Montreal Canadiens 2011 Stanley Cup Champions - the big thread

[arloiginla]

Marco Sturm has been traded to the Washington Capitals along with 2M. Coming back is Rick Rypien and Marc-Andre Cliche.

This was a salary dump plain and simple. We save $4M. We have no plans to re-sign Rypien and Cliche may or may not factor into the mix for our AHL team which we hope to re-build when we are finished taking care of our NHL team.

Rumour has it Gonchar may be traded as well. More to come.

[arloiginla]

....and Gonchar has indeed been traded. His rights now belong to the Predators. Coming back is a 3rd round pick.

Frankly we had no plans to re-sign Gonch and are happy to get another roll of the dice in the draft.

Thanks to Vic for the easy deal.

This pretty much ends the "selling" portion of our off-season (unless someone wants Rypien). We are comfortably under the cap and have a solid roster that will contend for the Cup again albeit with many new faces.

Now we look towards the draft, to free agency (for a 4th line C and a 6th D) and for perhaps a small upgrade here or there if the opportunity presents itself. Open to any trades but they will be hockey trades, not salary dumps.

[arloiginla]

Draft review:

8th overall - Ryan Murphy, D.

The guy we wanted all along at this spot. Ryan is a tremendously skilled defenseman who is a terrific skater and great offensive instincts. His upside is enormous.

18th overall - Daniel Catenacci, C.

When Grimaldi went one spot earlier this was the guy we wanted. He fits our philosophy he is the best skater in the entire draft. Has offensive skills and reminds us a bit of a bigger Martin St. Louis. Happy to have him.

28th overall - Tomas Jurco, RW.

We had an enticing offer to move this pick but felt it was better to take a flyer on Jurco. He has a dazzling array of skills and he does need to round out his game a bit but in the CHL on a very good team, we think there's a good chance that happens. Check out some of his stuff on YouTube.

36th overall - Dmitri Jaskin, RW.

Tyler Biggs and David Musil went right in front of us so we settled on Jaskin. While the Czechs haven't had a great young crop come up the last 10 years we feel he was overlooked a bit. He is a budding power forward who competes well. He may play for the Calgary Hitmen next year making it easy to keep an eye on him.

We traded away the rest of our picks as we believe in quality over quantity for our prospect pool.

Overall we are happy with our first draft in the CPHL - if not for a couple near-misses it would have been a home-run draft but we still feel we did well.

[JiriHrdina]

When I was in the 8 spot Murphy was the guy I was going to pick as well.

[arloiginla]

Late-night deal reached with Anaheim.

Going out is Nick Leddy, who never played a game with the organization.

Coming in is Thomas Hickey and Rocco Grimaldi.

Leddy is going to have a good NHL season and terrific re-rate next year but Hickey has all sorts of untapped potential and could bust out. We'd been working on acquiring him for almost a month now. Grimaldi is the guy we wanted at 18 in the draft (missed him by one pick) and we think he oozes upside and character - we are convinced he will be a player in the NHL and an impact one at that.

Time will tell as to who gets the better of this trade. It could go either way. Thanks to Ravi for the talks.

[SweetDoc]

I really like the trade for the Ducks as I don't feel that either player going to the Habs will have a significant impact at the NHL level. Other GMs feel differently so it is still good value for the Habs if they look to trade them.

[arloiginla]

The Habs have acquired the rights to defenseman Cory Sarich. Going to Florida are 3rd and 5th round picks.

Sarich has signed a three-year, $13.5 million extension.

"While Cory is a tad pricey for a grid rate, we have plenty of cap space and he is a player we tried to acquire last season already. He brings the physical shut-down presence we desired at our No. 4 slot and think he will have a great contract year with the Flames."

Thanks to Matt for the easy talks.

[arloiginla]

Quick update:

-The Habs chose to stay out of free agency and did not tender an offer to a player thus far. They call it "silly season" by some for a reason and while batch #1 showed that some bargoons were to be had, the team didn't really have any major holes to fill and want to continue the policy of not carrying a bad contract on the roster.

-Team bought out four AHL players today: Ryan Bayda, Willie Coetzee, Adam Almqvist and Pat Rissmiller. Total cost was only around $1 million against the cap which is not an issue. We only want younger players with NHL potential to be in our system.

-Habs acquired Fabian Brunnstrom from the Panthers today in a minor deal. He will help the AHL team (which is a priority to improve this year) while we monitor his real-life progress. We think he has NHL upside still.

-Could possibly dip into free agency later on to grab some more AHL depth if there's a player that catches our eye.

-Team has some cap space to play with and is looking for a No. 1 RW to play with Vanek and Toews. Would be offering up prospects + high upside CPHLers in return.

[arloiginla]

New trade with the Kings.

Shipped out are Nathan Gerbe, Kyle Clifford, Jerry D'Amigo and a 3rd round pick. Coming in are Patric Hornqvist and Anthony Camara.

Someone has to score goals in Nashville this year and Hornqvist should be the one to get them. We upgrade our wingers again which is nice...whether or not we hope somebody steps up on our 1st line this year or end up trading for a bona fide No. 1 RW still remains to be seen.

Gerbe is a good young player but you have to give to get. Clifford had no room with the glut of center prospects we have, same with D'Amigo.

Camara is a 2011 3rd round pick who hopefully will develop.

Thanks to BJ for the talks.

[SweetDoc]

Fun talks, glad we could hammer that out over MSN.

The way the Kings plan to construct their top 6, there is no room for Horn and therefore best to send him to someone who can use him properly.

Thanks to Arlo for the talks.

[Slava]

Good trade and nice to see some trading action in the league. I think I like it better for the Kings, although Hornqvist is a nice piece.

[Da_Chief]

Lovely, joyful deal for the Frenchies.

[arloiginla]

The deals keep rolling in. This one a bit more significant.

Claude Giroux, a 2013 3rd and T.J. Galiardi have been sent to the New Jersey Devils. Coming back are Patrick Sharp and some money.

It's no secret that we have coveted Sharp for a long time and we finally get our man. He will play RW most likely and join Vanek and Toews on the top line. It sucks to give up Giroux but he was going to require a hefty raise after this year anyway.

Thanks to Steve for the talks. I think this deal wil lbenefit both sides.

[TurdFerguson]

^^ I like that deal a lot for both teams. Good work to both of you

[JiriHrdina]

I get the deal from both sides but love it for the Devils. Giroux has another step to take and will be an elite offensive player.

[Antithesis]

Well, I haven't been too keen to take a shot on ratings at the CPHL level but this deal was one that I was comfortable with. Sharp is in my opinion clearly the better CPHL player this year, but Giroux is a great piece to add without being a significant downgrade at all, and he also has a high enough value that I should be able to trade him again if needed to climb back up in ratings.

[Knut]

Giroux is going to be the number 1 Center in Philly and has the tools to be a top ten scorer in the NHL...add in Galiardi who should develop into a good 3rd liner and i love it for NJ.

[I wanna be like Miikka]

Yeah I like this deal for NJ, Giroux is expected to take a big step this year in Philly. Still Montreal brings in Sharp who will help out a lot this year as he tends to be very solid in the sim.

[Hanna Sniper]

Now the question everyone want to know

1.) Did the deal happen on MSN or PM?
1A) if by PM was it over/under a week to finalize?



edited: damn, didnt see the answer was already posted. tough to be a smarta$$ when you can't read