You can speculate all you want. Debate, argue, have emotional opinions. In my 23 years as a coach, I won 7 championships. What did 6 of those teams have in common? I had strength down the middle. What did the other teams have, a good goalie, good wingers, good D, but weak down the middle.
In the month of February the Habs have played for 500 hockey. 4 wins, 4 losses, 1 OTL. The 4 centres had a combined 12 points. During the same period the Jets C's had 24 pts, Oilers 30 pts and Leafs 37 pts. The 3rd best team had double the point production of the Habs.
Conclusion: either you go for it and sacrifice young prospects and high draft picks or you move Weber, Price, Tatar, Danault, Perry, Frolik, Byron (yes some of these guys have no trades) and build your team around Suze, KK, Poehling, Evans, Norlinder, Ghule, Romanov, Ylonen, Primeau, McNiven, Fairbrother, Caufield, Vejdemo.
You need both veterans and kids to win... Especially if you want to compete long term. Look at EDM and BUF... I agree that trading Danault and Tatar would be great in order to add some solid prospects, but not every guys above 27... Weber, Petry and Gally are staying. Carey as well unless HE decides he wants to play for SEA (close to home) this summer, but thats another story.
You need both veterans and kids to win... Especially if you want to compete long term. Look at EDM and BUF... I agree that trading Danault and Tatar would be great in order to add some solid prospects, but not every guys above 27... Weber, Petry and Gally are staying. Carey as well unless HE decides he wants to play for SEA (close to home) this summer, but thats another story.
That is why Gally and Petry were not on the list. Those two are staying. If Price and Weber want to stay, I would keep them as well. But what I am saying is Habs have only 2 choices. Go for it and sacrifice very good prospects and high draft picks to land 2 veteran high end C's or build around the younger nucleus.
For example many people are grumbling about Tkachuk & KK comparison. As of today Sens won that draft, because Tkachuk looks so much better but KK is still only 20 years old, give him 3 to 5 years he is going to be an excellent player. All I am saying is Habs have an important decision to make. As of right now, they only have 1 C with veteran experience and we all know he is not producing offensively.
McDavid, Connor
250 000 $)
CapFriendly
CapFriendly