It's tough for teams to play too many "toolsi" players. Hoffman and Drouin are both players who historically refused to play defense. In the situation where the team has no better players it's fine, but right now MSL needs to decide to play them ahead of

Slafkovsky, Monahan, Dvorak, Evans, Pitlick, Pezzetta... It makes no sense to play those guys ahead of the others when the only upside is "maybe they will play well and increase their trade value".

The players you are displacing to play them are players who currently have "some" value and who "maybe will play well and increase their trade value" as well.

Drouin & Hoffman are the 13th & 14th forwards on this team at the start of the season because that is what their historical performance has earned them. If we experience injuries... Then it is what it is and they play. Until then... The stands...

This is incorrect

Drouin value wont go up much even if he plays well as most teams wont have the money to spend on a winger in 2023 as the cap is staying flat and Jo has major health issues from wrist surgery that wont go away and he even admitted that he'll never be 100 percent (his shot is non existent these days) and his mental health problems will still loom large.

So this is very correct.

Hoffman, most likely, can be dumped in the minors as not much will change this season but some wingers will leave through free agency next offseason. Right now he has no spot and needs to be cast aside for the youth movement with the Ylonens, Slafkovsky needing a spot

Appreciate your perspective, thanks for the response.

Ylonen, Pezzetta, & RHP really deserve a genuine shot. I wish Hoffman, Drouin & Armia well, but part of development is giving the players who have earned a shot some ice time with the big club to show us what they can do.

Yeah that won’t happen, unless they have horrible training camps, they’re making most likely the top 9, I’d love if we could boot Hoffman into the sun but it’s not happening, Slafkovsky should be in the AHL imo, he’s not quite NHL ready so I’d give him the 9 games then let his contract slide, we have some guys like Pezzetta, RHP, Ylonen who’ll get ice time when there’s injuries or MSL feels like slotting them in

I know things don't work that way... But I sure wish they did.

I like the trades that HuGo made so far... But I am not a fan of icing a team with 14 forwards who all "know" they should be in the top 9. It's gonna breed hard feelings as some of these guys are playing to try and stay in the show a little longer.

If you are branded as "not even good enough to make the bottom 5 Habs" it's gonna be rough trying to find a spot with a contender.

I see 10 top 9 forwards on our team, Armia’s more of a bottom 6 guy, same with Evans, Pitlick, while he had an amazing year is at best a 3rd liner, Pezzetta’s a depth guy and Byron when healthy is a 4th liner

Suzuki, Caufield, Slafkovsky, Dvorak, Monahan, Anderson, Gallagher, Drouin, Pitlick, Evans, Hoffman, Dach, Dadonov, Armia.

There is not a single player in that list that does not believe he deserves to play on the top 3 lines of the Canadiens. I only left Byron out because he's gonna be forced to retire this season.

After training camp with teams putting some D on waivers and maybe not clearing to fit in the cap. I could see a winger being traded for said player on waivers. Armia seems to be the obvious candidate as he's the type of player a contender covets in the bottom 6. Nobody is trading for that contract unless they are expected to be a contender. Oilers and Barrie seem like the obvious spot. They need RW when Hyman and E. Kane are on the left side. They are probably waiting for clarity on Patrick Kane before a move is made. Still a lot of pieces in the air. Something will get corrected after training camp. Pittsburgh could also move in for Armia and dump Pettersson. Canes could dump Gardiner and take on Armia for their Finish contingent to get his understudy Kotkaniemi going, maybe lol