What is the point of the habs doing this? They barely upgrade Kulak while giving up a ridiculous amount for this small change.

Oh. Hey. Thanks for answering. I had posted basically this, without Kulak, on the Habs side, and nobody said anything, except for a 'Canes fan suggesting something about Kulak. I have seen him play and he seems solid, but I hadn't checked his stats since last year, so I figured they meant, "add a #6-7 defenseman," rather than, "maybe clear the table and build a trade around Kulak." In that case my response would be that Kulak doesn't block shots or kill penalties, and Kempny stays. My mistake.

If you take out Kulak and put in whatever defenseman you might lose on waivers that's under 1M, does it work out? Would adding Stephenson help? Thanks again!

ETA; basically, Kempny tied with Gardiner and Ceci in even strength points last year, while also playing good defense. So that's why he's valuable, if that's part of what you're asking.

Habs fans are definitely NOT obsessing over Ceci and Gardiner lmao wouldn’t want either on my team

I completely agree. I keep seeing those trades (to say nothing of a bunch Leddy, lately) and just wondering why.

Kempny's a terrific shutdown defenseman who blocked 135 shots last year, went +24, and had a positive corsi even short-handed, while killing 1:30 of penalties a night. He's been a solid first pairing LHD next to Carlson, and could be one next to Weber, Petry, or whoever steps up. Washington doesn't need to move him, but they also have one of the weakest forward prospect pools in the league, so I could see them looking to address that, at some point. I would see him as worth a little more than two seconds, but I have no idea what Vejdemo is worth, or what his chances are of cracking the Habs' lineup while he's still waiver exempt. I just noticed there were guys outscoring him in the AHL and this is his last year to make it, and I think the Caps have a Swedish kid coming to Hershey this year who could use a buddy.

I'm seeing posts of, like, Leddy for Tatar, and Leddy had 16 even strength points last year, while going minus 26, so I didn't see how that was a good use of Montreal's time or cap space. Someone like Kempny who tied with Klingberg, Karlsson, Ceci, and Gardner for 39th among defensemen in even strength points last year while also finishing top thirty in blocks and plus minus could actually help the Habs make the playoffs. But double check me on those last two?

http://www.nhl.com/stats/player?report=skaterpoints&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20182019&seasonTo=20182019&gameType=2&position=D&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=evPoints,points

Kulak had almost as many points, if we're talking forwards, but on even strength points by a defenseman, he tied Leddy and Hamonic for 101st. So that puts him in the #4 defenseman bin, offensively, as opposed to #2 territory. Different ballpark. Different sport.

I've seen several Caps fans proposing trading Kempney and I don't like the idea at all. For what he brings to the team considering his contract he is a "must keep" in order for us to challenge for another Cup. On another note +/- is too dependent on the five other guys on the ice to be considered a valuable stat for an individual player. Just my two cents..

They should keep Kempny. He's terrific. He got one less point than Nick Leddy last year, without any power play time, at less than half the cap hit, with a positive plus/minus.

Some Habs fans on here are discussing Leddy for Tatar. Just wanted to offer a better alternative, if they were really that desperate. The ones commenting on this thread clearly are not.