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Canadiens Must Achieve 3 Goals In Weeks Before Trade Deadline Day |
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The Montreal Canadiens will look to turn the lemon that is the 2017-2018 season into some lemonade by successfully navigating the upcoming trade deadline.
There have been plenty of rumors and speculation lately about player movement, who’s available, who isn’t, and this year seems to have a healthy amount of sellers AND buyers.
The latest confirmed rumor of Rick Nash’s availability and the rumor of Ryan McDonough’s availability are this weeks trending news, but considering we already know that E Kane, and Pacioretty are available makes for an interesting lead up to dead line day.
Clearly, Nash will be dealt. The player confirmed himself that he submitted his 12 team trade list to the NYR management and seemed pretty upset to have to do so.
Which leads to the obvious first goal for deadline day: Turning Max Pacioretty into multiple high value, young assets.
If I were to rank the three scoring wingers I would say it is fair to say Pacioretty is the most desirable winger available from both a production and contract standpoint, and likely a leadership stand point.
Then I would say E Kane as a pure rental due to his age and ability followed fairly closely by the rapidly declining R Nash, who never really fulfilled his end of the huge contract he signed in Columbus before forcing the Blue Jackets into a terrible trade due to his desire to only play for the NY Rangers.
While it’s possible that Nash or Kane are dealt before Pacioretty, it doesn’t change the fact that Pacioretty represents best value for any team looking to invest in their Stanley Cup aspirations.
Kane could be a locker room problem and is a rental.
Nash will be a good soldier I’m sure but the soon to be 34 year old will come with the biggest cap hit of the 3 trade targets at 7.8 million and is also a playoff rental.
Certainly, if all three of these players are dealt, like I suspect they will be, Nash will be the cheapest buy, followed by Kane, followed by Pacioretty.
The GM that gets Pacioretty will be paying not just for one playoff run, but an entire extra, affordable (4.5 mill cap hit) season and playoffs after that. Plenty of time to build a relationship with the player and resign him as well.
Some will tell you that the ask for Pacioretty is “Insane” with the last rumored ask being: Roster player, Top Prospect, and a 1st & 2nd round pick. It is a lot, no doubt, but this is not a “Rental” transaction. This is an addition of a 30+ goal scoring, penalty killing winger who’s a proven leader.
Make no mistake, the deal for Pacioretty should be huge in magnitude. Anything less could seal Marc Bergevin’s fate as Sakic ended up getting a kings ransom for a lesser player in M Duchene.
The second goal, which may happen first in terms of transactions, will be finding buyers for career Hab T Plekanec and vet D man J Benn.
It’s unfortunate to write about this considering Plekanec has been a great member of the Canadiens club for such a long time and the hope was for one more chance to make a run at a Cup, but reality is reality and sentimentality is useless.
The GM’s job is to manage his assets accordingly and always keep the club moving forward, regardless of expectations and outcomes. The GM must make the prudent, difficult decisions for the sake of the club, not the sake of feelings.
Plekanec may be on the decline but a trade to a team that can utilize him in a 3rd line and PK capacity will reap the benefits come playoff time. While its a certainty the Canadiens will retain cap hit for the deal, who cares? They have so much dead space that every trade offer should have salary retention already on the table to make the transaction that much more palatable for the buying GM.
Plekanec isn’t going to draw anything huge either, let’s be realistic. The 35 year old is perfectly cast for this seasons deadline. He’s a dependable C that will help your club when used in the right capacity. That said, if Bergevin can turn him into a 2nd round pick we should be ecstatic, but I think we will likely see the Canadiens take on a expiring contract and likely a 3rd round selection. It will really depend on which teams management group really needs quality, dependable, veteran depth down the middle for the playoffs.
The third goal leading into the deadline will be properly scouting this years prospects heading into the end of their junior seasons and playoffs.
This may be the most important off season since the Canadiens let Koivu walk to Anaheim years ago.
Not the same in that they need to sign like 5 guys to fill out a roster, but important in that they need to get newly minted Asst GM Timmins working OT to scout not only other teams prospects for the potential Pacioretty deal, but making sure they use this early pick this draft wisely and grab the player that best exemplifies the mould of an impact player, regardless of postition.
The Canadiens should not draft on positional need, but best available player with “Impact Player” potential. Their current position of 6th, if this is where they will pick, will make this even more paramount. The first pick with the top 7 being fairly elite this year, will be what could make or break this current managements tenure with the Canadiens.
It’s that important to get it right. Forget about love of defensemen, forget about “Russian Factor”, scout, evaluate, and take just the important aspects of the player to be used for judgement.
Assign each of the top 10 prospects with a letter “Player Z, Player D, Player G, etc…” and use the hard data to make your decision. This is a great opportunity to bring in an impact player and it’s the most important thing on the agenda for any member of management not currently negotiating a Pacioretty trade.
After the first round Montreal owns 3 second round picks. This is where Timmins typically shines bright and I expect no different this draft. As of today those picks would be 37th (MTL), 42nd (CHI), and 56th (WASH). The first two could land some draft day sliders or hidden gems that just weren’t a part of the sports medias hype reels. Every draft there’s many first rounders who amount to nothing and many second rounders who make scouts look terrible.
As I said, most important draft in a very long time and Timmins needs all the rope to make these decisions. I have faith in his ability to evaluate talent and Bergevin will have to give him the majority control over the draft.
This summer is a great opportunity to bring in an elite prospect that may even suit up next year, plus pull the typical second round magic x’s 3. Habs scouting MUST be working overtime for not only the possible Pacioretty deal, but to take advantage of an incredible draft opportunity.
Bonus Thought: My pick if the Habs picked 6th in the draft? Well, I think the picks would go: Dahlin, Tkachuk, Svechnikov, Boqvist, Zadina. With that, as of now my preferred choice would be standout US born C/RW O Wahlstrom.
Wahlstrom’s stats this year are incredible. In the USHL he has produced 15 G and 9 A in 15 games. In the USDP he is regarded as the best scoring option on his team and has put up 31 G and 22 A in 38 games. His hockey IQ is regarded as “High” while people are praising his powerful speed, quick feet, and is called an effective player with outstanding skill.
That’s a slam dunk pick to me.
Now the Habs need to make the proper moves to move this team forward next season and beyond. Unfortunately that means saying good bye to some long time favorites for the sake of long term team building.
The good thing is Pacioretty should yield a high end return and so should the draft. Now it’s simply about scouting excessively and finding the thirsty GM’s.
Go Habs Go
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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