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Post by NWTHabsFan on Jan 9, 2019 15:07:48 GMT -5
A piece on Laval's youngest defender. I have really liked his development curve since we drafted him from Kootenay, as he was buried a bit in a truly terrible team at the time.
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Post by Willie Dog on Jan 9, 2019 15:51:05 GMT -5
A piece on Laval's youngest defender. I have really liked his development curve since we drafted him from Kootenay, as he was buried a bit in a truly terrible team at the time. Great story... thanks for posting |
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Post by Habs_fan_in_LA on Jan 9, 2019 17:15:33 GMT -5
Any insight on Justin Brazeau? 6’6’’, soft, 20 years old, poor skating, soft leading the OHL in scoring and undrafted.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Jan 9, 2019 17:38:38 GMT -5
Any insight on Justin Brazeau? 6’6’’, soft, 20 years old, poor skating, soft leading the OHL in scoring and undrafted. This is a good article that talks about Brazeau and the two other undrafted 20 year olds that remain without a contract. He has been to three pro camps, so three individual teams have taken some closer looks at him. Being this is his last year, I expect that he will get some camp invites and likely some AHL offers. You never know if a team is willing to take a flyer and use one of their 50 NHL contracts on a productive 20 year old that does have some other big question marks in his game. www.tsn.ca/ohl-s-top-three-scorers-fighting-to-earn-pro-contracts-1.1210257 |
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Post by Habs_fan_in_LA on Jan 9, 2019 18:40:17 GMT -5
Any insight on Justin Brazeau? 6’6’’, soft, 20 years old, poor skating, soft leading the OHL in scoring and undrafted. This is a good article that talks about Brazeau and the two other undrafted 20 year olds that remain without a contract. He has been to three pro camps, so three individual teams have taken some closer looks at him. Being this is his last year, I expect that he will get some camp invites and likely some AHL offers. You never know if a team is willing to take a flyer and use one of their 50 NHL contracts on a productive 20 year old that does have some other big question marks in his game. www.tsn.ca/ohl-s-top-three-scorers-fighting-to-earn-pro-contracts-1.1210257Great find. I was a big fan of Corey Locke when he won the OHL scoring leadership. His problem was skating but his 5’7” frame wasn’t 6’7” like Justin. Somehow I see a big body with a pp scoring touch an asset for the Habs. I coached a team that had a big kid who couldn’t skate but regularly found the back of the net from 6 feet out. Can’t teach that. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Jan 9, 2019 19:12:54 GMT -5
Great find. I was a big fan of Corey Locke when he won the OHL scoring leadership. His problem was skating but his 5’7” frame wasn’t 6’7” like Justin. Somehow I see a big body with a pp scoring touch an asset for the Habs. I coached a team that had a big kid who couldn’t skate but regularly found the back of the net from 6 feet out. Can’t teach that. Funnily enough, Corey Locke is exactly who I thought of when thinking of a comparison, although we know Corey’s big hurdles were his small size and skating. He tore up the OHL in scoring, but did not project to be a good NHLer in the day. These days, a big, slow, soft forward is facing an uphill battle in the current NHL. All the talent in the world is not good enough if you cannot keep up or get time and space because you are not quick enough. That said, some team is going to offer him something. It may only end up a “prove it” AHL deal, but you cannot ignore that the kid is putting up lots of points, even for a 20 year old. |
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Post by Habs_fan_in_LA on Jan 9, 2019 23:40:02 GMT -5
Great find. I was a big fan of Corey Locke when he won the OHL scoring leadership. His problem was skating but his 5’7” frame wasn’t 6’7” like Justin. Somehow I see a big body with a pp scoring touch an asset for the Habs. I coached a team that had a big kid who couldn’t skate but regularly found the back of the net from 6 feet out. Can’t teach that. Funnily enough, Corey Locke is exactly who I thought of when thinking of a comparison, although we know Corey’s big hurdles were his small size and skating. He tore up the OHL in scoring, but did not project to be a good NHLer in the day. These days, a big, slow, soft forward is facing an uphill battle in the current NHL. All the talent in the world is not good enough if you cannot keep up or get time and space because you are not quick enough. That said, some team is going to offer him something. It may only end up a “prove it” AHL deal, but you cannot ignore that the kid is putting up lots of points, even for a 20 year old. There is a magical je ne sais quoi about scorers. Phil Esposito stood in the slot while shots bounced off his ass into the net. Ovechkin waits at the circle unchecked and fires seeing eye shots that find the smallest openings that seem to defy reason and result in a lucky goal. Gretzky made passes that missed five pairs of skates and landed on Kurri’s stick. The plays individually seem improbable but over a season the same players end with 20, 30 or 40 goals. Natural scorers have that intangible. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Jan 16, 2019 23:33:37 GMT -5
Laval double up on the Baby Sens in a mid week tussle. Lindgren gets the night off after returning from a six week absence last weekend. PTO guy LaCouvee gets the call and another win!
Alain with the GWG, Evans was 1+2, Audette and a Froese both were 1+1.
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Post by seventeen on Jan 17, 2019 0:10:51 GMT -5
Wouldn't mind seeing Jake get a call-up and replace Chaput for a few games.
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Post by BadCompany on Jan 17, 2019 11:13:01 GMT -5
Laval double up on the Baby Sens in a mid week tussle. Lindgren gets the night off after returning from a six week absence last weekend. PTO guy LaCouvee gets the call and another win! Alain with the GWG, Evans was 1+2, Audette and a Froese both were 1+1. Totally unrelated tangent here, but THIS is why I am not in favor of buying out players. Etienne Marcoux has played 5 games for Laval this year, while Connor LaCouvee has played 7. For the mathematically challenged, they’ve appeared in 12 of the 40 games Laval has played this year (30%). Perhaps I will be proven wrong, but it seems highly unlikely to me that either one of these guys will ever play for the Habs, or be involved in any trade that somehow benefits the Habs ( save for posterity ). So why did we buy out Steve Mason? I mean, I get that it would have been a fairly substantial cap hit to be carrying in the minors ($3.2 million or something like that?), but it’s not like we’re in any sort of cap trouble. He could have played those Marcoux/LaCouvee minutes, or even acted as Niemi’s backup when Price was out. If Lindgren and McNiven end up being healthy at the same time (a somewhat rare occurrence this year), then Laval could either carry three goalies, or send one to the ECHL, or loan one out to another AHL team. Why does this matter? Because Mason is hitting us with a $1.367 million cap hit. Not important for this year, but NEXT year?? Who is to say that cap room won’t come in handy should they decide to make a play for Duchene, or Panarin, or whoever. Instead of swallowing his contract for one more year (when he could have still been somewhat useful to us) and then being done with him, we're still going to be paying him next year. And just like this year, he'll be completely useless to us. Worse, he'll actually be hurting us. That extra year of cap hit really annoys me, just like it did when we bought out P.A. Parenteau. And THAT cap hit hurt us. $2 million or something, when we were a to-the-cap-team, with aspirations of playoff greatness? Hurt even more considering Parenteau went on to score 20 goals the following season, while still collecting Molson money. Anywhoo, not a big deal. But just another illustration (to me) of why buying out a player isn’t always the best thing to do (looking at you Karl Alzner). |
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Post by Tankdriver on Jan 17, 2019 14:20:14 GMT -5
Laval double up on the Baby Sens in a mid week tussle. Lindgren gets the night off after returning from a six week absence last weekend. PTO guy LaCouvee gets the call and another win! Alain with the GWG, Evans was 1+2, Audette and a Froese both were 1+1. Totally unrelated tangent here, but THIS is why I am not in favor of buying out players. Etienne Marcoux has played 5 games for Laval this year, while Connor LaCouvee has played 7. For the mathematically challenged, they’ve appeared in 12 of the 40 games Laval has played this year (30%). Perhaps I will be proven wrong, but it seems highly unlikely to me that either one of these guys will ever play for the Habs, or be involved in any trade that somehow benefits the Habs ( save for posterity ). So why did we buy out Steve Mason? I mean, I get that it would have been a fairly substantial cap hit to be carrying in the minors ($3.2 million or something like that?), but it’s not like we’re in any sort of cap trouble. He could have played those Marcoux/LaCouvee minutes, or even acted as Niemi’s backup when Price was out. If Lindgren and McNiven end up being healthy at the same time (a somewhat rare occurrence this year), then Laval could either carry three goalies, or send one to the ECHL, or loan one out to another AHL team. Why does this matter? Because Mason is hitting us with a $1.367 million cap hit. Not important for this year, but NEXT year?? Who is to say that cap room won’t come in handy should they decide to make a play for Duchene, or Panarin, or whoever. Instead of swallowing his contract for one more year (when he could have still been somewhat useful to us) and then being done with him, we're still going to be paying him next year. And just like this year, he'll be completely useless to us. Worse, he'll actually be hurting us. That extra year of cap hit really annoys me, just like it did when we bought out P.A. Parenteau. And THAT cap hit hurt us. $2 million or something, when we were a to-the-cap-team, with aspirations of playoff greatness? Hurt even more considering Parenteau went on to score 20 goals the following season, while still collecting Molson money. Anywhoo, not a big deal. But just another illustration (to me) of why buying out a player isn’t always the best thing to do (looking at you Karl Alzner). I completely agree. I hate buyouts, and there is no way I wany to see alzner on the books for 6 years, or even 4 in that matter. I would rather make a trade and retain a portion of salary. So say 1.5 million each year for the next 3. |
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Post by seventeen on Jan 17, 2019 15:09:47 GMT -5
Laval double up on the Baby Sens in a mid week tussle. Lindgren gets the night off after returning from a six week absence last weekend. PTO guy LaCouvee gets the call and another win! Alain with the GWG, Evans was 1+2, Audette and a Froese both were 1+1. Totally unrelated tangent here, but THIS is why I am not in favor of buying out players. Etienne Marcoux has played 5 games for Laval this year, while Connor LaCouvee has played 7. For the mathematically challenged, they’ve appeared in 12 of the 40 games Laval has played this year (30%). Perhaps I will be proven wrong, but it seems highly unlikely to me that either one of these guys will ever play for the Habs, or be involved in any trade that somehow benefits the Habs ( save for posterity ). So why did we buy out Steve Mason? I mean, I get that it would have been a fairly substantial cap hit to be carrying in the minors ($3.2 million or something like that?), but it’s not like we’re in any sort of cap trouble. He could have played those Marcoux/LaCouvee minutes, or even acted as Niemi’s backup when Price was out. If Lindgren and McNiven end up being healthy at the same time (a somewhat rare occurrence this year), then Laval could either carry three goalies, or send one to the ECHL, or loan one out to another AHL team. Why does this matter? Because Mason is hitting us with a $1.367 million cap hit. Not important for this year, but NEXT year?? Who is to say that cap room won’t come in handy should they decide to make a play for Duchene, or Panarin, or whoever. Instead of swallowing his contract for one more year (when he could have still been somewhat useful to us) and then being done with him, we're still going to be paying him next year. And just like this year, he'll be completely useless to us. Worse, he'll actually be hurting us. That extra year of cap hit really annoys me, just like it did when we bought out P.A. Parenteau. And THAT cap hit hurt us. $2 million or something, when we were a to-the-cap-team, with aspirations of playoff greatness? Hurt even more considering Parenteau went on to score 20 goals the following season, while still collecting Molson money. Anywhoo, not a big deal. But just another illustration (to me) of why buying out a player isn’t always the best thing to do (looking at you Karl Alzner). Yup. In spades. While it wasn't a buyout, look at the Leafs continuing to pay $1.2 MM of Phil Kessel's contract for this and the next 3 years. Think they could use that space to help sign Marner or Matthews?
To me, it's a case of delaying the inevitable and refusing to accept consequences. In Mason's case, not only could we have continued to use him, but his CAP hit while in the minors, would have been $1MM less anyway. Getting Armia was a good move, just accept the fact that absorbing the CAP hit for one more year is the cost of getting a solid 3rd line player.
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Post by Tankdriver on Jan 17, 2019 15:15:15 GMT -5
The sad thing is, we aren't using that cap sapce this year anyways so we could of been clear of the obligation after this year.
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Post by seventeen on Jan 17, 2019 16:22:11 GMT -5
It makes no difference to what Molson has to pay Mason, so I'm not getting it. You'd think there should be some benefit to buying him out. We may not be privy to all the info Bergevin had. Perhaps he's looking at another UFA, but there aren't any good ones this year. Next year when we could use the CAP space, there are some highly prized ones (Karlsson, Stone, Duchene, etc.)
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Post by Disgruntled70sHab on Jan 18, 2019 22:27:10 GMT -5
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Jan 20, 2019 6:37:21 GMT -5
Laval Rocket get three out of four points this weekend against Cleveland in some big inter-division games. They are doing this while being seriously depleted due to call ups and injuries. Looks like McCarron could be out a long while due to an injury in the first practice of 2019. This would be a shame as he was playing some great hockey in December. Juulsen is out. And on Friday, Jake Evans was run into the boards from behind, left the game, and did not play on Saturday.
McNiven got the shut out on Friday night, in a 1-0 win.
LaCouvee has his AHL winning streak with the Rocket snapped in a 5-4 shootout loss on Saturday.
Daniel Audette led the way Saturday with a goal and two apples. He has had the hot hand of late with a promotion up to one of the offensive lines due to all the injuries. He has 15 points in the 11 games since Christmas, and 8 in his last 4. A last gasp for the 22 year old perhaps with a better forward prospect pipeline now emerging for the Habs? Audette is #24 in the video.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Jan 21, 2019 23:07:55 GMT -5
Rocket win in OT. Ouellet with the winner. McNiven in net. Fleury with a PP goal. Vejdemo with two helpers.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Jan 28, 2019 12:16:21 GMT -5
Another contract termination looming. This time it is the elder of the two Czech defenders that the Habs brought over last summer. He was not getting that much ice time in Laval of late, so this makes sense for him to go back and get proper ice time back home in the Czech league where he was playing regular minutes.
I don't mind these types of gambles, as they only cost a contract spot. If it does not work out, like in this case, nothing ventured...
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Post by seventeen on Jan 28, 2019 13:07:34 GMT -5
Another contract termination looming. This time it is the elder of the two Czech defenders that the Habs brought over last summer. He was not getting that much ice time in Laval of late, so this makes sense for him to go back and get proper ice time back home in the Czech league where he was playing regular minutes. I don't mind these types of gambles, as they only cost a contract spot. If it does not work out, like in this case, nothing ventured... Theoreetically, yes, but sometimes too many contracts can limit other options that come up. I agree that taking a flyer now and then is not a big risk, but we sure have had a lot of these that haven't panned out. Some better judgement from the pro scouts would be appreciated. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Jan 28, 2019 13:25:04 GMT -5
Theoreetically, yes, but sometimes too many contracts can limit other options that come up. I agree that taking a flyer now and then is not a big risk, but we sure have had a lot of these that haven't panned out. Some better judgement from the pro scouts would be appreciated. How about starting with better pro scouting? They did seem to get it right lately with Domi and Tatar, so it is not a total black hole. |
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Post by seventeen on Jan 28, 2019 13:39:57 GMT -5
Theoreetically, yes, but sometimes too many contracts can limit other options that come up. I agree that taking a flyer now and then is not a big risk, but we sure have had a lot of these that haven't panned out. Some better judgement from the pro scouts would be appreciated. How about starting with better pro scouting? They did seem to get it right lately with Domi and Tatar, so it is not a total black hole. I think we gave up equal value in those deals, it's just not evident yet because of the time frame. Thankfully, though, they didn't blow it in those cases. Early returns on the Kulak deal look good, but Reilly was a miss, IMO, as was Benn, Schlemko, etc. I meant more along the lines of KHL amd Euro signings. Other teams seem to do a better job. (Panarin, Davidov, Kempny). We signed Radulov, which was excellent, but that was when Vaughan Karpan was still with Montreal. IMO, that was a big loss to us when he went to Vegas. A GM in waiting. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Jan 31, 2019 13:34:21 GMT -5
Lots of speculation about the extent and impact of Juulsen's latest injury. I have not posted some of the speculation until we hear something official from the team. However, he has not played in a month after missing time already this season. Definitely not the season he was hoping for as a player who was just on the cusp IMO.
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Post by blny on Jan 31, 2019 13:36:26 GMT -5
Lots of speculation about the extent and impact of Juulsen's latest injury. I have not posted some of the speculation until we hear something official from the team. However, he has not played in a month after missing time already this season. Definitely not the season he was hoping for as a player who was just on the cusp IMO. That really sucks. Hoping for best. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Feb 1, 2019 17:59:33 GMT -5
A few minor roster moves/injury updates.
McNiven has been recalled by the Habs to backup Niemi on Saturday as Carey Price sits out his one-game suspension. In order to avoid using up their last emergency recall, the Habs have sent Karl Alzner to Laval. I expect a reversal of this move after Saturday afternoon's game.
Evans returns after missing four games after being hit from behind. He gets the top centre spot back beside Audette and Belzile, who both have been playing well of late.
Bouchard confirmed that McCarron's injury is to his shoulder. No time frame for return.
And we all heard the latest on Juulsen which now has its own thread on the main board.
Two huge games tonight and tomorrow night against the Marlies. Big implications for the divisional standings and fight for a playoff spot.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Feb 4, 2019 10:55:58 GMT -5
A weekend sweep by the Marlies really hurt in the standings. The salt on the wound is that the Rocket could not manage even one goal in the two game series. Lindgren had a heck of a game on Friday night making 35 saves, but they still lost 1-0 in OT. On Saturday afternoon, it was 3-0 Marlies with LaCouvee only conceding one goal as well (the last two were empty netters). It also hurt that the team's best offensive defender, Xavier Ouellet, missed both games with a virus.
This is where being down to only 43 guys under NHL contracts really shows, especially at this time of year with the inevitable injuries. The Rocket surely miss call ups Agostino, Kulak and Chaput and have long-term injuries to key guys like McCarron (he was playing great hockey in December before his shoulder injury in practice), Juulsen and Oloffson (the defender).
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Post by seventeen on Feb 4, 2019 13:44:11 GMT -5
Kind of of odd because there aren't a lot of injuries at the big club level so it's not like there have been a ton of call-ups. Bigger picture stuff?
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Feb 4, 2019 14:37:32 GMT -5
With the Habs losing Plekanec (contract buy out), DLR (waivers) and Scherbak (waivers), that does have a domino effect on the farm team as it keeps guys up in Montreal that could be down helping the farm team.
The guys who were contributing in January (Audette, Belzile) went dry to start this past weekend, even with the insertion of Evans back into the lineup after missing four games to injury. Froese also was kept off the scoresheet, as he drives the offense from the second line. Vejdemo has been inconsistent points wise and Shinkaruk has been a big disappointment as his offense has not really ever been on show since the trade with Calgary (going the other way was Kerby Rychel who has 36 points in 43 games). McCarron was contributing until his injury over the holidays. Kulak (Habs) and Ouellet (sick) were driving the offense from the back end.
So, these all add up to a team that relies on solid goaltending to compensate for its current difficulties in scoring (I guess this is real practice for when players get promoted to the Habs!!).
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Post by seventeen on Feb 4, 2019 15:54:10 GMT -5
The Shinkaruk/Rychel deal was a non e vent from an NHL point of view, but yes, it looks like Rychel is contributing to Stockton much more than Shinkaruk is helping Laval. Sinkaruk was a Canuck pick a year before Benning joined them and the scouting has been much better since then. Neither Rychel or Shinkaruk will likely make the NHL, but can be useful to an AHL team.
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Post by blny on Feb 7, 2019 22:25:13 GMT -5
Tough news for McCarron. He's done for the year after shoulder surgery.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Feb 8, 2019 7:08:05 GMT -5
The Rocket also signed Connor LaCouvee to an AHL deal and then assigned him to the ECHL (McNiven has been playing well of late too). This was likely to stop another AHL team from signing him as some may have been interested with his solid play since his PTO with Laval.
A minor deal, and likely has no NHL bearing.
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