Have fun with the salary cap next year

Montreal takes that to get rid of that Gallagher deal

Gallagher's deal is not as bad as many fans think, he has 4 straight seasons where he scored or was on pace to score 30 goals and 2 were covid shortened. This season is an anomaly not the norm, why do we want to dump that? I get that everyone thinks his contract MAY NOT age well but it also MAY be just fine. No one can predict how long he will play and even if he isn't up to the 30 goal standards of recent years 20+ goals is still acceptable for his contract and his other qualities.

the problem isn't that he can't score right now, its that he's broken his hand 3 times and had a concussion at 29. he gets hacked, slashed and cross checked unlike many and he's got 5 years left. he's gets most of his goals from hard work. the question truly is how many healthy years are left. he's played 4 full seasons and he's only 29.he has no real shot or hands and has okay speed. I hope he's fine but I think injuries will end up dragging him down, I hope not though

I love the guy but those back few years might be tough

After everything he has given for the Habs don't you think we owe it to him to wait and see how his career progresses before we just dump him like garbage?

Two things,
One I never said to trade him or to accept this trade
Secondly I don’t consider trading him for a first and two solid young players to a Stanley cup contending team for the remainder of his contract “dumping him like he’s garbage”
Was simply saying those back years of the deal will more likely than not be rough. I love the dude, absolute warrior but odds are they’ll be tough

REMEMBER I LOVE THE DUDE AND HOPE HES SCORES 30 AND PLAYS 82 HEALTHY GAMES FOR ALL 5 YEARS!

See I think he is the type of player who makes everyone on the team try harder. The type of guy you keep even if his career is declining in the last 2 or 3 years of his contract because of his experience and leadership. I suspect Gally will score 20-30 goals over the next 2 or 3 years and can live with 2 or 3 years of less productivity given the blood sweat and tears he has shed for the Habs already.

which is perfectly fine. if we are rebuilding which we should it would probably take 4-5 years before we can be a playoff team again. his hard work and leadership can rub off on the kids and his contract will end and we can spend that money on the right players just in time for playoff success, which is what im hoping happens

I hope/think a retool makes more sense, while we could use a top talent (I assume we get one this draft) our team has a good balance of young guys, guys in their prime and aging vets. There are 3 guys (Hoffman, Savard and Dvorak) on our healthy roster that I would love to move on from as they are not living up to expectations and of course we still need a top 4 PMD preferably LH'ed. Fix those issues and this roster is once again solid. There are a couple of FA centers I would love to attract if we moved Dvorak at the deadline (Kadri, Hertl, either Strome, Domi and KK (if he is left extended)). Also if we could nab Wright, Savoie, Cooley or Lambert at the draft any one of them would also be a good add down the middle (Lambert is a bit of a risk but may be worth it if we fall a bit and don't win the lottery or if we pick up a second pick in the 8-15 range via the trade deadline)

id say its probably 50/50 maybe 60/40 at this point that we retool. We do have solid young pieces like Suzuki Caufield Guhle and a few others. As you mentioned we need some high end talent especially down the middle.

Here is my problem with a retool, We've had our conversation about Gallagher and somewhat agreed that the last two or three years might be bad, Petry isn't getting younger and neither is price. Im not entirely convinced that this team can be legitimate contenders simply from making some moves this off-season.

Toffoli-suzuki-caufiled
Drouin-hertl-gallagher
50-60ptslw-dvorak-anderson
Poehling-evans-lehkonen. and you move Byron and Armia

Edmundson-petry
pmd-savard
Guhle-romanov

and price is a mystery. I don't mind Dvorak at all as a 3 line centre, problem is he playing too big of a role and the expectations are too high.

this team that I just made might be able to sneak into the playoffs if everything goes right. but should we really be adding 7x7 or so for hertl(for example) to our large and aging contracts of Gallagher price Petry and Anderson for a team that might make the playoffs if everything goes right?

to me you should rebuild. Add a first for Chiarot and maybe another for next year for Toffoli and build solely around young guys and as I said above sign your nice free agents and make your big trades when your ready, ideally when Bedard/ (whoever your 2023 pick is) is in their 3 or 4 year


just off the top of my head you could build around

Bedard and Suzuki
Michkov and Suzuki
Fanitili and suzuki
dvorsky and suzuki
plus Caufield, maybe Lambert Miroshnichenko or savoie and add a guy like lekkerimaki with that second pick

and on defence
Guhle romanov norlinder strube Mailloux Harris if he signs jiricek or namec if you draft them



Bedard-Lambert
Suzuki-Caufield
- lekkerimaki

Guhle-Mailloux
Romanov-Harris maybe
Norlinder-Struble

that's pretty damn good if you ask me