Would say Boston got worse this offseason imo. But yes Tampa and Toronto have totally outclassed MTL. And it is scary to think that Florida Buffalo are right there. Not to mention in a few years how much better Detroit and Ottawa will be. As per usual, we are treading water going nowhere fast, and the rest of the league is moving forward...

Florida has it all but can't put it together. They fail to make the playoffs even though they have a promising team.
Just because Buffalo got Hall doesn't mean they're gonna make the playoffs. They lack a top six winger, and a decent bottom six, not to mention a 1RD.
For the metro I don't think Caps will get in on top. They've made some questionable moves.
I think that MTL could make the playoffs, but I'd want a couple more years of retool so that the Eastern Conference in general is weaker. In a couple of years Tampa, Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh, they will all be gone from contention. The top three in each division could be MTL OTT and maybe DET (probs not tho so maybe TOR or FLA), and then CAR NYI and NYR. The wildcards will probs be taken up by PHI and one of TOR/FLA.
So will MTL make the playoffs? Probably not. With a couple more years of retooling? Probably.

Couple of things,
1) there are still options and better options than hall. So until they sign bergevin isn’t done
2) they could have fired him years ago. If they miss the playoffs molson still won’t fire him. All they have to say is we’re adding caufield after the year and that will help big time

i dont understand the Allen and Edmunson pickups before free agency, surely it couldve waited? right?

Yeah, it seems like there are backup goalies to be had this off season... I get the feeling that Marc wanted to "help" st. louis by taking some cap off of their hands so that they could resign Pietro that way he didn't go to the Leafs who were high on his list... With Edmundson I don't really know. Maybe he just liked the player, or the idea of having one of the biggest D lineups in the league? Who knows

Elaborate sir, who are the better options in your mind?

Hoffman and dadonov. I know this is controversial but both are so consistent especially with goals. They are a lock for 25 and should score 30 especially Hoffman. I know everyone likes hall but he is overrated as hell. Give me someone who can score 25-30 in their sleep. And make 6 million buck(I’m summing they sing for 5 or 6 million. They are better and better for the Habs. We need a goal scorer.
And not Hall’s one great year doesn’t count.

Hoffman is a complete unknown to me, altho I do believe he would easily inject our PP with scoring and probably lead the team with 25-35 goals...

Dadonov is a guy I really like however I heard that Florida offered him a 5 year 6mil per deal and he is testing the market to see if another team will offer him more. So at that price idk if MTL would be wise to do it for a guy that's already 31 and seeming like he's on the back end of his career.

We have to inject offence. Hoffman is a pretty much lock for 30 goals and will help the pp. if that is true about the dadanov contract, I’d take my chances. Habs will either of them are a scary team. Not going to be a top 5 regular season team but make the playoffs and could go on a run. Price is older and so is weber. Petry isn’t getting younger either. Take a chance. Stop spinning your tires

Agreed, with the expansion draft next year, this is probably their best bet with this group of players 100%

IMO MTL does not need a big name signing, KK and Suzuki should score much more next season, the only question marks are Drouin are we going to see the drouin before he was injured or the drouin of 2018, Josh is the biggest risk here, when panarin left his production cratered to 1 goal 4 points in 26 games before he got injured, if that keeps up, forget the playoffs.