Poor Gusev lol

Hell will freeze over before Claude Julien plays a Russian over a Canadian , Ask Radulov who lost top RW to Gallagher as soon as CJ took over .(or Emelin who lost his spot in top 4 and PK unit to Benn )

Claude will play a Czech or a Slovak here and there but for some reason Russians always get fazed out no matter how good they are where ever Julien coaches . (Sergachev wasnt even given a chance by Claude , he was moved out for a Canadian ). Sadly Romanov's likely next unless Luke Richardson just deals with him exclusively.

Mentality might be changing here. Habs need offensive low cost upgrade, their PP is suffering.. so adding a Gusev could be a low risk while doing nothing. Romanov is Russian also and Bergevin likes him. We’ll see in few years if he makes the team with Claude Julien.

i agree on Romanov , he's a Bergavin guy so he might stay but i thought the same about Markov
Gusev though is gonna be going for a high price
VGK cleared cap after signing Karlsson in hopes of signing him and Schuldt .
i honestly think it would be better to take advantage of that
making a move for a player like Ryan Reaves who put up 305 hits last season with 9 goals and 11 assist's as a net front presence .
he'd slot in nicely here on a line with Poehling as a deturant but also because he cycles pucks well.

the key to our offense is to find players who can help our offense is finding guys to spark our rookies play like Armia did Kotkanemi last year.
Reaves is a solid 2 way guy who has 54-55% on CF and FF% . for a Scrapper he's got skills and a Cap VGK could be willing to move to have more cap for Gusev

Reaves-Poehling-Byron would be a pretty awesome line that could help the rookie take off running.