Joined: May 2015
Posts: 19,571
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All that matters is what Dach does. if he becomes another KK, then yes, that was a bad trade for the final result. But if Dach becomes a 50-70pt centre for the Habs, this was a stroke of genius by HuGo. I mean what if Nazar is a bust? Would the rebuild been better off? No not really. A couple extra 3rd or 4th rounders isn't going to make or break the rebuild either. They took a risk and we don't know if it is going to pay off yet so we'll have to wait to know if it was a bad trade or not.
Getting rid of Weber's contract is amazing considering we got a good player in return in Dadanov who will be worth something at the TDL. With Prices health up in the air, no way Habs could risk going into future seasons with almost 20M in LTIR (Weber+Price). Imagine someone else like Gallagher got hurt and needed LTIR too! They had to do something to reduce the LTIR potential. Moving Weber for a 1 year player in Dadanov is perfect. It literally gave both teams exactly what they wanted. Had HUgO only moved Weber with nothing coming back, they would have had to add a pick to the trade. I'd say this was a better option considering the Habs aren't going to be that much better with Dadanov and they'll now get an asset back instead of losing an asset.
As for Romanov. I like the kid and he definitely was improving but I was getting major Alexei Emelin vibes from him. A good defensive dman who hits like a truck. While I think that was really a valuable asset like 10 years ago, now a days, is less valuable in the NHL. The fact that the Isles gave up the 13th OV pick was an offer Habs couldn't refuse. Romanov was NOT worth a 13th Ov pick at this point in his career. They overpaid and even if we liked Romanov, that is a price you have to just take. especially with Guhle and Harris coming up.
I don't think the Habs will be 1-3 bottom feeders with the lineup above or with the current actual team. They severely underperformed last year and it was a perfect storm of things that caused them to be that bad. They'll be a 5-10 team this year regardless of any of the moves they did so the rebuild is no worse off with these moves than without. It would take a miracle for the Habs to finish last in the league again this year. If they get Bedard/Michkov/Fantilli, it won't be because they were bottom feeders. It'll be because they won the lottery like NJ did this year to move up to 2nd.