Recrutes: Hockey scouting from a professional perspective from Grant McCagg and Habs coverage from a 33 year veteran covering the NHL from Brian Wilde.
December 9, 2017
By Brian Wilde
The Montreal Canadiens won five straight but they didn’t consolidate it. They instead struggled to finish the homestand. The Oilers in town on a Saturday night. Here’s the skinny…
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Not much to add except that doing what is in the long term best interests of the team to be a real contender in a couple of years is simply not in Marc Bergevin’s DNA because it would be admitting most of the moves since the Subban trade were mistakes. He will never be able to suffer that. Unless Molson curtails his autonomy and gets someone else to run the team this summer it will be a slow death for the franchise’s Cup hopes.
Oi what a bad team. I think trade Pacioretty now before his value plummets. Maybe another trade or 2 for value picks, attach Alzner to one of them….
Dear Brian and Grant,
I am truly sorry that the Habs have been absolutely awful this year. Your flagship year, your premier year, deserved much better material with which to work.
That being said, I’ve truly enjoyed everything you guys have put out! I love reading all your articles and look forward to many YEARS to come! I find myself wishing the Habs brass would be able to read your assessments as I often find them bang on.
So, in light of the darkness that the Habs have us fans living in, cheers to you guys! Keep up the great work. It IS time to turn the coin over on a couple experiments, cause as we all know, safe is death!
“You are your record” may be the money quote of the season, Brian.
As I said over in Grant’s thread, I like Max a lot more than most. The reputation, the comeback story, and the potential of a 40-goal man…lots to like there. But this season he’s been too non-hot-streaky way too much. I don’t want him to be shipped out in a bad deal; what I really want is for that conversation I think should have happened a month ago where they transfer the C to Weber. Let Max go out and score. Let Galchenyuk go out and score. Not everybody wearing the CH has to be Bob Gainey. Let some guys be Steve Shutt.
I’ll also have a minor quibble with saying Alzner as MB’s first bad contract. Plekanec should not have gotten the second year. The Habs’ highest paid forward is getting $7m (salary) this year and he can’t do anything offensively. Imagine if that $6m cap was available—pretty sure Bergevin could have coughed up a portion of that to retain Radulov and bring in someone far younger and more powerful. I know he deserves a lifetime distinguished service award, but Pleks’ best days are way behind him.
That’s my banter for the night. Time to go string up some holiday lighting.
Hmmm, I don’t know if Plekanec is in that category as bad contract when it is only essentially bad for one season. Admittedly, it’s not great that he has lost scoring touch for sure, but usually the albatross contracts are the long ones for high money. 5 years for big money is the issue. Also, pretty certain though I lose the numbers every now and then as I get older, but pretty sure that the cap hit for Plekanec is 6 million and not 7. cheers Richard and as always thanks for being an engaged and steady supporter of Recrutes.
Cap is indeed $6M but salary this year (per CapFriendly) is $7M. That second year I think fits the category of “for past services” rather than the future. It won’t hurt the team as long as the Alzner deal, and that one will only continue to age poorly, but if it essentially cost Radulov (and perhaps that experience is also what dissuaded MB from giving Markov a second year, this compelling him to walk) that’s a pretty bad trade-off too.
Always a pleasure to chat, Brian. Cheers!
Yeah I wonder. I think the Radulov and Markov went south because of money but not because there wasn’t enough but just because that was all he wanted to spend. Who knows. We can’t resllt ever know that. Cheers my friend
My question is simple…who should be trusted to make the moves the Habs need to be good in the next few years? Is it Bergevin? Personally I don’t think so. He is essentially deadline man walking…so who?
I am going to ask you a question to answer that question. Firstly yes I want to acknowledge that obviousy Bergevin has made errors. I also want to acknowledge that Julien is a more conservative coach than I like. But let me go on …..
I believe that Julien is one of the best coaches in hockey. He has one cup and got to the finals. He has rolled with the changes in the game for over 30 years. The move to a faster NHL is just one of the many moves the game has seen over the years. He rolled with all of them. Coming out of the 2004 lockout I remember him saying after the first 6-5 game vs Toronto that that game had no control and you will see that that won’t last. He was right. He has the wrong kind of player on D this year. He knows it. There are a lot of things a coach can’t say because he can’t throw his players or his GM under the bus. Claude knows the game. He knows how to coach the game. He has longevity because he is a decent human being. He can surely roll with these game changes like he rolled with the dozens before like he rolled to win a cup. That brings me to Bergevin who I am less certain of but still feel he should be trusted. It is easy to pick to the recent events and put huge weight on them but that is to neglect all of the excellent moves that he has made. Let me answer the Bergevin question this way…. please everyone on here at a Recrutes reading this .. answer this:
Name a GM who hasn’t made a mistake like Alzner may be is a mistake. Name a GM with a track record that does not have faults. Player evaluation is not an exact science. Every head scout has misses. Every GM has misses.
I will briefly answer the question for you and then you take over …
Everyone’s favourite Poile 3 years ago gave up a first round draft choice to get Paul Gaustad at the deadline then signed him to a big deal. He was a massive bust. He also brought back Mike Ribeiro at the end of his career and who already had a massive notorious record of horrible behaviour off the ice. Ken Holland is thought of as one of the best but he not only has a horrible team right now but he is against the cap horribly as well. McPhee traded Forsberg for Erat in one of the worst deals ever but now he is a genius because Vegas is shockingly good. No GM is perfect. It’s impossible to be. Player evaluation is very very hard. So let’s see who you like instead …. Piette McGuire was on the radio once and said trade your first pick which is the third overall pick and Subban for the first overall pick so you can get Yakupov. So you want that player evaluation instead? You want a guy who said Subban and Galchenyuk for Yakupov? Many hate Subban for Weber. Brisebois in Tampa is the popular choice but what decision of evaluation have you ever seen of his. He has made zero decisions that you know of. None. Running a successful AHL team at the management level has zero evaluation in it. He’s a capologist. He’s in there because Yzerman sucks at math. Capologists are all in there for that. Julien who I know and like may be a good evaluator but I have no clue.
So as far as Bergevin goes, he’s errored but he’s also shone. Like every other GM that there is. Is he the best? Nope. Who is ? You can argue that. For me, probably Lou but he has blemishes too of course.
Please continue the discussion but make the first question you answer be … find me another GM who hasn’t made player evaluation errors.
That was perfect Brian. Great analysis.
I also heard that PG wanted to trade the Galchenyuk pick. But I didn’t know it was the pick AND Subban for Yakupov.
Yikes!!!
Nailed it on the head, Brian.
Good stuff
Poehling and Juulsen certainly have potential but so have so many others in the past who have been stunted by Habs development staff and system. Then when they’ve failed to meet expectations, are moved and have outstanding careers elsewhere. Even quality players developed elsewhere, come here and seem to lose something. Hard to be optimistic for a quick turnaround.
Agree a 100% on Pacioretty but I have zero confidence in Bergevin getting what we should for him or even trading him at all.