By the time those 1st rounders develop, Weber will be in a wheel chair, and Price will have won his 10th consecutive rockin' rodeo title.

have to ride them out. no one will trade anything of value.

Oilers would pass very hard on that. The upgrade between Neal and gally isn’t even close to justify 2 firsts and JP.

I would think Buffalo would be interested in that deal

I fail to see how any of these trades help the Habs!



Both Price and Weber have value around the league! It may not be what MB envisions but a contending team would likely give up a few futures for either of them especially with 25-30% retained.

Also you have successfully set the Habs back about 5 years by destroying the winger depth and the Right side of the D is now as bad as the Left side.

This lineup would be a lottery team for about 3 years and both Price and Weber would be demanding trades!

it adds an abundance of draft picks to redevelop the habs. in their current state i think the habs are set up to be a bubble team for the foreseeable future.

price and weber can be move but the returns will be underwhelming. i think it's better to wait a few years. i think they will both be more appealing with less term attached to them.

At least they are a bubble team with the current lineup (not including any additions this off season) this lineup you created is 4 4th lines in terms of wingers and you have 1 #1-#3 Dman (Weber) and 4 #4-#6 (Mete, Zadorov, Kulak and Ristolainen) Dmen and 2 inexperienced dmen in Romanov and Fleury

at least the goalie tandem has potential

This is a bad idea to set this team back that far as now you ruin the young guys on the current roster's development by setting the team back 5 years and saddling them with bottom 6 forwards. If you were the GM fans would be rioting in the streets until you were fired.

Also we already have an abundance of picks over the next 3 drafts and a top 5 prospect pool in the NHL why do we need to strip everything down to the studs?

yeah this is a lottery team for the next 3 years. habs build through the draft.

if the fans want to complain about the taste of the medicine let them. the alternative is wasting the next 5 years then start a rebuild when it becomes painfully obvious that this team can't compete with the top teams.

Habs decline

That would be Chiarelli type asset management with the Oilers made that trade. Neal is maybe overpaid by like $2M and he only has 3 years left on his deal. Dumping his contract doesn't even come close to two 1sts and a recent top 5 pick. Not even remotely close

you forgot gallagher.

what if habs took russel too.

This team already competes with the top teams!

Record vs top teams this year

1-1-1 Vs Carolina
2-1-0 Vs Washington
2-0-0 Vs St Louis
3-0-0 Vs Toronto
1-1-1 Vs Pittsburgh
2-0-0 Vs New York Islanders
1-0-2 Vs Philadelphia
1-0-1 Vs Vancouver
2-0-0 Vs Vegas
1-1-0 Vs Winnipeg

I think that is competing with the top clubs! The only top teams they have not beaten or have not competed with are

1-3-0 Vs Boston
0-4-0 Vs Tampa
0-1-0 Vs Colorado
0-2-0 Vs Edmonton

even then Colorado out scored us 3-2 combined over those 2 games

in fact only 7 teams have out scored us by 3 or more goals over the entire series vs them and they are Boston 19-8, Columbus 11-8, Chicago 4-1, Detroit 14-9, Edmonton 8-5, New York Ranger 12-9 and
Tampa 14-6

Bad for Mtl
Bad for Mtl
Bad for Mtl (If Petry doesn't want to resign, then yes)
Bad for Mtl
Good for Mtl, NJD refuses because Chiarot and Poehling suck
Buf Mtl, Cap dump exchange could be good
Bad for Mtl

24th best team in the league!

It’s very overplayed on this site but oilers really have no need to dump russell or neal both are useful nhl players and could be dealt not dumped.

MOST 1 goal losses in the League 22! 14 of them in regulation! That means that they were competing in 22 of the 31 losses. even 5 of the regulation losses won would have put us tied with the Leafs for 3rd in the Atlantic.

your direct quote "painfully obvious that this team can't compete with the top teams."

I proved you wrong plain and simple.

Schools out!

oilers pass, the firsts are too valuable to them

yea in 5 years time when they should be competing for the cup they won't be able to compete with the top teams. they'll plateau at 1st round exits.

read the whole quote
"the alternative is wasting the next 5 years then start a rebuild when it becomes painfully obvious that this team can't compete with the top teams."

And over those 5 years we will have many other players come in to improve as well so your statement still doesn't float!

Fact is the Habs are able to compete with almost any team in the league with what we have now! Add to that the fact that players like Suzuki, Kotkaniemi, Romanov, Mete, Juulsen, Fleury, Poehling, Evans, Armia and Lehkonen will all get better over the course of those 5 years and other players in the system like Yelonen, Norlinder, Struble, Harris, Brook and Caufield will be either on the team already and progressing or have been traded for upgrades at weaker positions. This team as it is, is already setup to compete in the next 3-5 years without trading off all of our best players.

Toronto take that and run, what a deal.

Buffalo and Colorado would also accept.

Exactly!!! he is severely selling low on all our best players for no reason! I can't tell if he is just biased against the Canadiens improving or if he actually believes that this is the best course forward for the Habs.

the habs can't. that's why they are 24th.

mete, juulsen, fleury, poehling, and evans might not ever be anything than a warm body to fill a depth role. every team has multiple players like that. yelonen, norlinder, struble, harris, brook are decent prospects but be prepared for only half of them turning into something. the difference makers are suzuki, kk, romanov and caufield. suzuki off to a good start, kk off to a poor start. we''ll have to wait for romanov and caufield. even if the all turn out thats only 3 top 6 forwards and 1 top 4 defenseman.

Mete is a boardline top 4 and only 22 so still has room to improve over the next 5 years. Juulsen will be a top 4 Dman and is on track again now that he is back from his injuries. Norlinder has potential to be top 2 Dman. Romanov will also likely reach top 4 status. That's 4 top 4 Dmen! Not to mention Struble, Brook and Harris who's ceilings are top 4 . Forwards are also pretty solid we already have Domi, Drouin, KK, Lehkonen, Armia and Suzuki all under 25, which is 6 top 9 and 5 are top 6 quality with only Lehkonen as questionable top 6. Yelonen is reportedly going to push for a spot next season and the next year you will have Caufield and Ikonen among others. That doesn't even account for our top line now!

Ya'll Montreal fans really need to have a sit-down and discuss player values. It seems that either you're generally trying to fleece everybody (especially Avs with Girard and Price trades lol), or you're selling your guys cheap. Just very illogical and incoherent overall as a fanbase, at least on this site... with like 2-3 exceptions.