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Montreal Canadiens acquire Brett Kulak for Matt Taormina and Rinat Valiev


HabsAlways

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https://www.habseyesontheprize.com/transactions-signings-trades/2018/10/1/17924966/montreal-canadiens-brett-kulak-for-matt-taormina-and-rinat-valiev-nhl-trade-calgary-flames-ahl

Not sure what to make of this one, other than that its just minor league shuffling.    At first I thought it might have something to with the rumours Shaw is ready for opening night.

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Yeah, we've been discussing it over in state of the habs. Didnt think it really warranted its own thread but its all good.  My thoughts (from the other thread) are:

 

 Id call that an upgrade (Kulak over Valiev) and I think all 3 players have cleared waivers so...   

It sounds like this was a move to allow Fleury to make the Laval roster (moving 2 for 1, opening up a spot) but its a shame for the Laval fans to lose Taormina who was a bonefide AHL star & put fans in the seats.   

Not sure if Kulak will get a shot with the club at any point but if injuries happen he's a better call up than Valiev I think. 

 

I dont think it has anything to do with Shaw though - none of these guys was going to be on the opening night roster. 

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18 minutes ago, maas_art said:

Yeah, we've been discussing it over in state of the habs. Didnt think it really warranted its own thread but its all good.  My thoughts (from the other thread) are:

 

 Id call that an upgrade (Kulak over Valiev) and I think all 3 players have cleared waivers so...   

It sounds like this was a move to allow Fleury to make the Laval roster (moving 2 for 1, opening up a spot) but its a shame for the Laval fans to lose Taormina who was a bonefide AHL star & put fans in the seats.   

Not sure if Kulak will get a shot with the club at any point but if injuries happen he's a better call up than Valiev I think. 

 

I dont think it has anything to do with Shaw though - none of these guys was going to be on the opening night roster. 

Actually I think it has to do with Simon Depres's AHL contract ... probably freeing up a roster spot for him in the minors

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36 minutes ago, HabsAlways said:

Actually I think it has to do with Simon Depres's AHL contract ... probably freeing up a roster spot for him in the minors

If he accepts one.  I know they offered him one earlier today but he has yet to agree to it. 

On the other hand, Fleury is one of the top defensive prospects in our system and could go to Laval with a contract - and a roster spot.  I think it would make more sense, if space was limited, to give him a deal over Despres.  But thats still just a hunch.  

 

There's certainly an arguement to be made for getting Despres an opportunity to play pro hockey again.  After missing nearly 2 full seasons with concussions he did pretty well in the KHL last year but needs time to get back to the league he's been out of for what, 3+ years?   So I can see value there but its only a minor league deal we've offered him. 

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1 hour ago, Regis22 said:

So in the end  MB traded  Plekanec to the Leafs for a 2nd as Rychel and Valiet are gone and Plekanec is back taking a spot from a younger player

Hunter Shinkaruk and Kulak both in the minors

 

 

 

Draft picks and prospects are like lottery tickets. Sometimes you win and most times you lose. You can't win if you don't buy a ticket and that's pretty much what Pleks was,,,,, lottery tickets. At least that's the way I look at it. No win but in the end ,,, no real loss

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3 minutes ago, H_T_L said:

Draft picks and prospects are like lottery tickets. Sometimes you win and most times you lose. You can't win if you don't buy a ticket and that's pretty much what Pleks was,,,,, lottery tickets. At least that's the way I look at it. No win but in the end ,,, no real loss

Totally and im not sure how this deal is bad?   We gave up Plekanec for 17 games.  In return we got a 2nd rounder (Olaffson who is still projecting as a top 2 centre), Rychel (who became Shinkaruk (who is 23 years old and still in our system) and Valiev (who was then flipped with a career NHler for a capable #6-7 dman in Brett Kulak). 


So we gave up a player for 17 games, got a top 2 centre prospect, a bottom 6 winger prospect and a third pairing dman.   How is that bad?  Its not like plekanec was a high end commodity.    I guess some people just like to complain. 

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25 minutes ago, maas_art said:

Totally and im not sure how this deal is bad?   We gave up Plekanec for 17 games.  In return we got a 2nd rounder (Olaffson who is still projecting as a top 2 centre), Rychel (who became Shinkaruk (who is 23 years old and still in our system) and Valiev (who was then flipped with a career NHler for a capable #6-7 dman in Brett Kulak). 


So we gave up a player for 17 games, got a top 2 centre prospect, a bottom 6 winger prospect and a third pairing dman.   How is that bad?  Its not like plekanec was a high end commodity.    I guess some people just like to complain. 

some are glass half empty types......

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26 minutes ago, maas_art said:

  I guess some people just like to complain. 

:4224: , you sure you're not MB ?

 

We got a bunch of maybe's for him .  I would have liked the deal more if there was an actual NHL  roster player

 

 

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The more I read into this trade, the more I wonder if there's another one coming.  Kulak was penciled in on Calgary's top 6 (he played 70+ games for them last year) and my flames fan friends (alliteration!) said he was pretty decent in a #5-6 role.     He just signed a 1 way $900,000 deal.  

It seems highly unlikely we just acquired him to play in Laval.  

There's speculation on some other sites that we will call him up and (hopefully) ship Benn out of town.   We could really dream & hope we have a deal in place for Alzner... :P

 

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4 hours ago, Regis22 said:

So in the end  MB traded  Plekanec to the Leafs for a 2nd as Rychel and Valiet are gone and Plekanec is back taking a spot from a younger player

Hunter Shinkaruk and Kulak both in the minors

 

 

 

It's like we traded Plekanec for ................................................Plekanec.

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6 hours ago, H_T_L said:

Draft picks and prospects are like lottery tickets. Sometimes you win and most times you lose. You can't win if you don't buy a ticket and that's pretty much what Pleks was,,,,, lottery tickets. At least that's the way I look at it. No win but in the end ,,, no real loss

Yep, and the deal was still solid all things considered. We got a 2nd rounder and two projects in Valiev and Rychel for what, less than 20 games of Plekanec? I frankly expected getting a 3rd or 4th rounder for him, given that his offensive production has completely vanished. A 35-year old rental good for ~25 points usually doesn't fetch a NHL roster player in a trade.

The trade was good IMO, bringing him back wasn't really necessary though.

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2 hours ago, rocketbelifleur said:

So ... the pint is either half full or half empty - that is  a serious philosophical question.

What liquid is in the container? If it's beer, just drink it, problem solved. :P

 

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Interesting break down of the trade here

Scott Matla confirms what I thought (that Kulak is a pretty big upgrade on Valiev) and suggests he could easily be in our top 6.  On paper he's probably only behind Petry, Mete, Juulsen and maybe Reilly.  His numbers are considerably better than the 3 amigos (Benn, Alzner, Schlemko) and he played well in calgary last year for over 70 games. He was dragged down by his partner (sound familiar Petry?) and if it wasnt for Calgary's solid top 4 he might have played higher up the roster.

"when paired with Stone, Kulak had a 51.17% Corsi For, but when apart Kulak jumped up to a 55.78% CF while Stone plummeted to a 47.46% CF without Kulak."

I could see him on our roster pretty soon actually.   I just wish MB would bite the bullet and deal (or demote) Alzner Benn and possibly Schlemko (the latter looking the best of the bunch in preseason).

Weber - Petry - Mete - Juulsen - Reilly - Kulak - Ouellet  

looks infinitely better than  

Weber - Petry - Alzner - Mete - Benn - Juulsen

 

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6 hours ago, maas_art said:

Interesting break down of the trade here

Scott Matla confirms what I thought (that Kulak is a pretty big upgrade on Valiev) and suggests he could easily be in our top 6.  On paper he's probably only behind Petry, Mete, Juulsen and maybe Reilly.  His numbers are considerably better than the 3 amigos (Benn, Alzner, Schlemko) and he played well in calgary last year for over 70 games. He was dragged down by his partner (sound familiar Petry?) and if it wasnt for Calgary's solid top 4 he might have played higher up the roster.

"when paired with Stone, Kulak had a 51.17% Corsi For, but when apart Kulak jumped up to a 55.78% CF while Stone plummeted to a 47.46% CF without Kulak."

I could see him on our roster pretty soon actually.   I just wish MB would bite the bullet and deal (or demote) Alzner Benn and possibly Schlemko (the latter looking the best of the bunch in preseason).

Weber - Petry - Mete - Juulsen - Reilly - Kulak - Ouellet  

looks infinitely better than  

Weber - Petry - Alzner - Mete - Benn - Juulsen

 

Benn and Schlemko are probably more easily moved than Alzner.

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26 minutes ago, HabsAlways said:

Benn and Schlemko are probably more easily moved than Alzner.

Agreed. I think Benn or Schlemko could probably be moved for a small return - mid to late draft pick - for a team looking for depth insurance.

Alzner, with that rididiculous contract, will be tough.  I just dont see any team seeing any value there. Its not like he's an ageing scorer & a GM thinks "maybe he can get back to what he once was" - Alzner was always pretty middle of the road & has now gotten worse.    4 years is a long time for that.

The best we could *maybe* hope for would be a returning contract that is 2-4 years but a player that maybe is a better fit.  Dont know who that would be mind you.  He might be a little more tradeable in his last 2 years when his salary is like $1-1.5m less than his cap hit.  At that point a cheap owner like Melnyk may see some value in getting an inflated cap hit.   

That said, if you COULD move Benn and Schlemko, I think the coaching staff could figure out how to get some value out of Alzner. There's still a chance (especially when weber comes back & Juulsen can slide back to the third pair RD) that Alzner can be a 3rd pairing, PK specialist.  Terrible way to spend $4.6m of your cap but at least he wouldnt be actively hurting us... probably.  But even then, Kulak is probably better.

Reilly - Weber
Mete - Petry 
Kulak - Juulsen
Alzner

 

 

 

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