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Interesting draft day for the Canadiens - At first glance, I like the Tanguay deal. There is only one year left on his current contract at $5.25M (making him the highest-paid forward on the team). Check out these posts from BoA . The price may be steep but the guy is a star EV player - just what the doctor ordered. Now Gainey has a year to get him signed to a value contract after 2009.Sundin is looking like a real possibility, if he's interested. You'd think he would cost at least $7M. Counting in Tanguay's $5.25M, and $12.25M is a lot to add without removing any salary. I wonder what this means for Andrei Kostitsyn. It took $5M per over 3 years for the Flyers to sign Carter, so is $4M an unreasonable number for AKost's cap hit? Adding Sundin at $7M and AKost at a generous $3M, they're sitting at $52.6M with two or three depth defensemen and a backup goalie yet to sign. That's tight.
Incidentally, check out the Canadiens contracts at nhlnumbers. Only four players are signed for 2009-10. Sundin or no, Gainey is swinging for the fences in 2009.
In the draft, the player I was watching was Jordan Eberle - a top goal scorer in the tight checking WHL at 17. I'm glad he was snatched before the #25 spot, and I think the Oilers got a great pick.
With the Jokinen move the Panthers now have too many defensemen - expect another trade there.
posted by Jeff J at 1:22 a.m.
9 Comments:
They do have a lot of salary commited, but they do have a lot to dump.
At this poit in time, what is Mark Streit's spot in the lineup? Dandenault's?
Off the top of my (slightly drunken, it's friday after all) head
Without Sundin:
AK46-pleks-AK27
Tanguay-Koivu-SK
Lats-Higgins (at C, I insist)-Max or Tom the Bomb
Begin-Chipchura-Tom or max
Dandy & Streit? Is Tanguay an interesting alternative to Streit on the PP? Yes. Is Dandy to take a D spot? No. Basically, Tanguay pushes Streit out of the lineup.
If you put Sundin in the mix, you basically dump max or tom or chip or begin out of the lineup.
My point is:If they sign Sundin, not getting Streit back and dealing Dandenault and Bégin gets them some space. I love bégin, really. But him and Dandy put together weights 2.75 mil against the cap. That is outrageous. If they ship Tom and Dandy out instead, fine. My point is, Dandy and some unwanted 4th liner can give you quite some cap space.
Bob has a lot of options. And if we get Sundin, we ar in for a very nice ride, indeed.
You many not hear this from some Calgary fans, but Tanguay is an outstanding player and a steal for a late first-rounder. I'd bet money he'll put up 80+ points for the Habs next season.
He got a rough ride here last year. I wish him all the best.
I think Streit is gone, no matter what happens with Sundin. He'll be looking for the kind of dollars given to 60 point defensemen but the reality is he was a forward who played the point on the PP. He should get PP specialist fwd money, but I bet someone gives him PP specialist D money.
With Streit and Brisebois gone, I think there is a real possibility we see Dandy back on D.
Whether Tanguay gets 80 points will hinge on PP time. There isn't a whole lot of that to go around. I hope Carbonneau maximises his EV icetime - that's where the team needs the most improvement, and lower counting numbers would make him easier to re-sign. Then again, does he re-sign if he's not getting much PP time? Bit of a catch-22...
At this rate, the fourth line -- Begin-Lapierre-Kostopoulos or however it turns out -- is going to find itself with its icetime heavily curtailed, except on the PK.
I think there'll be enough PP time to go around for the forwards actually, because there's vacancies. With Streit and Brisebois gone the Habs will be short a point man, and will probably find themselves needing to use a forward on each wave. Tanguay is certainly an option there, he's done it for Calgary I believe, and it would leave the forward slots open for Kovalev, Kostitsyn, Plekanec, Koivu, and potentially Sundin.
One problem with this is that Tanguay is primarily a passer and I don't know how good his point shot is, which may relegate him to the second wave. Usually Markov is the distributer on the power play's first wave. Maybe a scheme where Markov is also a shooter would work... another option is to move Kovalev back to the point. In any case, IMHO Tanguay is too skilled to leave on the bench during PPs and is better employed there than on the PK.
By the way, check out the quality of competition numbers for Tanguay at BehindTheNet. Not only was he one of the most productive Flames at even strength last year (and one of the top 10 in the league since the lockout), he did so playing the toughest minutes. The more I read about him the more I like the trade.
Not only was he one of the most productive Flames at even strength last year (and one of the top 10 in the league since the lockout), he did so playing the toughest minutes.
Sigh. He won't be missed by fans that are mesmerized by counting numbers, but his contributions are going to be tough to replace.
So how does this affect Ryder? I haven't sat down with the Desjardins stuff yet, but I'm seeing his entire goal (and really, point) dropoff accounted for by his loss of PP production (18, 17, ...1). Really, how the hell did he fall off that cliff? I see that Carbo more than halved his ice time on the PP, but still. That can't be sustainable, can it?
Re: Tanguay at the point on the PP - I've read in Flames circles that he was not great at this. No matter what happens he'll get his cracks on the #1 PP, but I don't think it will improve the unit. The player most likely to get bumped is AKost - the one guy with some aptitude as the man in front of the net.
At any rate, it's not the PP that needs help - it's 5v5 where Tanguay shold make a big difference.
Re: Ryder - That he would be a UFA has been a certainty ever since the trade deadline.
He had a cold streak early in the season, lost his role to one Kostitsyn or the other and that was that. Prior to the demotion he was on pace for his usual number of SOG, just didn't have the goals to show for it. I did a post or two on the subject (maybe in December?). He finished the season with the team's highest EV goals/60. I think he's a fine candidate for a rebound in 08-09.
The thing is, I'm not sure he's a top 6 forward on most good teams. He scored 30 when he was on the top PP unit in MTL. How many halfway decent teams have that spot open for him? If you look for clubs lacking wingers... Dallas comes to mind.
I guess there'd be something fitting about him joining Ribs in Dallas.
I couldn't find his PPGDOFF for '06-'07 on BtN, but I see that last year, he was pretty much irrelevant on the PP. Not sure if that's attributable to that horrific cold streak or just a case of being a perpetual passenger.
Let's say Sundin ain't coming to town.
I, for one, would be curious to see what would come out of a 3rd line made of Latendresse at LW, Higgins at C and Ryder at RW. Not too shabby, methinks.
As for the missing point man, there is that Hamrlik dude, you know... Might be worth a try... Markov isn't a shabby shooter either...
I'm not loosing sleep over the PP. Sundin would be nice, but the big guy, we already got.
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