The Montreal defence is just a mess. Who would have thought trading away Josh Gorges to get PK signed would impact the team so much. Unfortunately PK is unable to step up as it seems that only Markov could make PK look like a better D man. Can anyone remember Mike Komisarek, Markov made him look so good that Toronto signed him to a big contract only to realize that he was not as good as Markov made him to look.
Right on all counts & i have been saying since August that re-signing P.K. Subban would impact the team drastically since it would cost a fortune to re-sign him in order to prevent him from going free in two years. Giving ANY player $9 million+ per season in a cap market often affects a team drastically since that team has to make moves in order to clear up cap space to accomodate such a large contract.
I would never want any player on a team of mine would such a contract since it kills the team chemistry & such a high contract for long-term makes a player literally untradeable. The only way to get rid of such a big contract is to trade him for a similar cap number. In other words, "i'll give you my problem & you send me your problem."
Subban is such a careless player that you need a good veteran stay-at-home type in order to constantly cover for him. But let's be serious here. Subban's main contribution to the team was always on the powerplay with his big shot from the point. I've always said that he was one of the worst defensive defensemen in hockey. But teams eventually got to know Subban better and realized that to make the Mtl powerplay less effective, you had to cover the points in order to prevent that big shot. Which is why Mtl's powerplay hasn't been very good over the past two seasons. It was always the same play: Subban to Markov to Subban....and the big shot on the net. Predictable!
Indeed, Andrei Markov had & still has the quality of making his defensive partner look better than he is. Subban never looked better than when he used to be paired with Markov. I still consider Andrei Markov as the habs' best defenceman and now realize how important it was to re-sign him.
Josh Gorges & Brian Gionta were also key elements to past habs teams because of their presence & leadership qualities. I've said from day one of this season that getting rid of both of them at the same time would have reprecussions since the habs don't any leadership on the current team. Sure, when things are going good & the team seems to get every bounce go there way, the 'leadership' aspect goes out the window. But when those bounces stop coming your way and things are going bad....very bad.....it almost seems like a ship captain's has jumped ship and the ship is out of control. Not naming a team captain might have been problematic since possibly know one gets up to speak out and try to put the team's focus back on the right path.
Are Markov, Subban, Pacioretty & Plekanec leaders?? In their own little way, possibly. But Markov, Pacioretty and Plekanec are not the vocal types. Two of them struggle with the english language, especially their best player Markov. Subban enjoys all the attention, but since he's not having a good season & has been one of the reasons lately why the team is struggling, it's not really his place to stand up and start pointing fingers at people.
One player that i see as 'leader' material is Brandon Prust. But Prust isn't the brightest kid in the room & has a tendency to take stupid penalties at the wrong times. He's also only a 4th liner. Another potential leader is Manny Malhotra, but he's also a 4th liner who is used sparingly and has yet to score a single point this season.
These days, a Gionta or a Gorges would do wonders around this team. However, the team refused to re-sign them since they figured correctly that it would cost them a fortune to re-sign P.K. Subban. They likely didn't figure that Geoff Molson would step in and force his GM to give in to all his demands, but personally i knew it would cost them a lot of money to re-sign him since he knew fully well that he could likely break the bank in two years if he went on the free market. He's now the highest paid defenceman in the history of hockey.
Like the Philadelphia Flyers, the habs may need to make a major trade to shake things up. That's why i wouldn't discount the possibility of trading Subban for Claude Giroux. They have similar contracts, the Flyers are once again in need of defencemen, Subban isn't bringing anything to the table for the habs....and Giroux could immediately become the team's next captain. Plus, he's french. He'd be a natural fit with the habs. Many believe that the Flyers wouldn't go for such a trade, but they forget that few captains have had long careers in Philly.
The only one i can think of is Bobby Clarke. In recent years, the likes of Mike Richards & Jeff Carter were traded away when things weren't right in Philly. So it wouldn't surprise me to see the Flyers unload the likes of Luke Schenn, Wayne Simmonds, Braeden Schenn, Sean Couturier & possibly even Claude Giroux. They'd love to get rid of veteran Vinnie Lecavalier, but he's too much of an unproductive player for the kind of money (and term of contract) he's making. He'd also love a change of scenery, but he's now in limbo just like Roberto Luongo was at the time he was with Vancouver. Untradeable.
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