Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes & Jeff Gorton need to get creative to address center position with the Habs, preferably a left shot center. The canadiens now have TWO strong power-play units. Shayne Gaumond aka Producer Shayne gives his take on the Noah Dobson trade, Anthony Bolduc, Alexander Zharovsky, LJ Mooney, Michael Hage and more.
@Montreal Canadiens
17 Comments
1st
Are you guys related
I wouldn't mind Wright as a 2nd center as long as it's Matheson,prospect and pick.
Crosby is coming so I don’t know why everyone is speculating other 2 C options
Matheson and Laine not going anywhere this year. Both are free “rentals” for the year and it wouldn’t send the right message to the rest of the team to trade off two players that contributed to this team making the playoffs. Prices $5.5M bonus gets paid on Sept 1 and then he’ll be traded during preseason. The Habs can add another $5-6M player anytime from now until the trade deadline so we’ll need to be patient.
I know many Canadians named Bolduc. They pronounce their name Bowl Duck not Bowl Duke. Dont need to frenchify every name guys, even if they have Quebec roots. Also, many families named Blais around here and they pronounce it as Blay.
I can see Habs trading with Anaheim for a center, they could use Laine or Matheson as they were the worst on P.P% last season.
Anaheim, Islanders and Flyers were the 3 worst teams on P.P
Great show guys! Interesting conversation. Thanks for sharing.
Laine is a huge defensive liability and all his production is on powerplay where I think Cole is a better fit and more versatile then Laine. Id trade Laine in a heartbeat for a legitimate number 2 center
What if Bolduc-Dach-Demidov start the year as a third line and Laine-Newhook-Anderson as a second line? Less responsabily and time to find their marks.
And the Newhook/Anderson duo can help whit Laine.
I think Montréal wants to keep Matheson until Reinbacher is ready. We do not have depth on the left side right now. As far as Hudson play right side.
Ooh I like that take from Shayne : Demidov will ultimately become the leader of his line, while Zharovsky will most likely be more like the icing on the cake of his trio.
As for the centers the dream guy out of Tampa would be Anthony Cirelli ! He's been there such a long time, might be time for a change of scenery for him. He's only 28 (next week), signed until 30/31 at a very reasonable 6.25 per year. The one thing interesting with Tampa is they have slightly declining main Left Ds (one of them amongst the very best in the league still, granted) and only a very underwhelming kinda Xhekaj type in Lilleberg on the 3rd trio they would happily replace with a much better skater who can provide tremendously better offense like Matheson. But then there would need to be another move and a big one with yet another partner as Tampa don't have near enough free cap space to help us out bring it down 5 to 6 M$.
Always great to see Gaumond & Dekes together talkin Habs.👍 As for the 2C or top 6 forward discussion, we've all heard the top names, Crosby, Beniers, Marchment, Kyrou, if you've played Center at any point in your hockey career, your name has been linked to the Habs. The speculations have been rampant and entertaining to hear…and even I have stated my wishes/thoughts on this topic (Marchment ticks many boxes for me…the only red flags…his acquiring cost and as he's an RFA, he would be asking, minimum $8-9mil per. Apart from the Dobson $9.5mil which fits his experience and the fact he's a Dman. Having Marchment 22 make way more than Suzuki 25 would cause issues IMO.) Barrett Hayton ticks off all the boxes IMO…25, lefty Center, good on the dot, probably would be available at not as high a price as trying to land a Marchment or Beniers, and his long term contract would probably fit the Habs player wages hierarchy. The ultimate question with any elite player you add is do you foresee good chemistry with your top 6 esp Demidov. You can have off the charts skillset but if the chemistry and culture fit is not there, it's a wasted move which can set a team back. And one last note…as much as I appreciate the Habs push for more offensive, high skill, high pace system during this rebuild…I have considerable concerns over the lack of defensive changes/additions that needed to be addressed. We lost good forechecker Heineman with Bolduc, and replaced righty shot blocking beast in Savard with offensive workhorse Dobson. But we also lost key lefty face-offs Dvorak, and Jake Evans' PK partner big body long reach Armia…and as far as I can tell, no one has replaced their important defensive contributions. On one hand, this team use to lose too many one goal games so extra offence is always welcome. But this team was also outshot and guilty of way too many giveaways and this crucial aspect has not been addressed IMO. And with these "defensive" players moving on, it worries me. Remember at the start of last season, MSL's system was push offence, D joining the rush…but the offence was sputtering and there were way too many giveaways, odd man rushes the other way with way too many games being outshot….we all immediately thought…I guess we are going for a Top5 pick in the draft again! Then MSL made changes, specifically the D became more defensive hence the lower offensive number for all the D (one exception, Hutson). If this team had all these defensive problems with Savard, Dvorak & Armia, what will this team's defensive system look like without them? I do not want this team to be an Edmonton Oilers / Toronto ML team…can outscore their opponents, but can't out defend in the playoffs. It may be great to get into the playoffs consistently, but I can guarantee not going far once in the playoffs gets old super quick. I realize quick adds each season before trade deadline to prepare for playoffs is always an option but my defensive concerns for this team I think are still valid. We shall see! Sorry for the long ramble, but cheers to all who read to the end. Go Habs Go!
You guys are fantastic together!
Why not try Kappanen at center with Demidov
Guys.
The plan to trade Carey's last contractual year to i.e. the Sharks + 4th 2027 pick or something is still, well, the plan??
Like we want to avoid using LTIR on Price's last year, very much so!
(That last contract years for Carey is 99% paid by insurance, so the i.e. Sharks would pay basically pennies and still reach the cap floor, so very attractive for some teams like that, especially since it's ONLY for one year).
They didn't used LTIR by already renewing that last year's contract YET, right?
Why isn't the trade done already…?
Is the time right for Wright??