Quoting: gm_jeanguy
Love this kind of marginal yet realistic proposals.
That being said, a couple of questions:
Why shed 2 relatively cheap top 6 wingers (and a 2nd) now? Would it not be better to wait for TDL?
Why add 2 top 4 LD, not one, especially if it pushes Mete to the farm team?
If both Brodie and Leddy are around come expansion draft, how do you deal with the protection list?
Thanks, here's my thought:
As much as I like Shaw and Tatar, they're the most likely and probable expenditures to acquiring a top 4 dmen. you ahve to give to get. Habs fans around here think Lehkonen and Hudon are these super rare valuable players that can acquire anything we ant and is simply not true. it needs to be guys considered in our top 6 most likely. Shaw, although plays on our top line with Drouin and Domi is not a top liner. He is more naturally a solid 3rd liner on a cup team. Problem is we already have oodles of 3/4th liners. Armia, Byron, Lehkonen, etc. Rather than force another one of these guys down the line into a 4th line role, trading Shaw solves both problems while not devolving another's place in the lineup. If you are going to play Shaw on the fourth line than you might as well move him. Same goes for Armia, Byron etc. This is a classic example of taking what you have depth of (Habs have depth at wing) and trading it to another team for a position of weakness while satisfying the other teams needs using their depth. I could maybe go the prospect and pick route but I would rather not sacrifice any of those. I'd rather sacrifice Tatar and Shaw over our future because hopefully they would be replaced in the not too distant future anyway.(Suzuki, Poehling, etc) Not too mention that I added Ferland to dampen the loss of Shaw and Tatar for the right now. Adding Ferland is congruent on losing both Shaw and Tatar.
I'm adding two top 4 dmen because I can, quite simply. I think anyone who thinks this d core is cup calibre, is fooling themselves. Mete has been a bright spot on a less than average left side. Just because he's our best LHD doesn't mean that is a good thing. That means our LHD overall is very bad if Mete is your best LHD. I don't like that Mete isn't scoring any goals and not leading the charge on the PP, etc. He's been put into a position where he needs to be better than what he was projected to do in the first place. He was a 4th round pick for a reason. Hes' got no hands and no shot. So give him AHL time on the PP to evolve into that type of player we're trying to make him. His stint in the AHL last year did wonders for him but it wasn't long enough. Our defense was atrocious and we had no other options than to bring him back right when he started to show his offense. I think an extra year will do him wonders. He's not there because he failed in the NHL. He's there because Habs brought in big quality dmen. Aside from Mete being sent down now, this decore can compete with anyone in the league. That is 4 dmen who can all score over 40+ points and get significant ice time in any situation. Giving Kulak and Folin the true bottom pair minutes they deserve and not trying to fit these two square pegs into our top 4 defense holes. Habs have a knack of thinking this is normal practice. It shouldn't be. its only done out of necessity because we have no depth. Now that we have it, there's no need to put players in positions where they have a high risk of failure. Kulak surprised yes but he is by no means a top 4 dman. He needs repeated success to prove that. Mete need to earn it because right now he was being given a role he hasn't quite earned on the back of a GM who thought a left side of defense of Alzner/Reilly/Mete/Ouellet was somehow get us in the playoffs??......
The 3rd question is a good one though that I didn't think of. In this case I think I would lean on the idea of NOT resigning Brodie (Modifying the trade accordingly by taking off the pick or Lindgren) and simply keeping Leddy till expansion. That way by that time it should be Weber/Leddy/Mete as our 3 protected with Kulak being the hopeful scapegoat selection. (Unless a better option is available but no one knows yet so..)
"Aging dman"?
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