See, that, right there. That mindset makes absolutely no sense to me. You can't take into account what a player 'means' to a city when assessing their value in a trade/OS. This is a terrible type of thinking when trying to build a winning team. Especially considering that the Canadiens are one of the richest teams in hockey and won't have a problem drawing fans to the arena, they don't need to sell the home town kid thing for good PR. Build the best team possible, regardless of player background. Period.

Besides, even if they add PLD, they'll still be a bubble team with basically no way to get out of that area. It'll be hard for them to fill out their roster with cheap young talent without 1sts, which they will have to do because they are paying a lot of money to small amount of players. They won't be able to add much, because the most common currency to a team that's looking to deal from their roster is 1st round picks. Guys will price themselves out of town and you likely won't have ideal replacements. Making an offer sheet of that value to PLD would be a bad idea.

Let me preface this by saying, you are absolutely right. "I" could care less about the novelty of having the hometown kid playing here but then again I'm not a tenth generation Quebecois who does find those things important.

Unless you are living under a rock, surely you can see that the Habs are not like any other team in north america. There is a reason its important to have a french speaking GM and coach here. Its important that there is at least one french speaking player on the team that the large majority of native Quebecors can relate to. Its the reason the Habs drafted Louis Leblanc. It means something to them.

So with that said, its not only about building a winning team its about how that teams portrays the people who live here. Its been like that for a long time and this isn't news.

Now for the compensation, once again you are assuming these picks pan out. There is no guarantee of that. I am of the belief that with the amount of prospects and picks they already have, they are well equipped to lose four 1st rounders. Anyways the best of the four players drafted with those 4 picks may not even reach his potential by the time PLD is still with the team for all we know so we are talking about years down the line. And just to add to this idea that losing all your picks in a compensation OS means you'll never have 1sts again during that period also doesn't make sense. Habs have plenty of pending UFA's that they can parlay into replacement 1st rounders. Remember PLD is young, they will have this guy for minimum 7 years and barring shaky relationship probably another contract after that.

Then there is factor that everyone glosses over when it comes to Montreal, Habs are not a hot destination for UFA's. Its not like they have the option to just land a big name UFA by throwing money at him. Canadiens have tons of cap space and not enough quality players to use it on. So the cap thing doesn't worry me in the slightest. Draft picks the Habs have tons of already so losing 4 consecutive 1sts are not going to break the teams future and they can always replenish a few if need be by sacrificing older players on expiring contracts, trading two seconds to move up into the 1st, etc. And finally they also have one of the best prospect groups in the NHL by multiple resources. They have plenty of assets currently to ensure that not having those 1sts won't destroy them.

This team could survive without four 1st rounders in a row. They went a stretch from 08-16 of absolute duds and still did alright. Much of that was with David Desharnais and Tomas Plekanec as the teams 1-2....

Either way you look at it its a philosophical difference of opinion. One that hasn't been proven right or wrong yet without doubt so there is no right or wrong answer here.

I understand and agree. Personally I would take the safer option but you do have to take risks to get to the next level.

You are generalizing all Habs fans into one group. I'm sure that there are plenty of people who live in Quebec who don't feel this way. Winning probably means more to them.



No, I'm assuming there is a decent chance of them panning out, and that is a completely reasonable assumption. This is 4 years of 1st round picks. If you look at a teams consecutive 1sts for four years, it's quite often that you will find one or two really good (or even great) players. This isn't true of all teams of course, some have **** drafting/developing, but dismissing the picks as nearly irrelevant is egregious.



We've seen this season that rentals don't go for as much as they used to. And with the cap likely staying put (or even going down), it's tough to see a scenario where it will really be a sellers market. Besides the fact that by trading the UFA's you are worsening your team, thus lessening your odds to make the playoffs and making the pick that Columbus now holds better and more likely to win the lottery. Seems counter intuitive considering this acquisition is supposed to push them over the edge.



This is a great thing because more often than not, big name UFA's get WAY more than they are worth.



They might if they draft and develop properly. And that still doesn't mean that you throw away your cap space.



Yes, they do have a lot of picks, so at least they've got that going for them. They need to hit good on some of them, but the more swings you have... I'm not quite as high on the Habs prospect pool as a lot of other people are, but that's a whole other thing.



You have to admit that's kind of different. Without Price carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders during that stretch, it's a really different story.



Yes, that's all this is. I think I am right, of course, and you think you are, but that's the **** that sports lives on I suppose. Unfortunately (or maybe it's for the better), we'll likely never find out.

Montreal would be foolish to offer that to Dubois. But let's go with your scenario. I would believe the Jackets would take the compensation. Unless Montreal were to offer say Suzuki, KK or Caufield, plus two 1st, the return just doesn't make sense. However, Dubois has to want to sign. Not sure he does. He loves Columbus. But this deal for Montreal has a real chance of a big time backfire. To me Montreal cannot afford to take that kind of risk. That's my opinion though

Ugghh I can tell an arguer when I see one. Clever word play isn't gonna keep this discussion going with me. I never said a lot of things you are using as bullet points here. And many points are either irrelevant to the discussion or trying to find an argument to counter.

Agree to disagree.

Everything I said was relevant to the discussion, but ok. That's kind of how debates/discussions work; people state their points. That's why you typed out a whole essay. And if you read my thing, you would see that I agreed to disagree, so I'm not sure why you felt the need to reply a little rudely and frankly incorrectly.

Because you brought up points that were irrelevant to the discussion in "Ya but" form that leads to nowhere and I've seen this time and time again on here.

"Im generalizing" - I never said all Habs fans...... I said a large portion of the fan base. Based on someone whose lives in and has lived around Montreal, deals with it everyday with his fellow Habs fans, do you not think I'm more acclimatized to what people are saying about the team from a fan perspective? I'm not making this up, this is widely documented information.
"Im dismissing the picks as nearly irrelevant" - I never said they are nearly irrelevant. I pointed out that hitting those picks as top flight players combined is as likely as them not being. Based on Montreal draft history, there is merit to that. Other teams have done a better job of drafting.... but Im not talking about other teams.
"They might if they draft and develop properly. And that still doesn't mean that you throw away your cap space." - This has nothing to do with how the Habs have been doing things. Of course in a perfect world where they did everything perfectly, their wouldn't be any need for any of this. They clearly haven't so this was an alternative idea. One I admitted to being not something I personally give 2 shirts about but being from here and living here my entire life, I can tell you means more to a significant portion of the fan base.

They were all easy clear cut answers to a question not being asked or is irrelevant to my original comment. Not being rude but you are perpetuating aspects of my comments that were either simply to give context or expand on some things into reasons why that was wrong or to give what you think is smarter. Those were never the questions to begin with.

Once again, everything I brought up was relevant to the discussion as they were direct replies to points that you brought up in the first place. Don't expand your own argument if you don't want to deal with an expanded argument in turn.

Often the loudest voices don't come from the majority. Most Leafs fans look at what the obnoxious minority say online or wherever and shake their heads. I'm sure that there is a good chunk of that in any large fan base. And this isn't to say that it doesn't mean a bit more to have a hometown star. It would in any fan base; it's a nice story. However, I have never met or interacted with a single Habs fan that has said they would prefer a Quebecois player over something/someone to the greater benefit to the team. I'm sure those people exist, and I'm sure you've met some living there, but I wonder if they are just the loud minority. It's not like most fans would be mad at success because your star doesn't speak french.

You literally said 'who cares' to the idea of losing 4 unprotected picks. I'm not sure what can be more dismissive. And I'm not saying that all or any of these picks will be great players or better than PLD, I'm saying that there is a decent chance, especially considering the make-up of the Eastern conference, but this is something that we have already decided we disagree on.

Recently the Habs have been doing okay in the drafting/developing department. If they continue, they will have the quality players to use the cap space on was my point. Not sure what the problem is on this one.