#14 Tomáš Plekanec 2017-18

[habs1952]

I've always appreciated Pleky's contributions to the Habs however, IMO, if a deal was possible, I would have preferred to trade Pleky instead of Eller. I think Eller, Gallagher and Galchenyuk would have been quite successful as a line.

[Habs_Hockey_Nutz]

21 minutes ago, habs1952 said:

I've always appreciated Pleky's contributions to the Habs however, IMO, if a deal was possible, I would have preferred to trade Pleky instead of Eller. I think Eller, Gallagher and Galchenyuk would have been quite successful as a line.

Ideally they could have had both still... and yes the line of Galchenyuk-Eller-Gallagher was a very good one that would likely have been a number one line now on some teams... but management couldn't see thee potential when it was a good thing and split them up.

[kalevine]

that may be but he hasn't really done much to get anyone else going in the last few years, so I'm not sure why anyone would be rotated to his line, and how it would benefit them.  Byron, par contre, has done pretty well whomever he is with.  Started the season on tghe 4th line even though he was one of the only 20 goal scorers last year, and last I looked he is producing at a similar clip this year

[Habs_Hockey_Nutz]

8 hours ago, kalevine said:

that may be but he hasn't really done much to get anyone else going in the last few years, so I'm not sure why anyone would be rotated to his line, and how it would benefit them.  Byron, par contre, has done pretty well whomever he is with.  Started the season on tghe 4th line even though he was one of the only 20 goal scorers last year, and last I looked he is producing at a similar clip this year

What line? Plekanec??? Huh??? Once again this year even when his line is doing well players are being changed... he has not had much consistency of line-mates in the last 5 years even when his line is fine.

[HabsRuleForever]

The linesman just love kicking him out of the circle.

[H_T_L]

https://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/gagnon-plekanec-will-be-traded-by-the-deadline-1.950087

Tell us something we don't know.

[jennifer_rocket]

13 hours ago, H_T_L said:

https://www.tsn.ca/radio/montreal-690/gagnon-plekanec-will-be-traded-by-the-deadline-1.950087

Tell us something we don't know.

I don't know. Hes got the 4th highest ATOI of all Montreal forwards. Seems like Julien likes him.

[H_T_L]

57 minutes ago, jennifer_rocket said:

I don't know. Hes got the 4th highest ATOI of all Montreal forwards. Seems like Julien likes him.

Article refers to a deadline move. He's very likely a moveable asset unless some miracle happens and we turn this season around. Doesn't mean we can't target him this summer as a UFA for a much more reasonable Cap hit.

[jennifer_rocket]

38 minutes ago, H_T_L said:

Article refers to a deadline move. He's very likely a moveable asset unless some miracle happens and we turn this season around. Doesn't mean we can't target him this summer as a UFA for a much more reasonable Cap hit.

Oh, as sellers... yes! I keep thinking that MB will continue to believe we have a chance to make the post-season and go all the way.

[maas_art]

2 hours ago, H_T_L said:

Article refers to a deadline move. He's very likely a moveable asset unless some miracle happens and we turn this season around. Doesn't mean we can't target him this summer as a UFA for a much more reasonable Cap hit.

Yeah, if we're out of the playoffs (pretty darned likely) i think MB will dump most of our impending UFA.   Plekanec is funny because i think he'd be desirable as a rental but on the flip side he's never been great in the post season. I guess if someone is just getting him exclusively as a defensive 3rd or 4th line centre then its a decent investment.  Not sure we'd get much more than a 2nd for him though. Maybe we could package him + Deslauriers and get a young prospect the way we did Weise + Fleischmann for Danault + 2nd. 

1 hour ago, jennifer_rocket said:

Oh, as sellers... yes! I keep thinking that MB will continue to believe we have a chance to make the post-season and go all the way.

At some point you have to think he'll realize that the season is unsavable.  Especially now that Weber looks to be out for a while (instant excuse!) but with our division as bad as its been, who knows. 

[BigTed3]

2 minutes ago, maas_art said:

Yeah, if we're out of the playoffs (pretty darned likely) i think MB will dump most of our impending UFA.   Plekanec is funny because i think he'd be desirable as a rental but on the flip side he's never been great in the post season. I guess if someone is just getting him exclusively as a defensive 3rd or 4th line centre then its a decent investment.  Not sure we'd get much more than a 2nd for him though. Maybe we could package him + Deslauriers and get a young prospect the way we did Weise + Fleischmann for Danault + 2nd. 

At some point you have to think he'll realize that the season is unsavable.  Especially now that Weber looks to be out for a while (instant excuse!) but with our division as bad as its been, who knows. 

Even if you get a 2nd or a 3rd for Plekanec, it's better than nothing. I don't see value in bringing him back next year, even on a cheaper contract. He doesn't help our top 6, he's not fast enough or good enough offensively any more to be able to play consistently, and as a 3rd line center, I'd frankly rather use Danault in that role. We continue to need to address our top 6 center position, and Plekanec doesn't help that in any way. So I think he's a must-deal at the deadline for whatever you can get.

Our division is very weak as a whole, but the problem for us is that there are 3 competitive teams. Ottawa, Florida, Buffalo, and Detroit are all pretty bad. I can't see any of them other than maybe Ottawa on a stretch getting hot enough to squeak into the playoffs. But I don't think Tampa is in doubt to make the post-season, and we're still quite a bit off the pace to catch Toronto or Boston. So not only would we need to play .600+ hockey the rest of the way, we'd also need one of those teams to falter quite a bit. I still believe our best course of action is to dump the vets and build a line-up that can compete next year and for years to come.

[maas_art]

1 minute ago, BigTed3 said:

Even if you get a 2nd or a 3rd for Plekanec, it's better than nothing. I don't see value in bringing him back next year, even on a cheaper contract. He doesn't help our top 6, he's not fast enough or good enough offensively any more to be able to play consistently, and as a 3rd line center, I'd frankly rather use Danault in that role. We continue to need to address our top 6 center position, and Plekanec doesn't help that in any way. So I think he's a must-deal at the deadline for whatever you can get.

I agree.  Although I think if it was feasable to get an elite #1 line Tavares, Im ok with Danault as my number two.  That would give us Tavares-Danault-Plekanec  as our top 3. I could live with that. 

 

Our division is very weak as a whole, but the problem for us is that there are 3 competitive teams. Ottawa, Florida, Buffalo, and Detroit are all pretty bad. I can't see any of them other than maybe Ottawa on a stretch getting hot enough to squeak into the playoffs. But I don't think Tampa is in doubt to make the post-season, and we're still quite a bit off the pace to catch Toronto or Boston. So not only would we need to play .600+ hockey the rest of the way, we'd also need one of those teams to falter quite a bit. I still believe our best course of action is to dump the vets and build a line-up that can compete next year and for years to come.{/quote]

Totally agree.  Even if we squeak in, the most optimistic of us cant really believe we can do any damage in the post season.  Maybe Price can steal a series but not much else. 

[BigTed3]

1 minute ago, maas_art said:

I agree.  Although I think if it was feasable to get an elite #1 line Tavares, Im ok with Danault as my number two.  That would give us Tavares-Danault-Plekanec  as our top 3. I could live with that.

The thing is, if you sign Tavares (a big big if but let's talk in hypotheticals) and you don't have to give up anyone to do it, then (without and trades) you have Tavares, Pacioretty, Drouin, Galchenyuk, Gallagher, Lehkonen, and Hudon, all of whom I would rank ahead of Danault in terms of offensive talent. So to me - and this has been one of our major issues this season and last - we're killing ourselves by having all this skill at the wing and then lacking good enough centers to carry the puck up ice, distribute it to the wingers in scoring situations, and control play, etc. I don't think you can sit on Tavares-Danault as your 1-2 down the middle and then push guys like Galchenyuk or Gallagher or Lehkonen to the 3rd line to play with Plekanec. To me, Tomas is not a fit any more. He's getting into that stage of his career where we found Scott Gomez and David Desharnais at one point: not good enough to be a top 6 and not really the ideal fit for the 3rd or 4th lines either when you could find a younger, faster, cheaper option to do the job. Plekanec at this point is maybe a guy a contending team acquires to be a PK guy, a late-in-the-game veteran to protect a lead, and so on. But he's a role player and probably only useful if he's earning 2.5M or less and alternating between the 3rd and 4th lines. I don't know that we have the right roster to make that work.

[maas_art]

1 hour ago, BigTed3 said:

The thing is, if you sign Tavares (a big big if but let's talk in hypotheticals) and you don't have to give up anyone to do it, then (without and trades) you have Tavares, Pacioretty, Drouin, Galchenyuk, Gallagher, Lehkonen, and Hudon, all of whom I would rank ahead of Danault in terms of offensive talent. So to me - and this has been one of our major issues this season and last - we're killing ourselves by having all this skill at the wing and then lacking good enough centers to carry the puck up ice, distribute it to the wingers in scoring situations, and control play, etc. I don't think you can sit on Tavares-Danault as your 1-2 down the middle and then push guys like Galchenyuk or Gallagher or Lehkonen to the 3rd line to play with Plekanec. To me, Tomas is not a fit any more. He's getting into that stage of his career where we found Scott Gomez and David Desharnais at one point: not good enough to be a top 6 and not really the ideal fit for the 3rd or 4th lines either when you could find a younger, faster, cheaper option to do the job. Plekanec at this point is maybe a guy a contending team acquires to be a PK guy, a late-in-the-game veteran to protect a lead, and so on. But he's a role player and probably only useful if he's earning 2.5M or less and alternating between the 3rd and 4th lines. I don't know that we have the right roster to make that work.

Good points, and I can totally buy into what you're saying.
I think the other thing is that if we're worried about Chucky or Drouin & their defensive games, being bookmarked between Tavares at #1 and Danault at #3 means you could shelter either one of them as a second line centre.

I still think we need to trade some left wings.  Pacioretty, Drouin, Galchenuyk, Lehkonen, Hudon, Carr, Byron are all either natural LW or have said or shown they are more suited there. I can buy Carr and Lehkonen as RW but no matter how you slice it we have way too many quality LW and not nearly enough LD and C. 

[BigTed3]

1 hour ago, maas_art said:

Good points, and I can totally buy into what you're saying.
I think the other thing is that if we're worried about Chucky or Drouin & their defensive games, being bookmarked between Tavares at #1 and Danault at #3 means you could shelter either one of them as a second line centre.

I still think we need to trade some left wings.  Pacioretty, Drouin, Galchenuyk, Lehkonen, Hudon, Carr, Byron are all either natural LW or have said or shown they are more suited there. I can buy Carr and Lehkonen as RW but no matter how you slice it we have way too many quality LW and not nearly enough LD and C. 

If I look at our wing situation (again assuming no moves other than signing Tavares), then I'm happy with Byron-Shaw as our 4th line wingers. I'm fine with any of Hudon-Lehkonen-Carr as our 3rd line wingers. I'm fine with Galchenyuk-Gallagher on our 2nd line, and I'm fine with Pacioretty as our 1st line LW. Those players are all in their ideal chairs. Now building things that way, you're missing a clear 1st line RW, so either you're playing Gallagher in that role or you're playing Lehkonen in that role or you're hoping Scherbak makes a heck of a leap. But down the middle, you now have Tavares, Drouin, Danault, and Plekanec, which again, is completely fine and even great down the middle. The question is whether that makes sense. If we don't think JD or AG can be a top 6 center, then I agree with you: trade someone from the wing, move JD to left wing, and get yourself a real 2C. The dream move would be to send Pacioretty out in some sort of a deal for RNH, MacKinnon, Huberdeau, Couturier, or someone of that ilk... Pacioretty for Couturier plus Sanheim would be a great deal, for example. Pacioretty for Huberdeau straight up would be great too. Imagine something like

Galchenyuk-Tavares-Gallagher

Drouin-Huberdeau-Lehkonen

Hudon-Danault-Carr

Byron-Shaw-Scherbak

But no matter how you cut it, Danault is a great 3C and Plekanec is a mediocre one. To retain Plekanec in the 3C spot means you have Danault filling the 2C, everyone's asked to do more than they should be, and you continue to have the overload of wingers without the scoring centers to support them.