Pierre Lebrun: Habs should get a Clowe

[Doc Holliday]

...boy I'd like this deal to go down... Ryane Clowe would be just what the doctor order.

[blny]

Be a very solid 3rd line addition. He's struggled this year with only 6 assists in 19 games. He's a pending ufa, cap hit of $3.625 million.

Weber, Kaberle, etc would be my offerings, but I have no idea what they'd be after.

[Disgruntled70sHab]

Well, Mr Lebrun isn't one to make up stuff like this. He normally only opens his mouth on rumours if he has a viable source.

Clowe, eh? Interesting.

Cheers.

Edit: What do we have that the Sharks might need?

[Polarice]

Maybe they would take Moen!!

[Deleted]

I don't think we can get Clowe for any of the guys you mentioned. We don't seem to want Weber or Kablerle; who thinks anybody else would?

[Disgruntled70sHab]

He's an UFA at the end of the year (nhlnumbers.com). Maybe a conditional draft pick based on whether he re-signs with us or not. Bergevin is deep with those kinds of options.

Cheers.

[sergejean]

I always had Clowe on my radar but I've read a few negative comments about him this year. I haven't had the chance to see him play at all for the past two seasons. Maybe someone who did could comment on his recent play. Here is the talent analysis I found. I am pretty concerned about the bolded part:

Assets: Plays a solid up-and-down game, and is a throwback winger who loves to check and do the dirty work. Strong on the puck, he's versatile enough to line up on either wing. Is a good scorer in close and an excellent scrapper, too.
Flaws: Can be a bit too streaky in the goal-scoring department. As he has become a bigger scoring threat, he has become a little less physical, too. Also, he is not an elegant skater; he's somewhat of a plodder, in fact.

[blny]

Hard to say what they want. Boyle is their best puck mover. Burns has only played 6 games. Their PP is middle of the road at 17.4%. Seems to me they could use some help on the back end.

I realize neither Kaberle nor Weber are elite, but they offer offense from the blue line. Paired with Murray, either would be afford a significant amount of shelter.

Clowe is having his worst season. Could be a blip, but after a career season in 2010-11, his numbers dropped 17 pts the next season.

[BadCompany]

The Sharks are right in the middle of the playoff hunt, and are in fact only 2 points out of fourth, in that tightly packed Western Conference. Unless they need to dump salary to take on a bigger contract in a mega-deal I don't see them trading Clowe for picks and prospects. They'll want a player that can help them now.

Clowe is also that "big body" that teams covet, especially heading into the playoffs. Everybody will be thinking "we only need him to get hot for a couple of months... perhaps a change of scenery will do him good..." I can see a mini bidding war developing over Clowe, so I think there will have to be overpayment on our end, if we truly want him.

I say it costs us at least Bourque, and I'm not even sure that will be enough. Bourque and a pick maybe, like one of our 3rds. Granted, getting rid of Bourque would give us even more cap flexibility, but at some point you gotta use all that cap space, right?

Not sure if there is a fit here.

[blny]

Bourque is on IR, is he not? Can't be traded.

[BadCompany]

True, but the trade deadline is still like a month away.

[sergejean]

Mar 6, 2013 13:40:05 GMT -5 BadCompany said:

The Sharks are right in the middle of the playoff hunt, and are in fact only 2 points out of fourth, in that tightly packed Western Conference. Unless they need to dump salary to take on a bigger contract in a mega-deal I don't see them trading Clowe for picks and prospects. They'll want a player that can help them now.

Clowe is also that "big body" that teams covet, especially heading into the playoffs. Everybody will be thinking "we only need him to get hot for a couple of months... perhaps a change of scenery will do him good..." I can see a mini bidding war developing over Clowe, so I think there will have to be overpayment on our end, if we truly want him.

I say it costs us at least Bourque, and I'm not even sure that will be enough. Bourque and a pick maybe, like one of our 3rds. Granted, getting rid of Bourque would give us even more cap flexibility, but at some point you gotta use all that cap space, right?

Not sure if there is a fit here.

Moen, Webber and a 3rd or 4th maybe? Assuming that our pro scouts have done their due diligence, I would pull the trigger on a deal like this.

[blny]

Mar 6, 2013 13:44:13 GMT -5 BadCompany said:

True, but the trade deadline is still like a month away.

... and the best deals usually go down before it.

[Skilly]

Lebrun didn't say that Bergevin is after Ryane Clowe .... he said the Canadiens would love to add a Ryane Clowe-type player.

I read his blog today on Twitter. Let me see if I can copy it here.

[Skilly]

Rumblings: Where Iginla, Alfredsson could land
By: Pierre Lebrun
ESPN, March 6, 2013

The big day is exactly four weeks away from Wednesday and we still await the headline-grabbing trades.

Will they even come?

I wrote Tuesday about the closeness in the standings and the short season and whether that will prevent some trades from happening.

At the very least, teams at this stage are laying the groundwork for deals that would possibly happen later in the month.

"You’re talking to teams, obviously, and you say, 'If you have interest in moving Pierre LeBrun, let us know.' That’s the stage it’s at now. That’s what I’ve found anyway," Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ray Shero told ESPN.com on Tuesday.

I told Shero he could get Pierre LeBrun for a bag of pucks and he suggested at least future considerations.

In all seriousness, Shero said the trade market wasn’t quite yet defined at least for the bigger names.

"You saw some trades earlier like [Keaton] Ellerby and [Ben] Lovejoy and this week Mike Brown, depth defensemen and role guys are getting moved," Shero said.

But no big names yet. That takes more time, more phone calls, more games played.

"Everyone has played from 20 to 24 games so far; you've got to adjust your thinking to making a quicker assessment," Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli told ESPN.com. "We’re used to making our assessments over a longer period of time. And this year it’s different. Therefore, for me it’s a little funky right now to know we’re that close to making deals."

What also gums up the works is that the list of UFAs-to-be, aka rental players, might shorten as the month rolls on as teams re-sign those players and take them off the trade market.

"What’s happened the last five or six years is teams realizing that even if they’re a seller, they realize it’s not like the old days where you trade for a draft pick and easily replace them [in the offseason]," Kings GM Dean Lombardi told ESPN.com. "Even midrange players, many teams are now deciding to keep them and try to sign them versus giving them away for a second- or third-round pick. That’s something that’s changed in this business since I got in it; very different. Some teams are looking at that No. 4 or No. 5 defenseman and saying, 'I’m not replacing him this summer, I need to keep him and sign him.'"

The other thing, Lombardi figures, is that in today’s parity-filled NHL, teams always feel just a few players away from getting back into it the following season. It’s not like the pre-cap days when many non-playoff teams went into full dress-down/rebuild mode.

"Not many teams are in that stripping-down mode anymore," Lombardi said.

Hmm, food for thought.

Now let’s take a look at more teams and the upcoming trade deadline:

BRUINS
The powerhouse Bruins can add a big name or two thanks to the deft salary-cap maneuvering by GM Peter Chiarelli.

Some B’s fans are salivating at the possibilities that are out there.

But the GM wants everyone to know it’s not written in stone he’ll hit the home run.

"Just because we have cap space doesn’t mean we’ll make a blockbuster trade," Chiarelli said Tuesday.

But yes, he’s done his homework and will continue to monitor the market to see what could be a good fit.

As reported a few weeks ago, I believe Chiarelli would covet being reunited with Daniel Alfredsson from his Ottawa days but that’s a situation that remains to be played out with the Senators in terms of whether they hang in the playoff race -- which means Alfredsson would never move -- or even if they fall out of it, whether the Sens captain would even want to go anywhere.

My take? I think there’s only one team Alfredsson would consider if he ever goes -- and that’s Boston with the tie-in to former Senators teammate Zdeno Chara and the chance to win a Cup.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Jarome Iginla is another possibility for Boston. I didn’t think so about a month ago but I think with the market not bearing out that many names this season, the B’s have to at least inquire if he comes available in Calgary.

Corey Perry would be the biggest name of them all and the B’s would at least see what’s going on there, but again it’s not clear yet what Anaheim will do there with the pending UFA.

KINGS
The Stanley Cup champion Kings have certainly bounced back from an early-season hangover.

And they’ve done it while surviving injuries to three of their six defensemen who won them the Cup last spring.

Alec Martinez is back and while Matt Greene remains out for a while, veteran shutdown man Willie Mitchell -- who hasn’t played this season while recovering from knee surgery -- might be back, which would be like a huge trade-deadline addition in itself for L.A.

"He’s making progress," Lombardi said Tuesday of Mitchell. "We’re getting some encouraging news. There’s a chance he’ll play [this season]. I certainly can’t go to the marketplace and trade for a Willie Mitchell."

As for whether the Kings would look to add a depth defenseman like most other contenders before April 3, Lombardi isn’t sure yet he’ll need to in part because Jake Muzzin and Keaton Ellerby have done the job for the Kings.

"Muzzin and Ellerby have been pretty good," the Kings GM said.

The silver lining is that the Kings got a look at Muzzin they probably would not have otherwise.

Otherwise, Lombardi has been pretty quiet on the trade-talk front. That can change over the next month, but right now he doesn’t have much going on.

"As much as you guys hate this cliché, it is true that we’ll look at anything that will improve our team," Lombardi said, chuckling.

Who Lombardi didn’t talk about but I will is backup netminder Jonathan Bernier. That’s L.A.’s No. 1 trade chip but it’s not clear in my mind whether that chip gets played before April 3 or in the offseason. He’s RFA after the season and it makes no sense for the Kings, cap-wise, to have to carry a more expensive contract for Bernier behind Jonathan Quick. So, eventually, Bernier will get dealt, whether that’s now or in the offseason.

PENGUINS
The Penguins have a number of young defensemen in their organization who are drawing interest, but we’ll see just how keen Shero is to divest himself of any of them for a rental player.

As I reported last week and it’s been reported elsewhere, the Penguins are believed to have interest in Flames winger Jarome Iginla but just how much they’d be willing to pay on that front, or whether Iginla would have any interest in waiving his no-trade clause to go to Pittsburgh, who knows. Not to mention that the Flames haven’t yet decided whether they’re even moving Iginla.

Know this, Shero has never been shy of trade-deadline moves, topped by the Marian Hossa deal in the 2007-08 season, which helped the Penguins reach the Stanley Cup finals.

But it’s going to have to be a sensible price for Shero to make any kind of trade this season. There’s some realization in Pittsburgh that you can’t trade away future assets year after year.

CANADIENS
The Habs made a deal last week with Dallas, netting Michael Ryder and a third-round pick plus opening up important offseason cap space by moving Erik Cole.

So now what?

Whether it’s before April 3 or this summer, Montreal will continue to look for more size up front. Power forwards don’t grow on trees, but what the Canadiens would love to add is someone in the Ryane Clowe-type mold: a rugged forward who can play top-six minutes. Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin made an excellent signing in Brandon Prust last summer, a player who can play on any forward line, but I believe Bergevin wants to continue on that track.

What Bergevin has at his disposal is three second-round picks in this season’s draft plus two third-rounders. That could come in handy in a trade over the next four weeks.

Having said that, I don’t think Bergevin will mortgage the future in terms of trading away top prospects or a high pick for a rental player. I think the Habs would rather make a traditional hockey deal where they get a player who can help them past this season. In other words, Bergevin isn’t getting carried away with the Habs' surprising success this season to suddenly fool himself into thinking their window has suddenly opened to go all-in trade-wise and go for a Cup run. Of course, the Canadiens want to win this season, but they will keep on track with the long-term view in any of their moves this month or this offseason.

Lars Eller is a name other teams were intrigued by earlier this season, but I don’t believe the Canadiens would move him. I think he’s staying put.

OILERS
The Oilers are not sure if they’re buyers or sellers yet -- their play the next few weeks will decide that. Their shootout loss at Columbus on Tuesday night was yet another disappointing game for an Oilers team some thought could make the playoffs this season.

They’re 12th in the West as of Wednesday morning, three points out, so a run this month can certainly make them buyers but it’s not trending that way.

Like Montreal, whether it’s over the next four weeks or this offseason, a top priority for the Oilers is acquiring a power forward, a player with grit who can also play the game at a high enough level to blend with their top-six skill.

The Oilers did acquire Mike Brown earlier this week but he’s a bottom-six forward. They need more toughness in their top six in order to allow their skilled players to do their thing a little more freely.

A No. 2 defenseman is also on Edmonton’s wish list. Again, not sure that’s doable in the next four weeks, so it could be an offseason target instead.
Ryan Whitney and Nikolai Khabibulin are the most obvious trade bait; both are UFA and neither fits the future plans of the Oil. Ladislav Smid is also UFA after the season and another candidate for a possible trade.

SENATORS
Can the injury-riddled Senators keep hanging in there?

If somehow they defy all odds and hand Paul MacLean the Jack Adams Award in doing so, GM Bryan Murray would love to throw his group a bone with a trade-deadline pickup if his team can stay in or close to a playoff spot over the next month.

They need offense, big time. Both up front and from the back line. They’ve struggled to score goals since Jason Spezza and Erik Karlsson went down, which puts them in the market for both a forward and a defenseman.

Spezza is on track to return around the trade deadline so the defenseman might be a bigger need at that point if the Senators are still in the playoff race.

One thing’s for sure: Murray won’t do anything short-term that will hamper the team’s long-term view; he knows when all his parts are back that his club is playoff caliber next season. The big-picture view is important.

Depth in goal is where the Senators can deal from, however. Ben Bishop is the most probable candidate to be moved if the offer makes sense but the Sens aren’t shopping him, they love what he brings. But given the presence also of Robin Lehner and Craig Anderson, the right offer can net Bishop.
If a deal doesn’t make sense, Ottawa can also delay the Anderson/Bishop/Lehner decision until the offseason.

If the Senators fall out of the playoff race, then it gets really interesting on the Daniel Alfredsson front. The Senators have a simple approach: Alfredsson will decide if Alfredsson gets traded. It’s all up to him.

And finally, pending UFA Sergei Gonchar will definitely be trade bait if Ottawa falls out of it.

[GNick99]

Clowe is having a terrible year, being 31 and UFA. I wouldn't offer big.

[Doc Holliday]

...I stand corrected.

[Disgruntled70sHab]

Mar 6, 2013 13:40:05 GMT -5 BadCompany said:

The Sharks are right in the middle of the playoff hunt, and are in fact only 2 points out of fourth, in that tightly packed Western Conference. Unless they need to dump salary to take on a bigger contract in a mega-deal I don't see them trading Clowe for picks and prospects. They'll want a player that can help them now.

Clowe is also that "big body" that teams covet, especially heading into the playoffs. Everybody will be thinking "we only need him to get hot for a couple of months... perhaps a change of scenery will do him good..." I can see a mini bidding war developing over Clowe, so I think there will have to be overpayment on our end, if we truly want him.

I say it costs us at least Bourque, and I'm not even sure that will be enough. Bourque and a pick maybe, like one of our 3rds. Granted, getting rid of Bourque would give us even more cap flexibility, but at some point you gotta use all that cap space, right?

Not sure if there is a fit here.

Well, what you're saying makes sense, BC. SJ is in the thick of it like they are every year. I think acquiring Bourque would give them back the piece they're missing, but a piece that was playing very well until his injury.

Clowe may need a change of scenery to get going, but if Bergevin has to move Bourque in order to make this happen, then he's taking a chance and might not be improving anything by bringing Clowe in. One big forward for another kind of thing. One that's playing very well and another that's having a bad year.

I honestly don't know what the asking price would be, but I'm hoping Bergevin can swing a deal like this without touching the existing roster and, as an outsider looking in, I honestly believe Bourque is an important part of that roster ... especially this year. It would have to be a pretty good deal, or a deal that swung in our favour, for me to move an important asset like him.

Erik Cole was a strong part of that roster at one point, too, but not so much this year. Somewhere along the line he lost his desire either to be in Montreal or for the game itself. I really don't know either way ... I honestly couldn't tell you what he thought.

I don't have the solution to this one. Maybe a mid-range prospect and a 3rd? Dunno, man ...

Cheers.

[Doc Holliday]

San Jose is having problems of their own, mainly they are struggling to score goals, they are 14th in the West at that. Clowe's zero goal performance to date has to be a big part of that problem.

We need size, they need goals. We can't really use Bourque as bait since he's injured and really we have to get more size, not exchange a big body for another.

So Ryder, Moen and Calgary's second for Clowe.

Ryder provides them with immediate goal scoring depth. Moen gives them much needed LW depth (and Moen is also a guy who can use a change of scenery to bounce back) plus a high second to round out the deal.

[blny]

Overpayment imo. Clowe isn't a savior. He's a piece of the puzzle.

[Cranky]

Clowe would be interesting for now but a potential liability. It seems that tough guys tend to look for he retirement contract by their early 30's. Bare hands can only take so much abuse before they refuse to work properly.

I have light gloves for the heavy bag and my hands hurt after the bag gives me a good beating. I can't imagine what hey would feel like after a career of smacking skulls and helmets.

Clowe, yes, but with warning signs and signed for longer term.

[Disgruntled70sHab]

Why not ask Edmonton about Theo Peckham? I imagine he's on the GM radar around the league.

Cheers.

[GNick99]

Mar 6, 2013 15:13:30 GMT -5 Doc Holliday said:

San Jose is having problems of their own, mainly they are struggling to score goals, they are 14th in the West at that. Clowe's zero goal performance to date has to be a big part of that problem.

We need size, they need goals. We can't really use Bourque as bait since he's injured and really we have to get more size, not exchange a big body for another.

So Ryder, Moen and Calgary's second for Clowe.

Ryder provides them with immediate goal scoring depth. Moen gives them much needed LW depth (and Moen is also a guy who can use a change of scenery to bounce back) plus a high second to round out the deal.

That is massive overpayment to me. Moen where he is signed and Clowe not is all I would offer.

[Cranky]

Mar 6, 2013 16:20:42 GMT -5 Disgruntled70sHab said:

Why not ask Edmonton about Theo Peckham? I imagine he's on the GM radar around the league.

Cheers.

Ummm....he's slower then a snail wearing snow shoes climbing a mountain carrying a anvil on it's back.

[Cranky]

Mar 6, 2013 12:58:11 GMT -5 @mattdhf said:

I don't think we can get Clowe for any of the guys you mentioned. We don't seem to want Weber or Kablerle; who thinks anybody else would?

Where is Gainey working these days?

[seventeen]

Mar 7, 2013 14:19:56 GMT -5 Cranky said:

Mar 6, 2013 12:58:11 GMT -5 @mattdhf said:

I don't think we can get Clowe for any of the guys you mentioned. We don't seem to want Weber or Kablerle; who thinks anybody else would?

Where is Gainey working these days?

I'm with you, HA.

And if you need a tough guy, they have to be youngish. Older guys have learned to not hurt themselves.

[blny]

In TSN's rumour roundup today, Dreger is on record as saying that the Sharks aren't actively shopping Clowe at this point. They are, however, listening to offers. Dreger expects the Sharks would be looking for the following scenario in return:

One 2013 1st or two 2013 2nd round picks, a prospect, and maybe another piece.

That is an awful lot for a guy with one 60 point season, one 50 point season, never more than 24 goals, and he has yet to score in 22 games this year. He'll be 31 at the start of the next season, and he's got hard miles on his body. On top of that, after paying the ransom to get him, you have to sign him. Given the crop of UFA players this summer, he's going to command a lot on the open market. It's just too much.

[seventeen]

Maybe if we were close to a Cup,I might give up 2 second rounders. We're not. Clowe jump in a lake, Sharks.

[Cranky]

Pond hockey requires speed, quickness and agility, he possesses none.

Anything past ONE second rounder is too much for us. Clowe is NOT going to be able to keep up with the pace our guys set. He's going to be the slowest top 6 by a large margin. He will give us some toughness, but not enough to make up for his shortcomings.

[jkr]

Mar 6, 2013 14:18:18 GMT -5 GNick99 said:

Clowe is having a terrible year, being 31 and UFA. I wouldn't offer big.

Same here. Beside the fact that his production was good the previous 4 years( around the 20 goal range) I am concerned about his drastic drop off this year. No goals so far.

Anybody seen him play? What's going on with him?