The defining moves are yet to be made. PG's moves so far make the team not yet as good as last year. If he wants to improve the team there has to be some dirty work done and probably one move made after July 1. He has to convert some deadweight (Pouliot, the kostitsyns) into some strong help on the wing. Otherwise, it will be a long long season.
Plekanec - A bit overpaid when looking at the years he's signed for, but happy to see him stick around. Halak - Hate that he's gone, but Eller could shut everyone up. Darche - Don't really mind this move, he's making very little and I think he earned his contract. Gauthier - I reserve my right to wait to judge him after he's made a few more moves.
I wasn't crazy about the Halak move but I've already come to terms with it, especially since we were able to sign Pleks. No way could we afford to pay Halak $4 million or more, which I think he'll be close to.
I like Eller as a prospect. I think he can play on the 3rd line. With Eller, Pleks and Gomez at centre, we're set. There is also still the option of signing Moore, and moving Eller to the wing.
In any case, our forward depth is already looking deeper. We had major issues with that last year and through-out the playoffs. The D could be better but we made do with it last year. Next year we'll have a ton of free agents on D, and therefore, money to hopefully get some upgrades.
We're building instead of tearing down which is what we need to do.
Plekanec - Good move, Pleks brings more than goals and assists, he brings effort and great defensive play as well. Good $ and good length. Halak - Buy low and sell high...logical sound move. Darche - meh Gauthier - ok I guess
Plekanec : +++ (fair value I think)
Halak : --- (I still hate that deal a lot, unecessary gamble IMO... The success or not of that gamble will determine the Habs fate for next year, and for years to come...)
Darche : + (perfect 13th forward)
Gauthier : + (Except for Halak... his other moves so far have been good)
Plekanec - Had to be paid that but don't see why he needed a NTC.
Halak - Was going to be exspensive and got him out of the East...smart.
Darche - Only can do better.
Gauthier - We will see at the end of the year.
Plekanec - A bit overpaid when looking at the years he's signed for, but happy to see him stick around. Halak - Hate that he's gone, but Eller could shut everyone up. Darche - Don't really mind this move, he's making very little and I think he earned his contract. Gauthier - I reserve my right to wait to judge him after he's made a few more moves.
Pleks - are you f k n kidding me .... This piece of crap played like crap in the playoffs ....wtf is this ? what is he the next Yzerman all of a sudden.
a huge effen mistake and trust me when this f ..k gets 50-60 points we will want him run out town... the dude is not a warrior in the playoffs ... A JOKE
Darche- who gives a sh..t a marginal 4th line talent ...no probs 1 year
Halak - great trade ... a legit center for a player I am not sold on ....and played over his head
Gauthier- nice moves until you SIGNED THAT F...K IN PLEKS
F....K I AM PISSED
now we have to watch a midget play like sh..it come playoff time if we get there ...havent we effened learned that we are too small ...he isn`t Briere loaded with quality around him
now we have no effen money to do sh....t and the Boston Bruins get Horton and maybe Seguin ....ffffffuuuuu.....nnnnnn great
what's funny is that I voted "yes" to all three moves, but then couldn't help but vote "no" on the Gauthier question...
for plekanec, it was a no-brainer, I suppose gauthier deserves credit for getting him signed @5M, though i'd love to know how the negotiations went... was this what pleks side was looking for all along, and it took until now for the team to give in? or did pleks want more and finally agreed to less (which seems implausible, since at this point he could have just waited 2 more weeks and gotten more on the market).
either way, the failure of gainey to get pleks for at least another year or two at a much smaller cap hit can't directly be put on Gauthier's shoulders, of course, but given that he was director of pro-scouting, he must have had some input in the decision to only offer him a 1 year deal as a RFA...
the halak trade, like plekanec not being signed for more years at a cheaper cap hit last summer, falls under the category of left over impact from Gainey's decision making as well... I had been in the "trade 1 of the goalies" camp, and my gut was leaning towards keeping price as well... but the playoff run certainly made it a whole lot tougher to feel good about letting Halak go. The return we got looks ok right now. It could go either way, but at the time (which is the only fair way to evaluate a trade imo), the value is about right, maybe a touch on the low side. In time it could turn out to be great for both teams, a steal for us, or a steal for them. i like eller's odds of being a solid player for us down the road, and schultz should at worst become a very good 4th line piece of the puzzle.
the darche signing, at that price, is another no-brainer. he played well for us in a 4th line role, has a great attitude, and i think is exactly the kind of veteran player you want in a depth roster role.
gauthier is warming up to me, but what happens in the next 3 weeks will go along way to either winning me over or keeping me distant... He doesn't have a great situation to work with, but again, he was part of the management group that put us in this situation, so now it's up to him to show his worth by dragging us out of it...
i hope to hell that he is aggressively working his contacts with the ducks, and finding a way to unload either spacek or hamrlik on them, now that niedemayer is gone and they have both the cap space and need of a veteran dman...
I put yes and no to plekanec yes and no tohalak and no to gauthier and darche... Not that gauthier is bad but i would have prefer someone else i have Hard time believe he became a star gm all of a suddden but we never know maybe he got influenced by the montreal ghosts lol.
Trading Halak makes sense cap-wise, but I think he's a special goalie. I would have front-loaded a long-term contract instead and gone the other way by trading Price/Hammer/Kostys.
But cap-wise, Price is only 22 and we keep him off the UFA market for 5 years. I'm just not sure he's the man, and neither is the Canadiens' Boutique judging by all of his jerseys that are on sale (as well as Kosty's).
Pleks is a good signing absent of any other strategy.
Not sure why we hired Gauthier. His track record is mediocre.
