2011-2012 If I Were GM

[Guest habs1952]

I can't fathom the interest in trading Price or Subban for unproven picks. These guys aren't LaFleur, Lemieux or Crosby. A great goalie can carry a team a long way. Look at Conn Smythe winners. PK is on the verge of being an elite D in the league for years. We have nothing to replace them, so we would be dtafting high for years. is that the plan?

Totally agree. I don't want to trade the young core of the team just to founder for the next 5 years. We've been foundering since 1993.

[THEBIGGESTHABSFAN123]

As I recall, at the time everyone was saying that after Brodeur and Luongo, Mason was the next best goalie

[weepingminotaur]

I can't fathom the interest in trading Price or Subban for unproven picks. These guys aren't LaFleur, Lemieux or Crosby. A great goalie can carry a team a long way. Look at Conn Smythe winners. PK is on the verge of being an elite D in the league for years. We have nothing to replace them, so we would be dtafting high for years. is that the plan?

I can't fathom it either, to be frank. Usually you flip an expensive veteran nearing the end of his prime years (e.g. Nash) to get younger and better, but in our case, both Price and Subban haven't even hit their physical prime yet, and PK is just finishing his first contract. This isn't the time to consider trading them unless the return gets you equally proven players. Unless, as you said, the strategy is to tank for years, which I fundamentally oppose.

[Noob616]

I guess the way I see it is, with a top 3 pick you're basically hoping for a guy like Price or Subban. We'd be trading away a player we have now, who is a sure thing and we have an idea of how good they'll be, for the chance to maybe get a guy like those two. I feel that on the internet (both here and at HFBoards for example), that first round picks are overvalued. It's like people think NHL GM's will trade away superstars for a middling 2nd liner and a mid-late 1st rounder. Outside the top 5 it really can be a crapshoot, and even in the top 5 you get guys like Pouliot, DiPietro, Daigle, Barker, etc etc.

If we're talking about flipping Plekanec+ for a young star (Bobby Ryan, Evander Kane, etc), that's different. But flipping 23 and 24 year old stars in Subban and Price for a pick doesn't make sense. We'll talk about that in 6 or 7 years.

[habfreak]

LOL I'm glad to see my made up trade proposals sparked such an intense conversation

First of all, as per my disclaimer in the original post, these sorts of trades almost never happen in real life. I just wanted to show that it's not absurd (Value wise) for Montreal to possibly end up with the firsxt 3 picks of this year's draft. Secondly, as someone pointed out...it's not Montreal who decides they want Columbus or Edmonton's pic...it's them who decide if they want a proven D or a goalie for their first/second overall pick. If we think from their perspective, given that they decide to trade for a goalie...they will have options of at least 3 or 4 different players of Price or Subban's Caliber. With no offence to anyone...I think we highly overvalue players here in Montreal (Like any other hockey crazy market). Leaving the Price trade aside, the fact that the Subban trade for Yakupov can spark such divisive debate is golden example of this fact

[THEBIGGESTHABSFAN123]

LOL I'm glad to see my made up trade proposals sparked such an intense conversation

First of all, as per my disclaimer in the original post, these sorts of trades almost never happen in real life. I just wanted to show that it's not absurd (Value wise) for Montreal to possibly end up with the firsxt 3 picks of this year's draft. Secondly, as someone pointed out...it's not Montreal who decides they want Columbus or Edmonton's pic...it's them who decide if they want a proven D or a goalie for their first/second overall pick. If we think from their perspective, given that they decide to trade for a goalie...they will have options of at least 3 or 4 different players of Price or Subban's Caliber. With no offence to anyone...I think we highly overvalue players here in Montreal (Like any other hockey crazy market). Leaving the Price trade aside, the fact that the Subban trade for Yakupov can spark such divisive debate is golden example of this fact

Maybe you should read the 2 posts above yours. Do you really want to tank for 5+ years?

[Habitom]

LOL I'm glad to see my made up trade proposals sparked such an intense conversation

First of all, as per my disclaimer in the original post, these sorts of trades almost never happen in real life. I just wanted to show that it's not absurd (Value wise) for Montreal to possibly end up with the firsxt 3 picks of this year's draft. Secondly, as someone pointed out...it's not Montreal who decides they want Columbus or Edmonton's pic...it's them who decide if they want a proven D or a goalie for their first/second overall pick. If we think from their perspective, given that they decide to trade for a goalie...they will have options of at least 3 or 4 different players of Price or Subban's Caliber. With no offence to anyone...I think we highly overvalue players here in Montreal (Like any other hockey crazy market). Leaving the Price trade aside, the fact that the Subban trade for Yakupov can spark such divisive debate is golden example of this fact

Price and Subban were potentials when drafted. Obviously Price more than Subban because of draft positions but still only potentials. This years picks are the new potentials. There is no guarantee that any of the top 5 will be better than Subban let alone Price. So why risk a proven young player for a potential player? Now if we had McDonagh and Halak you could take this risk.