Poll: What Next?

[BigTed3]

What should Marc Bergevin do in the face of his current situation?

[maas_art]

Option 4.   Obviously there's a lot of wiggle room on what "whatever it takes" means.  I dont think we need someone better than Galchenyuk but we need to get a guy at least as good as Tomas Plekanec was year or 2 ago.  My vote is for RNH who i think can be had for a lot less than some people think. 

 

Even if everyone was healthy I think we have too big of a drop off from Galchenyuk to everyone else down the middle & as such we need to be looking for a centre (and should have been since the off season). 

[kinot-1]

I picked #4 as well, because as we've seen last year "standing pat" doesn't work. We've been in need of a 2nd line center for some time now, so, methinks that MB should go looking. 

[habs_93]

4 with gusto. If bold moves aren't made within a week, we've just cut our already small legitimate contention window in half.

[H_T_L]

The problem with waiting 8 to 10 games is that should the team crash, it then puts us in a position of desperation. Dealing with other GM's under those circumstances is dealing in a position of weakness, and smart GM's will use that to their advantage. If we're going to deal big, then the sooner the better.

[habs1952]

51 minutes ago, H_T_L said:

The problem with waiting 8 to 10 games is that should the team crash, it then puts us in a position of desperation. Dealing with other GM's under those circumstances is dealing in a position of weakness, and smart GM's will use that to their advantage. If we're going to deal big, then the sooner the better.

LOL.....we're desperate now. Waiting 8 - 10 games isn't gonna change that fact.  

[Habs=stanleycup]

The obvious #4

[jeff33]

1 hour ago, maas_art said:

Option 4.   Obviously there's a lot of wiggle room on what "whatever it takes" means.  I dont think we need someone better than Galchenyuk but we need to get a guy at least as good as Tomas Plekanec was year or 2 ago.  My vote is for RNH who i think can be had for a lot less than some people think. 

 

Even if everyone was healthy I think we have too big of a drop off from Galchenyuk to everyone else down the middle & as such we need to be looking for a centre (and should have been since the off season). 

thanks for saving me some typing. this. all of this

[H_T_L]

30 minutes ago, habs1952 said:

LOL.....we're desperate now. Waiting 8 - 10 games isn't gonna change that fact.  

Yes we are desperate but we're in 1st place. Drop down the standings 5 or 6 spots and you see that desperation amplify 10 fold. Waiting 8 to 10 games could do just that.

[BigTed3]

The truth is that I don't think waiting 8-10 games is going to make GM's try to wriggle us any harder to force us into a bad deal: we're already up against the wall right now in terms of how desperate our needs for a center are. We needed help in finding a 2C before the injuries, and this string has put the rest of the league on high alert that we need someone soon. So if we play poorly over the next 2-3 weeks, are we really any worse off? GM's are already aware of our situation, so I don't think a short losing streak hurts us that much more. Conversely, if you can wait it out for 2-3 weeks and show you can still win games on the back of Carey Price and Max Pacioretty and Shea Weber and so on, then you prove to the rest of the league that maybe you don't have to go crawling to them for help. Look at Tampa Bay. Last year they lost Stamkos and Drouin left and everyone was ready to jump on them while they were down. Yzerman stayed patient, and he got both his guys back in and managed to get his team deep into the playoffs despite the injuries. The Habs don't have the depth Tampa has up front, but TB didn't have Carey...

Let's look at the schedule. We start off tomorrow with NJ at home. NJ has played well this year, but this is a winnable game. So is the home game against Colorado and the one against Boston. The games against SJ, Was, Ana, and Min will be tough, but 3 of them are at home and you'd have to hope Carey can steal 4 points out of 8. After that, it gets a little more hairy at the end of December, but the second half of January is a more favorable schedule. With Carey and with loser points, the odds remain good that we can take 22-24 points in the 22 games up to and including Jan 21st, after which we should be getting our guys back. That would give us about 50 points in 48 games, and it would mean we'd be in tough down the stretch fighting for a playoff spot, but we would still be in the thick of it. In other words, standing pat shouldn't mean our season is done with.

That said, it's clear MB needs to add to this line-up to make it into a contender, and we need to be looking at winning now, given our cap and contract constraints. So if we're going to be adding anyways, we may as well add as soon as possible. I don't see much point in adding a plugger. We have lots of those. I'd rather call up McCarron, Hudon (who is apparently healthy again), or Scherbak and give a young talent a shot. But long-term, we need to be looking at a legit top 6 player. So if you can do it now, do it. But if you don't find a trade you like now, I'm willing to gamble that 8-10 games doesn't hurt us and may in fact help us in terms of negotiating power. There might also be teams who suffer injuries to their D corp and be more willing to flip us a good forward for an Emelin or Beaulieu or Markov. I wouldn't wait too much longer than that, or we'll be looking at heading down last season's trajectory, but I have faith Carey can win some games by himself and if Pacman/Radu/Gally/Weber/Markov/Petry/etc can do enough to keep the PP going and get us 2-3 goals a game, I think we'll win enough points to stay afloat long enough to make a trade more favorable.

[kinot-1]

Without quoting you Ted,,, that would only work if we didn't have any more long term injuries to our top 6 or top 4 D-men. If it did, things could go south real fast. 

Good centers are expensive (cap + tradeable bodies). We might get a cheap one, but then he would probably be on the 3rd or 4th lines, unless a team wants to rebuild and we could trade draft picks and some prospects. 

[BigTed3]

23 minutes ago, kinot-1 said:

Without quoting you Ted,,, that would only work if we didn't have any more long term injuries to our top 6 or top 4 D-men. If it did, things could go south real fast. 

Good centers are expensive (cap + tradeable bodies). We might get a cheap one, but then he would probably be on the 3rd or 4th lines, unless a team wants to rebuild and we could trade draft picks and some prospects. 

Sure, but if we lose say Pacioretty or Radulov or Weber, then acquiring an RNH or Duchene isn't making up for that either. That's just life, and you need to move on with what you have. If we have to give up a Scherbak, Hudon, Ghetto, Juulsen, Danault, Beaulieu, Fucale, or Lehkonen to acquire a legit top 6 center, I'd make the move. Trading McCarron is still on the table for me, but would require a trade where we get a guy who's here in his prime for at least another 3-4 years. And dealing Sergachev is for me off the table just about... I think he's got very real odds of becoming a #1-2 D man, and that's just so hard to find that it would be a mistake to trade away a player like that.

[HabsRuleForever]

13 hours ago, maas_art said:

Option 4.   Obviously there's a lot of wiggle room on what "whatever it takes" means.  I dont think we need someone better than Galchenyuk but we need to get a guy at least as good as Tomas Plekanec was year or 2 ago.  My vote is for RNH who i think can be had for a lot less than some people think. 

 

Even if everyone was healthy I think we have too big of a drop off from Galchenyuk to everyone else down the middle & as such we need to be looking for a centre (and should have been since the off season). 

 

12 hours ago, jeff33 said:

thanks for saving me some typing. this. all of this

 

[Habberwacky]

I went with stand pat for a number of reasons. I want to see how this team responds in comparison to what we did last year, and I think some of our younger players are more likely to fill some of the  roles. I think Bergevin has vastly improved our forward depth with Rads, Shaw and Dannault and we have some players who can score. Our defence seems to be deeper too. I would be reviewing this decision on a weekly basis however.. We also still have a healthy goaltender (Who may want to ease back on the number of severe beatings he lays out in order to better protect his hands).

[PuckPundit]

Even before Galchenyuk was injured, the roster itself was still not good enough to challenge for the Cup.  It was an issue that had to be addressed sooner or later.  Galchenyuk's injury simply accelerated the urgency.

The only dilemma now is to go for a centre or left-shooting D-man.  With Pateryn's broken foot, priority may have to change to avoid wearing out the D corps.

[BigTed3]

11 hours ago, PuckPundit said:

Even before Galchenyuk was injured, the roster itself was still not good enough to challenge for the Cup.  It was an issue that had to be addressed sooner or later.  Galchenyuk's injury simply accelerated the urgency.

The only dilemma now is to go for a centre or left-shooting D-man.  With Pateryn's broken foot, priority may have to change to avoid wearing out the D corps.

Agreed that there was a need for a 2C before the injuries. The question of when to move on that is timing. Right now, we are in a corner where other GM's will try to squeeze us for more. If we wait 8-10 games and falter, we're no worse off. If we do well (and the games against Col and Bos are also winnable games, just like the NJ one), then other teams might recognize we're less forced into making a deal. 

On the Pateryn front, it honestly isn't the end of the world. I like Pateryn, but we have Beaulieu back, we have Redmond back, and Barberio is an adequate fill-in from Hamilton, so our depth is still ok barring another key injury. It's not as pressing a need as a 2C. Also, Pateryn plays the right side, so our left remains Markov, Emelin, and Beaulieu. 

[CANADIENS27]

Fire himself and Therrien which he won't do. 

 

 

[Habs=stanleycup]

Reality is, it looks like MB will do nothing and simply `weather the storm`of injuries:

http://montrealgazette.com/sports/hockey/nhl/montreal-canadiens/canadiens-likely-to-stand-pat-and-weather-injury-storm

[BigTed3]

As I said before, we had three winnable games in a row following the injuries. You lose them, you're no worse off. But if you win them, suddenly you're sitting a little prettier. You can bet MB knows now that other GM's can't just hold him hostage to his situation any more. Bergevin can turn around and say, I'm not paying that price, my team is near the top of the standings and we've generated offence and won games even with the injuries. He has more collateral now to win a trade if he needs to.

That said, now is exactly the time MB should be looking for a deal. His stock is up, and he needs to trade from a position of strength. On the back end, you have Emelin, Beaulieu, Redmond, and Barberio who have all played well. You have Markov near the top of D scoring in the league. You have Plekanec finally scoring points and Byron having a career year. You have Hudon back healthy and McCarron back healthy and so on. These are your trade chips. Look at the second half of December after the Boston game and look at the first half of January. This is the toughest part of the schedule to date. Lots of good teams in there and lots of teams that have not only skill but teams that have size and skill and punish you. Now is exactly the time MB needs to make a move to shore up his top 6, not because of the injuries but because it was needed before and is still needed now, despite the last two games.