he's a bottom 12 foward.

Yeah, I was early af and just thought I must comment something. Couldn't think of anything so I just copy pasted the first comment I found

love this deal for the team and for harris... i was guessing he'd get 2 mill x 3 years
he's been very good for the team, so im happy he resigned for a cheap-ish deal

Looks like this was modeled after Liljegren and Sandin (because it’s always about the Leafs, right?). I don’t follow the Habs closely enough to say this with a lot of confidence, but I don’t think he’s shown as much at the NHL level as those guys had when they signed their contracts. That was last year though, so I guess with inflation it’s effectively less than what those guys signed for in Toronto. Anyway, the fact that they signed a guy who appears to be part of their future for 2 more years is what's important, +/- a few hundred thousand doesn't matter, so I vote yes.

Yeah i know there are usually 6 dman in a game haha.When I say top 6 for a dman, I consider he should be part of the 6 dcore. In your example you could say that but i prefer to say that pitlick is a bottom 6 player

I'm convinced that in two more seasons, the left side of the Montreal defense will be Guhle, Harris and Xhekaj. This is a step in that direction.

He's not better though

He's better and it's not close.

Timmins has more points in less games this season

Your argument is points after I already said Timmins is better offensively?

Harris plays in all situations and is more effective on the Ice as a #5 than Timmins is in a sheltered #6 role. It's great that he can tack on points, but that doesn't make him a better defender. I'm not even mentioning that Harris is a rookie and 2 years younger than Timmins with no injury history. We can't even compare them.

I think a better comparison would be Rasmus Sandin

First, If Harris is such an effective #5 and Timmins is a sheltered #6, then why were there periods where Timmins was playing on the 1rst pair? Sandin isn't a fair comparison because, again, the offensive upside that goes along with Sandin and the versatility of being able to be put in all 3 spots (PP, PK, 5 on 5)

Timmins can play first pair occasionally, that means jack all. It's more about Ice Time. Sandin and Harris are perfect comparisons because they both do the same thing. Play all situations and are similar age. Both provide offense and defense in the same shift.

It's a good signing. These are getting boing cause it just feels like a mold for young D right now.

Are you a defensemen drafted in the last 5 years, within the first 4 rounds who currently is playing solid minutes in the NHL? Then come work for our team at an annual salary of about $1.4M for 2 years. If your progress has been a little less steady or you have an injury history, we take back a few hundred thousand, if your progress has been steadily increasing your value or you had a bit of a breakout year, you get an extra few hundred thousand.

I think NHL GMs have a secret agreement that young D are kind of hard to evaluate so let's just pay them all something similar to make all of our lives easier. No more betting on upside with long contracts out of ELC unless they do something like win a Norris or at least get nominated.

Right now, on an injured Montreal (27th in the league) D-core, Harris is playing 3rd pairing minutes. Right now, on a fully Healthy Toronto (exception's Matthews but he's a forward, 4rth in the league), Sandin's playing 3rd pairing, penalty kill and Powerplay minutes and if Lilly, Brodie and Holl weren't playing so good rn, Timmins would also be in that 3rd pairing role. Sandin and Harris aren't comparable right now. Perhaps in 3 years, maybe? But for now, Sandin is more useful and more valuable

I don't know what you're getting at here. The only thing you've said is that Toronto has a better top 4 than Montreal. I'm not disputing that. We can look at Analytics and see they're comparable. Both play 3rd minute time, are the same age, and have similar analytics. I'm not saying Harris is better than Sandin, just that they're comparavles.

Sorry, I was under the impression that you were saying that they were the same players (to which Sandin's better IMO). My point with saying Toronto has a better top 4 than MTL is that Sandin has tougher competition when it comes to getting a top 4 spot whereas Harris has easier competition

You're right about the easier competition, but I believe at this point in their careers, they're both 3rd pairing defenders on Montreal. Neither get in over Matheson and the way Montreal runs their pairings, but would be playing beside Kovacevic. Sandin is better, but it's close IMO

I won't debate that hard considering our biases (I think Sandin has a higher gap over Harris than you think)

I think Xhekaj could be the next Sheldon Souray. He was first seen as a tough bottom pairing defenseman, but after a few seasons, he developed into a top 4 physical D with a hell of a shot.

Let’s hope 🤞

Harris and Kovacevic are really good together, but when Guhle, Matheson and/or Edmundson are healthy, they will always play in the top 4
MTL best LHD are Guhle, Matheson, Harris, Edmundson & Xhekaj, in that order (maybe switch Xhekaj & Edmundson, who has been terrible this year).
I know +/- doesn't say everything but
Edmundson 39 GP : -21
Guhle 36 GP : -14
Savard 40 GP : -10
Xhekaj 51 GP : -9
Barron 16 GP : -3
Harris 49 GP : -1
Matheson 19 GP : +1
Kovacevic 48 GP : +6

Harris-Kovacevic have been really good defensively, yes against weaker competition, but both could end up in the + in a bottom 5 team

Matheson have played less than 20 games, but he will probably end up being in the minus

Matheson is easily our best defender. He's an offensive defender so obviously his +/- is going to be terrible on a bad team.

We weren't talking about other team competition, it was more of a; inner competition (Harris vs Guhle or Sandin vs Rielly etc.)

Personally I would rather have Harris on one leg than Matheson on my team

That's a crazy take. Harris is at best a #5 rn and Matheson is a #3. Maybe in terms of where the team is, but we could dream Harris becomes another Matheson in his prime.