YAAAAAAAAAAA no thats completely dumb. Montreal don’t have any fire power upfront to handle such a tough division. Rangers are in same boat

Atlantic:
Tampa
Toronto
Boston
Florida

Metro:
Columbus
Pittsburgh
Washington
Philly

Central-
Winnipeg
Nashville
St. Louis
Colorado

Pacific:
San Jose
Anaheim
Edmonton
Vegas

Why is everyone picking Florida????

Okay buddy u need to be put in your place. Clearly you are new here and don’t have much a a sense to the game of hockey. Montreal is s***. They are s*** and they will be s*** for many many years. They are in the upcoming toughest division in the nhl with no center depth/ terrible contracts/ no prospect pool and an idiot for a GM. Weber will be bought out in 2021 during the lockout and pacioretty and galchenyuk are as good as gone. If u think they can or should compete u are an idiot. Any smart person would know
It’s best for the habs to regroup for the next couple years and to get some prospect. Just accept how bad they are and for the love of god do not go after other teams especially ones that are still in the cup running because your team is a disaster. See ya never

Montreal has succeeded in the past without a true 1C. Personally I don't see Montreal getting in, but if Price can find his old self again they could very well be a wild card contender.

Thank u someone understands

Before you torch me, I am on your side of this to start. There is a situation where NYR makes the playoffs. It's way, way, way more likely they make the playoffs 2019-20, but I mean they did complete/start the steps of a complete rebuild at the TDL, there's a good chance everything they got this TDL plays or has played at least 1 NHL game in 2019-20, and they were literally a WC2 team all year long before Gorton realized if they continued the path of mediocrity, that's all they would be and the core has somewhat reached it's peak so he decided to blow it up. They still have some good pieces like Kreider & Zibanejad, they have a **** load of RFAs in Vesey Spooner Vlad & Hayes, but I think the Miller move was them making a choice between JT and Hayes to commit long term to. Vesey is expected to be moved. Vlad & Spooner are uncertain to be moved but I'd be willing to bet money they'll get a low 1st or high 2nd for Spooner, probably from Montreal since they need center depth XD XD XD Yeah Montreal will somehow scrape a playoff berth with 30 wins and 30 overtime losses because Carey Price will just become unfuckingbelievable for the whole year and will refuse to let them lose games in regulation. Everyone not a homer Habs fan knows they're going to be trash and Galch+Patches are gone.

They could land a Pacioretty, a Kovalchuk, or both. That immensely helps their top 6 which was quite good this year anyway. They could find a way to be rid of Derek MacKenzie and Michael Haley. if that's the case, their 4th line could be something of Mamin-Sceviour-McCann. That's a perfectly acceptable 4th line. They'll add Borgstrom Tippett & possibly Hepponiemi full time, to a top 6 with Huberdeau Barkov Dadonov who was a 60 point player and Trocheck. They could even go out and add a guy like Calvin de Haan, who would immediately pay dividends on defense. I imagine if they lose out on de Haan that they would still pursue a guy like Ian Cole, who, in his own right isn't great, but he's not bad either, and there's a great possibility just getting Ian Cole frees up Aaron Ekblad to become an offensive beast. Panthers need a lot of things to go right for them to do it but they were in the race after the All-Star break, and after spending the first half of the season out of it.

lol apparently not, Price may hit that form but he may not. Even if he does hit that form MTL's defense is so gd awful guys like MacKinnon and Barkov and Neal and Barzal will continue to carve the **** out of it. You're losing Galchenyuk and Patches to trade. Patches can't stand being the captain of MTL and he's too good a guy to say it, but he wears it on his face. Galchenyuk needs to stop being dicked around with. I can't wait to see him come to Colorado and blossom into a 65-75 point player. I love how well Montreal's rejects do in Denver, and for whatever reason, we get to fleece you every time for it. You can keep loving your precious Habs, but they are going absolutely nowhere this year except the toilet. It's so much fun to see a GM in the running with Chiarelli as the worst GM in the league continue to get frustrated with an issue he creates and likely doesn't have the intelligence to understand he is the one perpetuating the problem. It'll be even more fun when he drafts Brady Tkachuk 3rd overall this year after being gift wrapped the pick.

If he drafts Tkachuk I’m done with bergy we should pick best available

You're further proving my point. Bergevin should've been fired the second he thought trading Subban for Weber was a good idea. But instead your organization fired the kid my age who had the dissenting opinion and told everyone it was terrible. 2 years later, it's still terrible. Bergevin is taking Tkachuk. All signs point to him taking Tkachuk. If you want to be a rational Avalanche fan to follow your guy Galchenyuk, we have room on the bandwagon. If you want to follow Patches in Florida or Carolina, go for it. Your GM has made 2 of the biggest trades over the last 2 seasons and has made your team actively worse. What would a Petry, Subban, Mete, Sergachev, Juulsen, and probably one of Alzner or Davidson or Morrow or someone look as the top 6 instead of half of Weber, Petry, Davidson who got waived, Juulsen, Mete, and Alzner? Montreal would be in a far better spot than they currently are. But they aren't because your GM is an idiot & I hope you realize that now and not when he takes Tkachuk.

Ya I’m starting to hate Bergevin I mean he brought Weber in cause he’s tall and big but subban is younger and will develop more I kinda regret that trade we just signed subban then he trades him then drouin for sergechev doesn’t really bug me as much I like having drouin bergevin will make another big trade this summer and he’s going to make another bad trade or he actually might make a good trade but apparently Bergevin and molson have a plan to change things around I hope it’s actually good

Dude you should know better by now. Bergevin's "plan" is to continue to sign guys like Shaw, draft Tkachuk, acquire Drouin types who are Francophones and are either skilled or gritty or both. Tkachuk being the American to replace Galch and Patches. Gallagher will get the C. At least Scherbak and de la Rose will get to play regular minutes. the best thing you can hope for this year is that the youth takes a step. The roster is not good enough to make the playoffs without them first taking that step, nor will Carey Price be able to carry both his contract and the 2018-19 Habs to the playoffs. I hope your season is fun for your sake & I will continue to hate the Habs so long as Marc Bergevin is the GM. When Molson comes to his senses and realizes Bergevin is god awful and replaces him, I will begin to cheer for the Habs to pick up the pieces of the mess and to continue to put them together. But I cannot cheer for a man who's history shows he is not just bad at his job but awful, and a 20 year old passionate about the Habs in Quebec City could run Le Canadiens better than Bergevin ever will.

Actulallly bergevin won’t pick Tkachuk he will trade the pick ?

Actually *

yea, trade the pick for like Griffin Reinhart

No thank u

Um ... who says there's gonna be a lockout in 2021????

I love many Montreal fans logic when they try to trade Weber to the Leafs. They say don't worry about his contract, he is going to retire soon or you can do the buyout in 2021. Isn't that one of the worse reasons to give up good young assets for an aging player.

Why 2021 though? Last i checked, there's no lockout planned for 2021.

Well obviously no one plans for a lockout to happen, but that's when either the NHLPA or the owners can opt out of the current CBA. And then two years later is when it actually expires. Based on how the last two labor negotiations have gone, don't be surprised if we lose part, or all, of the season.

If you look at some of the recently signed long-term contracts, (Jack Eichel for example: https://capfriendly.com/players/jack-eichel) you'll notice that a lot of players have much more signing bonus than salary in the 20-21 and the 22-23 seasons. That's because those are the projected lockout years. Players get their signing bonuses regardless of if there's a season, as opposed to base salary.

I need whatever you are on... First, the isles aren't going back to the playoffs. I get your explanation but these are teams that don't need to add a lot to their current roster. Pitt will get in the top 3 of the division.

IF 5 teams from the pacific get in, I will send you $1k a month of a year. I'm guessing you think Colorado was a fluke to get in as well. I also wouldn't write off the blackhawks. Crawford was injured for half the season. I fully expect them to be the same ole blackhawks when he is healthy.

Pacific will only have 3 teams in the playoffs, Vegas and SJ are the 2 for sure the third is up in the air.

I can see Toronto overpaying matthews

He deserves anywhere in between Eichel and McDavid's contacts (closer to Eichel). Anywhere from 10 to 11.5 is probable.

All NHL players are making more than they used to and generational talent like Matthews deserves it.

The 20-21 year wild card is going to be Seattle. I can't see the league letting there be a lockout during the 1st/2nd year of a brand new team that paid 500 mill to join the league. Bad optics.

that was a different Atlantic division. Boston was weaker, Toronto was in shambles, Detroit already mediocre. even Tampa had one down year. the division was the weakest in the NHL. MTL rose and fell with Price - and given his injury woes, the rise will probably not happen anytime soon. Buffalo and Ottawa are still bad of course.