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2017-18 Habs Lines


BigTed3

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JM2C:

Max, Chuck, Rad

Druoin, Shaw, Gallagher

Byron, Pleks, Lekhonen

Martinsen, Mitchell, ?

Seems we're a tad short on RW.

If I were CJ, I would tell each line that they have 2 weeks to make it work, and if it doesn't work, there will be changes. 

 

Petry, Weber

Markov, Benn

Beau, Emelin

Extras,,, Davidson, Nesterov

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I'm expecting Plekanec gone, but I won't pretend at putting anything new in the lineup until we know for sure. Emelin I hope is also gone. Purely to make room for cap and upcoming contract renewals.

Drouin Galchenyuk Radulov

Pacioretty Danault Gallagher

Byron McCarron Shaw

Lehkonen Mitchell Scherbak

 

Juulsen Weber

Beaulieu Petry

Markov Benn

 

Price

Lindgren

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35 minutes ago, kinot-2 said:

Seems we're a tad short on RW.

You're using two of them as C ;)


Obviously a lot is most likely to change before camp but thinking a little outside the box (I am sure they wont do it). 

Pacioretty - Drouin - Radulov   (Drouin was drafted as a centre, has vision like a centre & only played wing in TB because of their logjam of top centres)

Lehkonen - Galchenyuk - Gallagher (I think giving chucky 2 responsible wingers AND slightly more sheltered minutes as a #2 will be a HUGE difference to his game)

Byron, Danault - Shaw   (would be a terrific line. 

Martinsen, Mitchell, McCarron (we have a lot of options here. Maybe Carr - Hudon - McCarron & try a fast paced 'kid line' like the oilers used to)

 

Defense worries me with that big, gaping hole.  I dont think anyone we have right now lines up well next to Weber. We're set down the right side.  We have several great options for 2nd and 3rd pairing LD  but we have no one who can play that pivotal #1 LD spot.  Markov can NOT do it for a whole year. I know Beau is still on our roster but i would be pretty surprised if he's here come Sept/Oct. 

____________ - Weber

Markov - Petry

Jerabek/Emelin/Davidson/Nesterov - Benn

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With respect to forwards, I'll leave the expansion draft out of the equation for now. I would build the line-up around the following premises:

- Danault and Shaw are viable 3rd line players but really shouldn't be in the top 6 at this point

- Pacioretty, Galchenyuk, Drouin, and Gallagher are all clear top 6 guys to me, as is Radulov if he returns

- Lehkonen would look great on a 3rd line with Danault and Shaw but could be moved into the top 6 if needed

- Charles Hudon is ready to play in the NHL but should ideally be in the top 9 to give him a legitimate shot at success

- McCarron should also be on the NHL roster, not in the minors

No matter how you cut it, though, we're lacking top 6 centers. Radulov, Lehkonen, Gallagher, and Pacioretty are all wingers. Drouin, Galchenyuk, McCarron, and Hudon can all play center but all lack significant NHL experience there and none of them are known for a 200-foot game. Barring a trade, that's what we have though. We also know that Galchenyuk played better with Gallagher than he did with Radulov and we know that Galchenyuk needs to be on a line that's sheltered a little bit. So putting all that together, I'd line up

 

Pacioretty-Drouin-Radulov (should theoretically be better than the same line with Danault at center)

Hudon-Galchenyuk-Gallagher (this line needs sheltering but it could be very potent offensively)

Lehkonen-Danault-Shaw (love this as a 3rd line; yes you could swap Lehkonen and Hudon but this gives you a shutdown trio that can also score)

Byron-Plekanec-McCarron/Mitchell (if they can't find a way to unload Pleky, he's still a valuable two-way player and PK guy, so he stays in the line-up)

 

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On D, we're back to the same place we were last year right now:

Beaulieu-Weber

Markov-Petry

Jerabek/Davidson-Benn

We have to hope that Beaulieu with an extra year of experience is capable of playing bigger minutes and match-ups. Markov can't do it for a full season and Weber frankly needs to play with a guy who can skate and move the puck or it won't work. Markov-Petry was a great duo last year, so no sense trying to over-play Markov on the top pair.

 

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1 hour ago, BigTed3 said:

On D, we're back to the same place we were last year right now:

Beaulieu-Weber

Markov-Petry

Jerabek/Davidson-Benn

We have to hope that Beaulieu with an extra year of experience is capable of playing bigger minutes and match-ups. Markov can't do it for a full season and Weber frankly needs to play with a guy who can skate and move the puck or it won't work. Markov-Petry was a great duo last year, so no sense trying to over-play Markov on the top pair.

Agreed.  Im fine with 5 of those 6 slots.  I think we've upgraded actually (our 3rd pairing is much better this year with Benn back there and we have a guy who can step into top 4 minutes for stretches if necessary) but that #1 LD is still a huge, glaring hole.  I personally dont think Beau can do it but i hope im wrong.  I suspect he will be traded before we can find out though. 

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I think our#1 centres could be a combination of Galchenyuk and Drouin with our  #2 centre being Hudon or Dannault and am not sure how much pressure Bergevin feels with that. If Scherbak can make the jump to the third or 4th line with Plekanec we start to look pretty good. I think this signing puts Radulov into perspective and will help with his negotiation . Jerabek may be a key if he can fill a void in our top 4 on defence and I think Bergevin is more likely to sign a UFA defenceman such as  Alzner. So if Galchenyuk goes  I think it will be for a top forward. With our new coach from Boston we could help them with cap problems by taking Marchand for Galchenyuk and perhaps exchange some picks. I, like some others, do not see Galchenyuk as necessarily having to go and would suggest he is not moving until after a deal with Radulov gets done.  The problem being if we keep him and he struggles his trade value will go even lower.  We appear okay monetarily and have Plecky's 6 million and Emelin's 4 million coming off the books next year. 

 

Pacioretty     LW                C  Drouin/ Galchenyuk     RW Gallagher

Lehkonen      LW                C Hudon                         RW Radulov ?

Shaw          C/ LW              C Dannault                      RW  Byron

Scherbak/Carr  LW             C  Plekanec                    RW  Galchenyuk 

 

Extra McCarron, Carr, Mitchell, Martinsen 

Defence

1) Weber            Markov

2) Jerabek          Petry

3) Emelin            Benn

Extra   Davidson,  Juulson,  Redmond Lernout (UFA ?)

 

Goalie: Price, Montoya, Lindgren

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Pacioretty - Drouin - Galchenyuk (yes, RW!)

Lehkonen/Byron - UFA - Gallagher 

Lehkonen/Byron - Danault - Shaw

Hudon, McCarron, Scherbak, Mitchel, Martinsen, Carr

NOTES: Plekanec has to be moved in order to get UFA or add someone (Anisimov?). I don't really think Drouin is a C but I'm willing to hope and I think that line could be an insanely offensive line, especially with Chucky playing his off wing

 

Jerabek/Davidson/Nesterov/UFA - Weber  

Markov - Petry

Benn - Emelin

NOTES: If we fix LD on the top pairing, everything falls into place imo. But I hope this Czech guy is good because I don't see how we can add here AND at C and I think C is the main priority if we are going to add anywhere - unless Emelin is moved. 

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If we dont resign Radu,  we could try something like:

 

Patches - Galchenyuk - Drouin

Lehkonen - Danault - Gallagher

although id really prefer to have Danault at #3c,  those top 2 lines wouldnt be horrible assuming Julien is smart about his defensive sheltering of the top line. 

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3 hours ago, BigTed3 said:

IF Emelin really is chosen by LV, frees up cap space to re-sign Radulov and/or target another D man... Habs will without a doubt need to improve left side but for now would be

 

Markov-Weber

Davidson-Petry

Jerabek-Benn

We can't have Markov at the top. I hope that Jerabek is capable of it or we are in trouble. Also Benn shoots left... who would be the third guy on the right? 

Anyway, I don't think losing Emelin is a big loss, I prefer to have the cap room

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1 hour ago, habsisme said:

We can't have Markov at the top. I hope that Jerabek is capable of it or we are in trouble. Also Benn shoots left... who would be the third guy on the right? 

Anyway, I don't think losing Emelin is a big loss, I prefer to have the cap room

Benn shoots left but prefers playing right.

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4 hours ago, BigTed3 said:

IF Emelin really is chosen by LV, frees up cap space to re-sign Radulov and/or target another D man... Habs will without a doubt need to improve left side but for now would be

 

Markov-Weber

Davidson-Petry

Jerabek-Benn

Assuming Emelin is gone (seems that way, especially with instagram thing) then I agree it opens up holes but it shouldnt be super hard to fill them.

The problem becomes:  if Radu doesnt and MB trades Galchenyuk for a stud dman, we've got a major hole up front.  If Radu doesnt resign and  we dont trade for a top pairing LD, we have a major hole in the back-end.

If Radu does re-sign and we trade AG for a top pairing LD  that probably puts us into the best situation, although id still rather not lose AG.

Are there any UFA d who may be capable of playing on the top pairing LD ?   Im assuming we're going to have to find someone in a trade...

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5 minutes ago, maas_art said:

Assuming Emelin is gone (seems that way, especially with instagram thing) then I agree it opens up holes but it shouldnt be super hard to fill them.

The problem becomes:  if Radu doesnt and MB trades Galchenyuk for a stud dman, we've got a major hole up front.  If Radu doesnt resign and  we dont trade for a top pairing LD, we have a major hole in the back-end.

If Radu does re-sign and we trade AG for a top pairing LD  that probably puts us into the best situation, although id still rather not lose AG.

Are there any UFA d who may be capable of playing on the top pairing LD ?   Im assuming we're going to have to find someone in a trade...

I'd frankly rather trade Gallagher or Shaw to try to get a defenceman, or as I've alluded to before, Weber to try and get a replacement D man AND a forward. I think it's also possible to trade our 1st rounder this year for someone.

As far as UFA D men, Shattenkirk is top of the line but he's a righty and he supposedly wants to go to NY. Kulikov is a guy who could be interesting, but more of a complementary player rather than a true top pairing guy. Karl Alzner is another guy who's probably overrated but can be a placeholder on the left side, as is Brendan Smith. We've had interest in Franson before, but again he's a righty. Signing a righty would mean shifting Benn to the top 4 on the left. And if all else fails, I hear Bergevin really likes Victor Bartley!

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5 hours ago, BigTed3 said:

IF Emelin really is chosen by LV, frees up cap space to re-sign Radulov and/or target another D man... Habs will without a doubt need to improve left side but for now would be

 

Markov-Weber

Davidson-Petry

Jerabek-Benn

Horrible.

Who is going to man the PP, PK and when it goes to 3 on 3 OT we have a bunch of pylons back there

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So far we have lost Beaulieu, Sergachev and Emelin for Drouin, a third and 4 million. I think the way many see that is like losng a number 5 and 6 d men. I think Davdson can easily fill Beaulieu shoes and believe Jerabek is an Emelin light and believe we need to keep some muscle on the back end. If we get Leddy and a frward or two from the Isle I think we improve our situation. The cash may be worth more as it can land one or two players for Emelin or allow us to sign long term.

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Leddy at least makes sense being a lefty, but I'd be asking for more than him and Beauvillier for a young 30-goal scorer like Galchenyuk.

Of other guys who are rumored to be on trading block, Barrie, Vatanen, and Hamonic are righties, which we simply don't need unless we trade Weber. Ryan Murray would be an interesting young lefty, and Nik Hjalmarsson is a guy from Chicago (Bergevin's favorite organization to pick from), albeit he's a lot older than the rest. Chicago may also not need to dump salary any more now that Hossa is out for the year. Brodin and De Haan are also lefties, and Jake Muzzin is a guy who might be available from LA, and I wouldn't be surprised if Bergevin had interest in him.

I wonder whether MB could get away with asking Columbus for Murray and Wennberg in exchange for Galchenyuk and a prospect like Scherbak, for example...

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29 minutes ago, BigTed3 said:

Leddy at least makes sense being a lefty, but I'd be asking for more than him and Beauvillier for a young 30-goal scorer like Galchenyuk.

Of other guys who are rumored to be on trading block, Barrie, Vatanen, and Hamonic are righties, which we simply don't need unless we trade Weber. Ryan Murray would be an interesting young lefty, and Nik Hjalmarsson is a guy from Chicago (Bergevin's favorite organization to pick from), albeit he's a lot older than the rest. Chicago may also not need to dump salary any more now that Hossa is out for the year. Brodin and De Haan are also lefties, and Jake Muzzin is a guy who might be available from LA, and I wouldn't be surprised if Bergevin had interest in him.

I wonder whether MB could get away with asking Columbus for Murray and Wennberg in exchange for Galchenyuk and a prospect like Scherbak, for example...

Not Wennberg, I don't think they are trading him

The more I think about it the more I like Leddy and Beauvillier but I want more value for Chucky... and I'm only okay with this if we sign Radulov. We'd still be weak at center but maybe Drouin or Beauvillier or Danault can find a way... Plekanec could have a resurgence? 

I think our D looks really strong if you add a guy like Leddy, it changes everything. Our right side is already strong. And then having Jerabek, Markov, Davidson covering 4 and 6... that's not bad at all

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34 minutes ago, habsisme said:

I think our D looks really strong if you add a guy like Leddy, it changes everything. Our right side is already strong. And then having Jerabek, Markov, Davidson covering 4 and 6... that's not bad at all

I thought it was weak last year and I think it's worse this year ( so far )

It was slow and not very mobile last year and now everyone's a year older and slower

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  1. Keep Galchenyuk
  2. Resign Radulov
  3. Magically turn Plekanec's cap hit into a #1LD (or make him play LD with Weber!)

 

TOP 6

We've got two young 3rd overall picks to build around on offence, Drouin and Galchenyuk.

Pacioretty-Drouin-Radulov

Galchenyuk-Hudon-Gallagher

 

BOTTOM 6

Lots of decent options with Lehkonen, Byron, Hudon, Shaw, Danault, Mitchell, McCarron, Carr, Martinsen, De La Rose, possibly Scherbak

Lehkonen-Danault-Shaw

Byron-Mitchell-McCarron

 

DEFENCE

UFA Magic / Plekanec - Weber

Benn - Petry

Markov- Davidson

 

 

 

 

 

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