I put math in hockey
Rejoint: juin 2018
Messages: 624
Mentions "j'aime": 167
Idk how much the Habs really need Julius Honka. His main talent is zone exits: an exceptionally useful specialty, but one that only really shines at even strength. His entry game has historically been pretty meh, and his PP numbers are ugly. The Habs don't really need more 5v5 talent at RD, if they acquire one, he needs to work on the PP. That generally means an entry specialist, which is the opposite of Honka.
Beyond that, the Habs' biggest problem is the fact that, since the start of the 17-18 season, their 10 million dollar starter ranks 37th in total GAR among goalies that have faced 500 or more unblocked attempts in that span, right behind Brian Elliott. If we switch to GAR/60, he's at 52nd, between Matt Murray and Anders Nilsson. In the same timespan, with the same cutoff, his dFsv% (the difference between his sv% and the sv% we would expect from a league average goalie) is a hearty -0.59. For context, that means Price has been less effective than a league average goalie over this span. His neighbours are Steve Mason and Anders Nilsson. He's sitting below the likes of Aaron Dell and Tristan Jarry. Montreal's biggest issue isn't anything about its skaters, it's that even after spending 12.25 million dollars on goaltending, the team doesn't have a starting-caliber goalie. If this team wants to be relevant, they need a starter who is not Carey Price.
This is why the team shouldn't bother with a Honka deal. If they can't contend until Price's contract ends, they'll waste Honka's good years and be better off with the pick. If they want to try and contend now, all assets need to be available in the quest to dump the Price contract and fix the goaltending situation. That might well take their entire 2020 draft plus a couple firsts.