Recrutes: Hockey scouting from a professional perspective from Grant McCagg and Habs coverage from a 33 year veteran covering the NHL from Brian Wilde.
January 7, 2018
By Brian Wilde
Only one important point came out of the SOTU address by Marc Bergevin but what a point. Here’s the Recrutes report.
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Great video and recap of the press conference. Totally love how you put things in perspective for fans, who may not like MB’s answers. I’m totally with you on your explanation and I can’t wait to see what unfolds in regards to trades and the offseason acquisitions.
Also, I heard your podpxast today and it was really great!! Loved the conversation and such great insight into everything that’s going on with the Habs.
Good job Brian!
I like thomas. But I wonder if barzal is a centre possibility? Nyi lost 5 straight desperate times as they have fallen out of playoff spot. They need a defenseman too. We could take on the Halak contract. How bout patches plus benn for barzal Halak and a first?
Barzal is a no go. No way. That guy is not going anywhere. Every GM knows how hard it is to get a C. Grant and I counted up the 1C in the NHL yesterday. We stopped at 20. You don’t give them up. If Snow gave Barzal up, he’s a dummy.
This game can be called the battle of the bottom 5. Must lose game
Some great points brought up here, and a much more reasonable assessment of Bergevin’s presser than most of the hyperbole out there in the rest of Habs land.
I am fully on board with trading Pacioretty for a young center prospect, I think the timing is right and it really just makes perfect sense for where the Habs are right now. St. Louis seems to be a pretty good fit too, but I’m just wondering whether Thomas really has 1C potential? His numbers look pretty good this season, and while a point per game production in his draft year is decent, I’m just not sure it’s indicative of a player who has legit offensive number 1 center potential either. I haven’t seen him play enough though, would be curious to get Grant’s thoughts on him…
One thing’s for sure also, getting the right player back in a potential Pacioretty trade will be a critical turning point for the organization. If that deal goes wrong it will definitely cost Bergevin his job, and would be a massive setback for the organization. I don’t envy MB right now lol.
I honestly don’t really know why they waste theirs and everyone else’s time with this presser when they basically say nothing anyway. And I agree with you, they shouldn’t go into details on trades or anything because it will impact players, fans, etc. But then just leave it at that. Having the presser causes a frenzy with the fans and makes them even more upset when they don’t get any answers as to what is being done to fix the problems, or even really an acknowledgement of the problem at all.
Yep, Jennifer. But for me, the worst is actually seeing the media not happy with the answers. This is an absolute shock to me to read something like Bergevin is so dumb that he thinks he still has a playoff shot…. I mean come on. How could they be doing this business this long and not understand that Molson would kill him if he said “oh yeah, we can’t make the playoffs this year. have you seen the math. we have no chance. we have to finish 27-10. we can’t even get to 500. ” For the media to not be able to parse that out, and even worse, then present him as a dummy who doesn’t even get it makes me think who is the real dummy here?
Hi Brian,
It would be quite inane for a general manager to reveal his future plans, but I think a loosing team’s future intentions becomes more and more transparent to the other general managers . By this I mean that as the season unwinds and the wins and losses start to pile up I feel that these other very professional general managers will begin to know almost all of Bergevin’s options and the value of the players. A loosing team cannot camouflage its intentions as much as a winning team. This why I feel that some general managers who did not foresee the upcoming absolute need for very quick, and very mobile defencemen in this new NHL left their team in a very vulnerable position. And some general managers just missed the boat completely. I feel that the boat left without Bergevin on it and so did The Canadiens’ season. Bergevin did get caught with a slow defence like some other teams. He actually acquired it all by himsel. Bergevin structured a defense that might have been more than adequate 5 years ago ,but not today. This is why I feel the Alzner acquisition tells me more about the thinking or non thinking of Bergevin more than all of the attempts to try and berate him at a news conference about his future plans. Alzner cannot be viewed in isolation ,but his contract can. The acquisition of the other defencemen also demonstrate that Bergevin somehow missed it all. I do think The Canadiens need a very wily and creative president who speaks in any language to watch over Bergevin. I think Bergevin would be wonderful number 2 man who could possibly find many good players that other teams have given up on, but not in the general manager position . Finally,many sports outlets think that in order to curry favor with their emotional Canadiens’ fans they must make a foolish melodrama out of the sport. This why much of us like the sober clear thinking of this website. When I turn on the sports radio sometimes I think Trump has found a new job.
Thanks Daniel
https://recrutes.ca/walk-wilde-side-alex-winger/
Thanks for explaining the newser,makes alotta sense brian when you explain it.
lets hope the firesale starts monday.
TANK HABS TANK.