ChiLla

TSN's piece on Alzner

Agreed on all accounts, we do have a number of valuable assets in place and don't need to sell ourselves short. We look really weak down the middle right now but other than that, this is still a competitive hockey team in my eyes. The rebuild will be inevitable a few years down the road but there's really no need to blow things up right now, with a few shrewd moves we can still do some damage in the postseason. We'd be a better team if Beaulieu, Subban and Eller were still here though. I like several of MB's moves, but for every good move there's also a head scratcher that simply doesn't make sense. His love affair with Therrien cost us 2 years (?) of proper player development and that's probably the biggest issue I have with him.

I can totally stand behind that, nobody on this roster should be untouchable. If a GM is willing to pay through his nose for AG, so be it. You'd have to play it smart though, which MB clearly didn't. Publicly calling out a very gifted offensive player for his defensive shortcomings at a press conference is terrible asset management if you're truly looking to trade the guy.

Price, Drouin, Pacioretty, Galchenyuk, Gallagher, and Weber are the team's most valuable assets. Yeah, we didn't luck out and had generational talents like Crosby, Malkin, McDavid or Matthews gifted to us for years of sucking, but we have more good pieces than just Carey Price.

We'll need to rebuild soon enough, but I don't think the time is now. We could be in a much better position but the current roster is still competitive enough to make the playoffs IMO. As for Markov, after losing 3 LHD in Beaulieu, Sergachev and Emelin, I don't think we can afford losing Markov as well. In fact, we need to re-sign Markie and should probably add another LHD via free agency.

According to RDS, there's a rumor that Bergevin might be interested in trading for Claude Giroux. He'd automatically be our No1 center for sure, but that 8.25M Cap hit for 4 more years? Yikes. Declining production also for 3 years in a row now. http://www.rds.ca/hockey/lnh/le-coin-des-rumeurs-alex-galchenyuk-encore-disponible-1.4555772

One of the worst players I've ever seen in a Habs jersey.

Now that Emelin is gone, maybe that was MB's plan all along. Trade Beaulieu before the ED to at least get something in return, knowing LV would have picked him if left unprotected, and then gaining 4.1 million in Cap space to sign someone else. I'm guessing LV made it clear that they were going to pick either Beau or Emelin, otherwise why bother signing Hudon to a contract extension before the ED?

This makes perfect sense for Vegas, as both Emelin and Davidson would be serviceable Dmen. I still don't understand the Beaulieu trade though, unless there's a different trade with Buffalo in the works. Too bad we couldn't get Scandella though, I always liked him.

It's a prank website.

No doubt, even if he's not seen as a core player that absolutely needs to be protected, there was absolutely no need to dump him for a 3rd rounder and lose another valuable asset in the process. I mean what's the idea here, losing two players instead of one and acquiring a 3rd rounder to make it sting less?

True, but I'd much rather lose just one of Beaulieu or Hudon for nothing in the expansion draft, than losing both of them for a third rounder.

Evander Kane anyone?

Yeah, I still think Galchenyuk should play center simply because he's the best (offensive) player we have at that position. No one else on this mediocre roster is close in terms of talent and somehow we're still talking about having to 'hide' him on the wing because other teams could potentially exploit his defensive shortcomings. If we had Malkin and Crosby on the roster I'd understand but we clearly don't, and we also don't need Galchenyuk to kill penalties IMO. We need players capable of finding the net with consistency and this type of player is much harder to come by than shutdown centers or penalty killers. I agree that you have to give up something to get something in order to land a player like Tavares, so for me that guy is Pacioretty if it means we get to keep Sergachev.