed Stastny would like to remain in Winnipeg.

As for the habs' perspective i'm somewhat perplexed. It seems that acquiring Armia is a good move and acquiring a couple of draft picks was okay. But a 7th round draft pick will never make the NHL and odds of the 4th round pick ever making the big team are piled up against him. He could make a serviceable minor leaguer.

But the acquisition of Steve Mason is a head-scratcher for me. He carries a $4.1 million cap hit. That's a lot of money for a backup goaltender. Plus the fact the team doesn't need a backup goalie after re-signing Antti Niemi during the off-season. Could Bergevin be considering trading Carey Price away? I doubt it and doubt he could considering his gigantic 8-year contract kicks in tomorrow. That big contract would scare most teams in the league, especially if you consider how average Price performed over the past two seasons and his history with injuries.

If i can make a guess Steve Mason will never play a game for the habs. I figure he'll likely be bought out later today. He has a year left on his two-year contract. So basically the habs acquired Armia and the price for him was taking a cap-hit for the buyout. We shall see...

 

[tiga]

For once you are right Doc, Habs don't need a goalie, Masson will be bought off, Bergevin does not know what to do with all the money he has to spend this year...
They get Armia plus two more picks (the idea is to stock up, no matter how late in the draft).

The "Bargain Bin" nickname may apply some times, maybe here, but when you have Weber and Price on your line-up it does not always.

 

[tiga]

I agree and can't blame the habs for wanting to re-sign Plecky. I mean....who else wants to play for this team? They won't be competitive for as long as Carey Price & his big fat contract remains in Montreal. So go ahead and sign the only guy who still wants to play for the habs! :lol:

Well it seems Domy wants to play and if they get Pleky on the cheap why not.

 

[Doc Holliday]

For once you are right Doc.

"For once?" When am i ever wrong?

The "Bargain Bin" nickname may apply some times, maybe here, but when you have Weber and Price on your line-up it does not always.

The 'Bargain Bin' moniker applies 90% of the time in Bergevin's case since most of his trades or pickups come from the bargain bin. He wound up with Weber since this was the only way Nashville could accomodate PK's big contract, which he was forced to do by Geoff Molson. That's where i give Bergevin a pass. Bergevin had no intention to sign Subban to that monstrous contract a few years ago. He was fully prepared to offer him $7 million/year max and let him stay home until he'd accept the team's final offer. However Geoff Molson stuck his nose into the matter and ordered Bergevin to give in to PK's demands, which didn't please Bergevin too much since he knew fully well he wasn't worth all that money & it would later haunt him in further negotiations (e.g. Carey Price).

Bergevin was crazy to give Carey Price that extension last season. What made it crazier was that he had an entire year to evaluate the situation and make a final decision. But he caved in and pressed the panic button and gave in to all of Carey Price's demands. But this matter all comes back to the PK Subban contract. When Carey Price saw what the habs were willing to give all that money to Subban he figured it'd be his time to hit the jackpot a couple of years down the road since Price had been the team's true MVP for the past few years.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Well it seems Domy wants to play and if they get Pleky on the cheap why not.

I agree with you that signing Tomas Plekanec would be a good move for the organization. The problem with Plekanec these past two seasons was that Bergevin had handed him a two-year contract worth $12 million US. That was $4 million too much in my opinion.

That's the problem with Bergevin. He usually overpays on contracts he renegotiates.

It's strange there isn't more talk about Drouin's situation. He's no centre and proved it numerous times last season. He looked totally lost on the ice and didn't produce like everyone expected him to.

Drouin is the player they should be looking to find a centre for. Not Pacioretty or plumber Domi.

 

[EagerBeaver]

The "Bargain Bin" nickname may apply some times, maybe here, but when you have Weber and Price on your line-up it does not always.

Tiga, to dramatically overpay two injury-prone veterans while amassing a roster of "Bargain Bin" players around them is not a recipe for success in professional sports. The New York Mets have tried this approach in baseball and look how it's worked for them. They chose to overpay on three veterans coming off their best seasons (Cespedes, Bruce and Vargas) and assemble a collection of low-wage underachievers around them. Look at where they are in the standings after an 11-1 start.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I don't remember a time this early in the year where the large majority of NHL experts predict that the habs will NOT make the playoffs in the coming season. I agree with them and predict that they will not make the playoffs again for as long as Carey Price & Shea Weber are in the organization together. You can't have a cap hit of $18.5 million/year for two aging players until 2026 and have enough cap money left to make the team a contending one. That's TWO THOUSAND TWENTY SIX!!!!!

By the way i can't figure out why they let Daniel Carr go and instead kept a stiff like Michael McCarron. At least Carr can skate and put the puck in the net!

 

[gaby]

Yes.....c'est le grand JOUR si attendu.....espérons que Perdgevin soit en grande forme....c'est vrai qu"il a bougé cette semaine en aidant les Jets à alléger leur masse salariale pour faire une offre à Statsny qui ne semble donc pas intéressé les Habs...pas le genre de joueur recherché....lol. Les autres DG doivent beaucoup aimer
négotier avec notre DG....et on peut les comprendre...lol. Enjoy this day.

 

[gaby]

,,et ca commence fort...PLEKY serait de retour l'an prochain pour un contrat d'une année.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Gaby,

That’s exactly the problem. When you are a UFA the last thing you want your agent doing is talking to a GM who is notorious for making “bargain bin” offers to FAs. Once that offer is out there the agent then has to negotiate against it. Other teams will say, “Bergevin offered you peanuts, so we will give you his peanuts plus $2.” Instead the strategy should be to get a big offer from a team you aren’t really interested in playing for, to jack up the bidding. For this reason all baseball free agents try to get an offer from the Yankees that they can then shop around the league. There is a long history of this going back to Greg Maddox before he signed with the Atlanta Braves. It’s called shopping offers, and the reverse is to ignore those GMs who will only float a lowball or bargain basement offer. That’s a reason why Montreal can’t and won’t land the big fish UFA. Too much bad history there.

 

[tiga]

EB, with the baseball comparisons, analogies etc, your point just gets lost, even if it may have value, you have lot's of hockey teams in the NY vicinity and I'm sure they have, or once had comparable situations to what is happening in Montreal, hell the Rangers are in a situation right now with an expensive goalie, I'm just saying that it's not exactly apples and oranges but if you want us hockey fans to engage in a hockey discussion with you, stick to that sport.
Please don't take it the wrong way, you follow many sports and are much more knowledgeable than me in most of those sports, I can't follow the thread on the World Cup, I don't know those countries or players. Hockey I feel I have a better grasp.