Jump to content
The Official Site of the Montréal Canadiens
Canadiens de Montreal

#14 Tomáš Plekanec 2016-17


habs_93

Recommended Posts

#14 Tomáš Plekanec

Alternate Captain

Qs8SuN3.jpg

Position: Centre

Shoots: Left

Birthplace: Kladno, CZE

Birth date: 31 October 1982

Age: 33

Height: 5' 11"

Weight: 195 lbs

Drafted by: Montréal

Draft Year: 2001 Round 3 (71st Overall)

Archive 2015-16

Stats | Video | NHL.com | Contract Info

 

OwnThePuck HERO Chart (http://ownthepuck.blogspot.com/):uodtOxs.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Last summer I felt like we needed to trade a centre.


I ranked them:

DD (fits our plans the least, but probably bring back the smallest return)
Plekanec (still has good defensive abilities, is a 'name' player, may bring back a prospect + decent pick)
Eller (still has value, may bring back decent return).

My hope was that we'd trade DD and switch Eller and Pleks at 2nd & 3rd centre.  Obviously that didnt happen, we moved the guy who probably fit best and we kept the 2 that didnt.  The big problem now is that DD is fine as a sheltered offfensive centre but cant play defense. Plekanec seems to have lost his scoring touch completely but can still backcheck.


So... we have 3 options:
1) Hope that Plekanec turns it around.  Its only been 6 games after all & he's always been a slow starter (albeit, not this slow)
2) Swap DD and Plekanec so lekhonen-DD-Radulov become our #2 while  Carr/Byron-Plekanec-Shaw are our all out defensive line.
3) Get rid of DD or Plekanec & either replace one via trade, or promote a guy like McCarron.


I hope #1 works but Im not holding my breath. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, maas_art said:

Last summer I felt like we needed to trade a centre.


I ranked them:

DD (fits our plans the least, but probably bring back the smallest return)
Plekanec (still has good defensive abilities, is a 'name' player, may bring back a prospect + decent pick)
Eller (still has value, may bring back decent return).

My hope was that we'd trade DD and switch Eller and Pleks at 2nd & 3rd centre.  Obviously that didnt happen, we moved the guy who probably fit best and we kept the 2 that didnt.  The big problem now is that DD is fine as a sheltered offfensive centre but cant play defense. Plekanec seems to have lost his scoring touch completely but can still backcheck.


So... we have 3 options:
1) Hope that Plekanec turns it around.  Its only been 6 games after all & he's always been a slow starter (albeit, not this slow)
2) Swap DD and Plekanec so lekhonen-DD-Radulov become our #2 while  Carr/Byron-Plekanec-Shaw are our all out defensive line.
3) Get rid of DD or Plekanec & either replace one via trade, or promote a guy like McCarron.


I hope #1 works but Im not holding my breath. 

Or option 4) Get rid of Plekanec AND DD. Replace with McCarron & Mitchell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mitchell is not the answer as a top 9 player. He's played well as a 4th line guy and right-handed center, but when you start asking 4th liners like Mitchell, Byron, Weise, Flynn, Moen, Prust, Danault, or DLR to play a bigger role, that's when it falls apart. Leave Mitchell where he can be successful.

I do think Plekanec will start to play better going forward, but I don't think he's got as much jump in his game as he used to, and we saw the decline start last year, not just this one, so I don't think we'll ever see him hit 60-70 point pace, even though he's playing with better wingers than he used to get (Mike Blunden, I'm looking at you). Nevertheless, he would be an excellent, albeit expensive, third-line center. The real question is what to do about the 2nd line spot: do you give Desharnais a shot? Do you promote McCarron? Do you make a trade? Or do you leave Plekanec in the top 6 but swap the wingers around to try to jumpstart that group. The obvious first move might be to swap Galchenyuk and Plekanec and see what that brings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, BigTed3 said:

Nevertheless, he would be an excellent, albeit expensive, third-line center. The real question is what to do about the 2nd line spot: do you give Desharnais a shot? Do you promote McCarron? Do you make a trade? Or do you leave Plekanec in the top 6 but swap the wingers around to try to jumpstart that group. The obvious first move might be to swap Galchenyuk and Plekanec and see what that brings.

Id personally prefer moving DD for anything (picks, prospects etc) and promote McCarron.   Its a double whammy because then yes, Plekanec is a vastly overpaid 3rd liner but McCarron is a vastly underpaid 2nd so money-wise you're back on track with regard to your your centres and the cap. 

im not positive if McCarron can handle it but with those 2 wingers (lekhonen and radulov) i think he just might be ready for the next step. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

first of all i think the obvious thing from the beginning of the year is to switch chuck and plek.

Then we have one pure offence line and a solid , responsible and productive 2nd line. patch plek and gallagher could play head to head against the other teams top line, then you give all the offensive zone starts and 1st wave pp and any exploitation to chuck rad and lehkonen. 

DD ....ive just given up that logic will ever prevail. we're gonna extend him to a lifetime contract including guaranteed coaching job for when he retires.

again this is way too hard for our coach to compute so dont hold your breath

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/26/2016 at 1:07 PM, jeff33 said:

first of all i think the obvious thing from the beginning of the year is to switch chuck and plek.

Then we have one pure offence line and a solid , responsible and productive 2nd line. patch plek and gallagher could play head to head against the other teams top line, then you give all the offensive zone starts and 1st wave pp and any exploitation to chuck rad and lehkonen

DD ....ive just given up that logic will ever prevail. we're gonna extend him to a lifetime contract including guaranteed coaching job for when he retires.

again this is way too hard for our coach to compute so dont hold your breath

I suggested this in the lines thread a while ago...

DD is hanging around and playing well enough to continue as the team's 3rd line center for now... but IMO replacing him if possible would still be the right move.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
18 minutes ago, habs1952 said:

He should have been traded(if possible) and Eller should have been kept. 

I think many of this said this a year ago and two years ago... that Plekanec was still good but that he was at risk of a drop-off and that if you traded Eller, you really had no one to take over that two-way center role. We have guys who can contribute some offence, and we have guys who can take care of their own end, but Plekanec and Eller were the only two centers who could do both. Now Plekanec has seen his play drop off over the past 100 games and Eller was dealt to accommodate trading for Andrew Shaw. Terrible double trade from MB, and it was obvious when it happened that it would hurt us.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trade (unlikely) or even a buy-out if he can't turn it around. As a contending team that needs to win now, I don't think we can afford to waste 6M in Cap space. The savings would certainly be more useful elsewhere. However, this would mean we'd need to use Danault as our shutdown center. He has certainly surprised this year but I'm not sure he's ready for that role yet. So yes, keeping Eller would have been much easier. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...