Do the Habs even make the playoffs

[evans334]

And the Montreal Canadiens are officially eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Boy was I wrong about our defense....

[2014olympicgold]

Maybe they'll get a good top player with their top pick coming up?

I hate how teams like Montreal get handcuffed with a player like Price. He was your whole team, signs the contract and if he does bad the team crashes. It's like Kessel/Dion with TOronto the yrs they signed. They could have gotten what they got on the open market, but a winning team doesn't have that contract usually on the team.

Big offseason for them coming up.

[rataylor22]

Without Carey Price, this is a bottom-5 NHL team. Haven't been able to score goals for years, and they lost more talent over this last offseason. D is hot garbage outside of Weber, and only forward that can consistently put the puck in the net is Patches. Zero chance this team makes the playoffs, the Habs have been a very poorly run franchise for quite some time now.

You're entitled to your opinion of course, but saying Habs are a bottom 5 team without Price is a bit ridiculous. Zero chance of making playoffs is even more absurd. I definitely have concerns about the future, but thus team with Price is at the least a playoff bubble team and possibly a playoff contender.

Turns out the Habs are a bottom 5 team in the NHL even with Carey Price.

[tweetdrivr]

Price has been so bad because of the D. I've watched a lot of their games this year. Their D was f'ing terrible. Slow, unskilled, easily flustered. I'm sorry but Jordie Benn is NOT and NHL player. The whole organization is mired in a losing culture. Price is still a very good goaltender and could be worth the $$$...but he can't fix what ails them. And now it looks like dumbass Bergevin will remain in charge. It'll be more of the same. It is a big offseason that unfortunately will be run by a guy who has a proven track record of failure. And the contract that is the real albatross is Weber's, not Price. His injury makes me very nervous.

[havanablast21]

Turns out the Habs are a bottom 5 team in the NHL even with Carey Price.

And the 30 year old price’s contract hasn’t yet exploded to (at the very least) 1/8th of their team cap.

Wow...not a good time to be a Habs fan. Healthy rivalry is turning into feeling sorry for them.

Guess I finally know what it feels like to have been a Habs fan watching the leafs flounder for decades.

But... leafs were able to move their albatross contracts... if they get the right management ... ebetually, maybe they can too. A shame they likely never compete for a cup WITH Price though.

[2014olympicgold]

And the 30 year old price’s contract hasn’t yet exploded to (at the very least) 1/8th of their team cap.

Wow...not a good time to be a Habs fan. Healthy rivalry is turning into feeling sorry for them.

Guess I finally know what it feels like to have been a Habs fan watching the leafs flounder for decades.

But... leafs were able to move their albatross contracts... if they get the right management ... ebetually, maybe they can too. A shame they likely never compete for a cup WITH Price though.

If Gretzky/Clarkson/Phaneuf/Kessel can be traded, anyone can.

But it's not like these were goalies. If you get another scorer on your team, or another defenseman that's a top 4, your team gets better by adding depth. Adding depth at goalie isn't needed really. You don't get 2 top goalies on your team in the real world. So the suitors of a Price is minimal. Just look what Bishop got in a trade when he had such a good contract. Price will be like trading Kessel+Clarkson+Dion to 1 team. It can be done, but man that'll take some creativity. Or hope to move him to Seattle...? But he has a NMC so he'd have to agree to be moved there.

[rataylor22]

The Habs D is not horrendous. The depth may be suspect but we really don't know. And Weber has been one of the top shots against suppression D men in the league. That won't change this season. The other piece, which is a knock on Bergevin, is that you have three of the top six (Schlemko, Alzner, Mete, Davidson? Jerebeck? Morrow?) who are new to the team and the system. Schlemko hasn't even had a chance to practice with the team yet. There are a myriad reasons why playing sooo many pre-season games is stupid and worthless and this sort of hand wringing is one of them. If I'm in the Habs locker room I find it hilarious that so many folks are getting their panties all bunched up over the f'ing PRE SEASON. Heck, I'd even sand bag the crap out of it so no one knows what we have come Oct 4. Fog and Friction baby. Mark my words...Habs will, barring injury, win the Atlantic.

The Pens have Crosby and Malkin and the Habs have Price - and he is certainly important to their playoff fate. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. Your assertion that their D is horrible is completely false. They have an NHL caliber D with several legit top 4 guys. So Alzner was a top 4 guy for last year's President's Cup team but isn't now that he's a Hab? For clarity's sake I'd enjoy seeing your rack and stack of all 30 NHL teams...or at least I'd enjoy seeing, using a three tier system, where all the teams in the NHL fall in order to show that the Canadiens are a bottom tier team. I feel your aspersions are based on the pre-season and an overly simple analysis of what is pretty complex thing.

Boy.....did that change fast.

Price has been so bad because of the D. I've watched a lot of their games this year. Their D was f'ing terrible. Slow, unskilled, easily flustered. I'm sorry but Jordie Benn is NOT and NHL player. The whole organization is mired in a losing culture. Price is still a very good goaltender and could be worth the $$$...but he can't fix what ails them. And now it looks like dumbass Bergevin will remain in charge. It'll be more of the same. It is a big offseason that unfortunately will be run by a guy who has a proven track record of failure. And the contract that is the real albatross is Weber's, not Price. His injury makes me very nervous.

[newfcollins]

And the contract that is the real albatross is Weber's, not Price. His injury makes me very nervous.

Actually, Weber's contract is very movable and actually isn't that bad. All his bonus money and front-loaded contract is done. He goes from a total salary this year of $12 million to $6 million next year, and after a few years, it drops to $3 million and then $1 million a year for the last three years. He's only owed $30 million for the next eight years (an average of $3.75 million). He could easily be dealt to a team with a ton of cap space if needed.

I'm just throwing something out there, but think of Weber in Arizona. They have $30 million in cap space next year and no bad contracts, and really only OEL and Domi as their major free agents. They could easily trade for Weber (who doesn't have a no-trade clause) and they wouldn't have to pay him as much as his cap hit implies.

However, there's no way Bergevin will trade Weber. Imagine trading Weber only two years after giving up Subban for him? He'd be roasted. It would take a new GM to trade Weber.

In the meantime, look forward to Bergevin going all-in on Tavares, only to end up over paying for Evander Kane and Rick Nash.

[rufio.85]

In the meantime, look forward to Bergevin going all-in on Tavares, only to end up over paying for Evander Kane and Rick Nash.

[evans334]

Bring back Gionta! /s