Habs should at least consider trading Guhle

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Created by: jonh514

Team: 2024-25 Montreal Canadiens

Initial Creation Date: Apr. 25, 2024

Published: Apr. 25, 2024

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Description

You love him. I love him. He's gonna be a star defender in this league for a lot of years. He's also the most valuable player the Habs organization who can be traded without causing long term damage to this build.

Between Matheson's emergence as a top offensive defenseman, and the promise shown by Hutson, A. Xhekaj, Struble, Harris, Engstrom... Guhle is actually a luxury, and based on how weak the Habs are at forward, he may be a luxury they can't afford to keep.

Hockey is about balance. The Habs are building their team to bring offense from the blueline. Having Matheson, Hutson, Xhekaj back there as the top 3 on the left side seems to make a ton of sense. On the right side I think we are all expecting that Savard moves on in the next year and the Habs end up with Reinbacher, Mailloux, and one of Barron or Konyushkov.

I'm not saying a deal like the ones I'm proposing makes the Habs better next year.

I'm not saying the Habs don't miss a player like Guhle long term.

But if the Habs want to play offensive hockey, then this is the kind of player that can bring back a similarly aged young forward with equivalent upside. We got Dach for Romanov. Imagine what we could get for Guhle?

Free Agent Signings

RFA		YEARS	CAP HIT
Barron, Justin		2	$1,500,000
Xhekaj, Arber		2	$1,500,000

Trades

MTL

Boldy, Matthew

Additional Details:

Habs get a top young winger with size who is looking to be at least as good as Caufield if not better

MIN

Guhle, Kaiden

Additional Details:

Minnesota get a LD to pair with Faber as one of the future NHL top pairs. With Guhle's elite skating, physicality, and defensive play, he is the perfect partner for Faber.

The Wild would then choose to hold Rossi, rather than trading him as many have speculated in recent days.

Retained Salary Transactions

Jeff Petry: $2,343,750 (50%)
Jake Allen: $1,925,000 (50%)

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2024
2025
2026

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
24	$87,500,000	$78,925,417	$1,022,500	$4,307,500	$8,574,583

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Caufield, Cole $7,850,000$7,850,000 LW, RW UFA - 7	Suzuki, Nick $7,875,000$7,875,000 C UFA - 6	Slafkovsky, Juraj $950,000$950,000 ($3,500,000$4M) RW, LW RFA - 1
Newhook, Alex $2,900,000$2,900,000 C, LW RFA - 3	Dach, Kirby $3,362,500$3,362,500 C, RW RFA - 2	Boldy, Matthew $7,000,000$7,000,000 RW, LW UFA - 6
Roy, Joshua $835,000$835,000 LW, RW RFA - 2	Evans, Jake $1,700,000$1,700,000 C UFA - 1	Armia, Joel $3,400,000$3,400,000 RW, LW UFA - 1
Anderson, Josh $5,500,000$5,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 3	Dvorak, Christian $4,450,000$4,450,000 C M-NTC UFA - 1	Gallagher, Brendan $6,500,000$6,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC, NMC UFA - 3
Harvey-Pinard, Rafaël $1,100,000$1,100,000 LW, RW RFA - 1
Pezzetta, Michael $812,500$812,500 LW, RW UFA - 1

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Matheson, Michael $4,875,000$4,875,000 LD M-NTC UFA - 2	Xhekaj, Arber $1,500,000$1,500,000 LD/RD RFA	Montembeault, Samuel $3,150,000$3,150,000 G UFA - 3
Hutson, Lane $950,000$950,000 ($750,000$750K) LD RFA - 2	Savard, David $3,500,000$3,500,000 RD UFA - 1	Primeau, Cayden $890,000$890,000 G RFA - 1
Harris, Jordan $1,400,000$1,400,000 LD/RD RFA - 1	Barron, Justin $1,500,000$1,500,000 RD RFA
Struble, Jayden $867,500$867,500 ($57,500$58K) LD RFA - 1	Kovacevic, Johnathan $766,667$766,667 RD UFA - 1

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
		Price, Carey $10,500,000$10,500,000 G NMC UFA - 2

Apr. 25 at 11:43 a.m.

#26

FloppyBiscuit

Joined: Apr. 2018

Posts: 789

Likes: 429

Quoting: Jackaille

what about Rossi for Ghule ?

I don't think they should trade Rossi, but if Russo's speculation is to be taken seriously, I'd strongly consider that.

OldNYIfan liked this.

Apr. 25 at 11:50 a.m.

#27

OldNYIfan

Once a Kings Fan Too

Joined: Jun. 2018

Posts: 40,550

Likes: 25,415

Quoting: jonh514

Listen it's debatable for sure but... When you look at the total number of shots and the shooting percentages, I have a very hard time thinking Caufield won't out-score Boldy next year.

I don't see what would lead you to believe that.

Let's discount this season as far as shooting percentage goes because it's obvious from the fall-off in Caufield's that he hasn't made a complete recovery from his surgery yet. His historical shooting/scoring rate is 14.1%. Boldy's is 12.6%. Assuming each player takes 330 shots next season, that's five goals in Caufield's favor. Given the 50% disparity in assists in Boldy's favor and the fact that he plays with Kirill Kaprizov, I think that Caufield's goal surplus is likely to be swallowed up in the overall comparison. And it should also be noted that Boldy took almost 90 fewer shots this season than Caufield did.

Matt Boldy is one of the most underrated players in the NHL right now.

jonh514 and RazWild liked this.

Apr. 25 at 11:52 a.m.

#28

Andy_Dick

Banned

Joined: Feb. 2022

Posts: 5,094

Likes: 2,375

Quoting: FloppyBiscuit

I don't think they should trade Rossi, but if Russo's speculation is to be taken seriously, I'd strongly consider that.

Not in a million years lol

Apr. 25 at 2:07 p.m.

#29

jonh514

Thread Starter

HuGo is a Boss GM

Joined: Dec. 2021

Posts: 7,060

Likes: 3,075

Quoting: OldNYIfan

I think your analysis falls apart with the assumption that Boldy will just start shooting an additional shot per game. Caufield has shown his willingness and capabilities to get open and shoot more often. With an improvement in shooting percentage, he's sure to surpass Boldy on goals for.

Andy_Dick liked this.

Apr. 25 at 2:31 p.m.

#30

OldNYIfan

Once a Kings Fan Too

Joined: Jun. 2018

Posts: 40,550

Likes: 25,415

Quoting: jonh514

Oh, I 100% agree that Caufield will score more goals than Boldy -- I'm predicting 5 more. But I'm also predicting that Boldy records at least 5 more points than Caufield.

jonh514 liked this.

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