Recrutes: Hockey scouting from a professional perspective from Grant McCagg and Habs coverage from a 33 year veteran covering the NHL from Brian Wilde.
February 13, 2018
By Brian Wilde
General Manager Marc Bergevin is on a road show through North America as he tries to turn around a roster that went south on him badly this season. Bergevin has some excellent pieces to trade as he seeks a first pairing left handed defenceman and/or a center.
Here’s the ask by Bergevin and it is significant…
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Carey Price has a full NMC. Not happening. Period.
True it is now a full NMC part of the negotiation of the big contract. Well, maybe he would like to play for Winnipeg, closer to his home in BC. 🙂
If I’m a team battling for the playoffs but not an absolute lock I’ve got to imagine they’re at least kicking tires on Max. How many other players on the block are multi-time 30+ goal scorers, have 1.5 years left at a reasonable cap hit and don’t have a no trade clause? The only knock I suppose would be a concern about his past playoff performance and possibly his streaky tendencies. Considering the league parity with teams in and out of the playoffs year after year, absolute worst case if a team that traded for him found themself outside of the playoff picture by next year’s trade deadline, they could conceivablely re-flip him to a contender and recoup a package of near comparable assets back that they used to acquire him.
I wouldn’t trade Patch ,you don’t get a 30 goals score everyday,but i would trade Price &Plekanek for a good center &agood defenseman.
Seriously, I would try to do a real reset for the Canadiens. When I’m thinking will probably never happen and could even be too extreme. But my vision, is to have a group of young players that grows together like the Lightning as an example.
The Jets are my target if they are interested in Carey Price as well. If they want a real established goalie to make a run for a couple of years. Here’s what I have in mind, Price+Pacioretty+Plekanec Helleybuck+Trouba+Roslovic+Perreault. Maybe picks could be involved, Trouba will be RFA and we know how long his last contract negotiations went. I’m involving Perreault to shed some money for next year cap and of course the bonus of a French guy from Quebec.
Now I know Trouba is a righty and we have plenty in Montreal, my next move would really to seek the interest of the Leafs for Weber. Would they be willing to give Nylander? Our characters guy and leadership group is not working in Montreal, I would love to see a group of younger guys all pushing in the same direction and developing together as a team. Our PP have never been better since Weber is injured, players are just looking for the best opportunity instead of just searching to pass it to Shea.
So, that’s the idea I had, not sure it’s a great one but I believe we would have a lot more depth up front including centers, other moves could be made to improve the defense.