Four years later, the colossal failure the Subban-Weber trade represents

[GGpX]

(Part 1, because apparently my text was too long due to a 10,000 character limit on posts)

It's Canada Day, I have some free time and I felt like writing something. I will not include a tl;dr resumé at the end for those who are lazy and don't want to read my wall of text.

So...

Who won the Subban for Weber trade?
And what makes you so sure that the Canadiens were on the winning end?

Four years ago, we traded PK Subban for Shea Weber straight up. As the wise philosopher Roosevelt once said, a day that shall live in infamy, albeit for much less serious and impactful reasons. The day it happened, everyone lost their collective minds (myself included) and for the most part, everyone was wrong (myself included)... to a certain extent. The trade itself has aged a lot better for the Canadiens than I thought it would, but the trade is only a small cog in the big machine. If you were to take a step or two back and try to look at the whole forest instead of just a few trees, there's way more in play than just those two players.

I'm going to examine what the trade meant, above & beyond simply swapping PK Subban and Shea Weber.

The trade was made after The Charlatan's fourth season as the General Manager. In his first three years, the team finished second in the east in 2012-2013, fourth in the east in 2013-2014, and second in the east in 2014-2015. They made it to the Eastern finals in 2014 and the second round in 2015. Following the 2015-2016, the season when Price missed most of the season because of a knee injury, the Canadiens finished 13th in the conference. When you would examine the rosters of those teams, the core was composed of (give or take) Price-Markov-Gallagher-Subban-MaxPac, with Plek & Galchenyuk hovering, and Petry that was acquired late in 2015. With the exception of Galchenyuk, whom The Charlatan drafted a month or so after he was hired, and Petry, those were all guys from the previous regimes. The success the team was having was largely due to players that were acquired prior to his arrival and he surfed on those players for his initial success.

I'm speculating when I make this point, but I think there are two things that are fairly obvious. 1- He mis-evaluated how good the team actually was without Price, and 2- He wanted to put the team over while putting his stamp on the team.

Point 1- I used to have in my signature that elite goaltending masks a team's flaws. Price was the single important player in the league because of all the flaws he was able to mask behind really bad teams and if he was off, the team stunk. Because, well, the teams he played for were never all that great. I'll always maintain that Price's 2014-2015 is one of the greatest seasons by a goaltender in NHL history, it was Hasekian. Price covered up a loooot of defensive flaws on that team. It's why he won every major trophy he was eligible for that year and won them in near unanimous voting. There was no controversy or discussion about the merits of him winning those trophies like when José Theodore did in the early 2000s while Jarome Iginla had a legitimate argument in his favor.

I don't know whether The Charlatan believed that Price was going to be top-notch, all-time elite consistently or if he believed that the team in front of him was better than what it showed, maybe both. Again, I'm purely speculating.

Point 2- I firmly believe that Bergevin thought this team was close and that he didn't want to be known as a Barry Switzer type. Someone who inherited a team full of talent, won with it, but the whole world knew that they won because of team that was assembled by the guy before him. What better way than to trade for a player that is Hockey Canada royalty and who plays the "white right way"? That plays with grit, and has ka rak tur, who isn't outspoken and who plays in the typical, boring, good ol' Canadian boy type of way that would make Don Cherry & his ilk salivate. Not to mention, it was pretty clear Subban was never in The Charlatan's good books. I don't think he ever really wanted Subban on his teams, he just endured him.

More on that later. (1)

While we're also looking back on The Charlatan's decisions, we have to look at the drafting & developing. This is not exclusive to him, as every team who wants to be successful needs to have (at the very least) a good scouting crew, but the drafting & development has not been good since his arrival and it took him a long time to make any significant change. Sylvain Lefebvre, a complete fuck-up as an AHL head coach, was fired in April 2018 after six disastrous seasons and Shane Churla was named the head of Amateur Scouting in 2016. The Charlatan's been here for a hair over 8 years now and the prospect pool is (finally) starting to shape up.

More on that later. (2)

 

[GGpX]

(Part 2)

When The Charlatan made the trade, he sold Shea Weber as the missing piece, as the player that was going to put us over the top.

If you're someone who's looking at the trade as only Subban Vs Weber, you're telling me that you are ignoring the big picture. You are looking at two trees, all the while ignoring the forest around them. It's like the Sergachev for Drouin trade. In a vacuum, player for player, we probably won the trade by getting Drouin.

But when you examine major trades like that, there are so many more elements that are in play that simply can't be ignored. Sticking with the Drouin for Sergachev trade.

1- By acquiring Drouin, we acquired an older (relative to Sergachev) player who needed a new contract. We also acquired a player that we tried to stick at center, a position he only played in his last year of Junior out of necessity because he was so much better than everyone else. Unsurprisingly, that was a complete failure, so we put him back at wing the following season.

2- By giving up Sergachev, we gave away our best prospect in one of our positions of need. We had nobody on left side D, Markov is getting near retirement, we have no LHD prospects, and we traded him away. Not only did we trade him away, we traded him away when we could have played him for cheap labor, which would have helped in filling the team with other players at a higher price.

3- By putting Drouin back at wing, we reinforced the strongest part of our team: Our wingers. We did not need more wingers. We needed centers and LHD. We were already set at wing and we reinforced it because the hope that a winger would be able to succeed at center was completely foolish.

4- From Tampa Bay's perspective: Trading Jonathan Drouin away and getting young cheap labor allowed them to gain capspace by trading away a player who wanted a big raise and it allowed them to sign Palat & Johnson. Drouin was easy to trade because he had already been surpassed in the depth chart by Brayden Point. He had become redundant.

So, if you're looking at the trade of Drouin for Sergachev and looking only at the players, I think we probably won that trade. But when you look at the bigger picture, Tampa Bay handidly won that trade.

The exact same thing applies to the Subban-Weber trade.

If you look at player to player, Subban's clearly on the decline and Weber's still playing strong. Player for player, we easily won that trade. No question.

However, when you begin to look at the metaphorical forest and not just those two trees, it becomes clearer and clearer that we tied our own noose. We're just waiting for someone to mercifully kick stool from under our feet to get it over with.

 

[GGpX]

(Part 3)


As mentioned above, the trade represented what The Charlatan perceived as a move to put the team over the top. Removing Subban & adding Weber was going to be the difference between a second round exit & possibly winning the Cup and if Price gets injured again, Weber wasn't going to sit back and let the team crumble in front of him. (Although, hindsight being 20-20, it kinda did happen during his time here, but hey, the blame was layed on Max's shoulders that time.)

The reasoning behind the trade represented that this team was an immediate contender and that this core was good enough to win over multiple years. So what subsequently happened, just one year later? We signed Carey Price to an $84M contract, further proving their belief in this team's core.

Ever since the trade, 4 years have passed:

2016-2017: 4th best record in the East, 103 points. 6 games in the first round before elimination
2017-2018: 14th best record in the East, 71 points. Missed the playoffs.
2018-2019: 9th best record in the East, 96 points. Missed the playoffs.
2019-2020: 12th best record in the East, on pace for 82 points. Participating the "vampire" playoffs.

From Nashville's perspective:

2016-2017: 8th best record in the West, 94 points. 24 games before losing in the Finals
2017-2018: Best record in the whole league, 117 points. 13 games before losing in the second round.
2018-2019: 3rd best record in the West, 100 point. 6 games before losing in the first round.
(Subban was traded prior to the 2019-2020 season due his decline)

This might be completely unfair for me to say, but none of this is false. Shea Weber, the guy who was supposed to put this team over, lead this team to 3* playoff misses. Shea Weber, during his 11 years in Nashville, won a grand total of 3 rounds. PK Subban won four round in two seasons, and had it not been for Pekka Rinne playing like a sieve, I'm of the belief they would have won in 2017 and they would have had a great chance in 2018. PK Subban also came in third in Norris voting his first season in Nashville and was on the NHL's Second Team All Stars, while Weber came in sixth in voting for both. Neither have received any votes of any kind since that season.

Nothing in that last paragraph is opinion. Those are all facts that you can look up on hockey-reference, hockeydb or Wikipedia if you feel inclined.

I know what some of you are going to say, and I'm ready for it.

"Well, Subban's played dipped and he's not good anymore!" True, but that's irrelevant.

"Well, Nashville traded their best d-man and now they have nothing to show for it!" False, their best d-man was Josi, which is why they were the ones who offered Weber for Subban in the first place. Also false, they got 2 elite years of Subban and one year in decline. They were also able to trade him away, get some future assets in return and, this is very important, they retained no salary on Subban's contract and didn't have to take any salary in return. Because of that, they got $9M of pure capspace and they were able to re-sign Roman Josi without having to trade a valuable player for futures.

"Well, Weber's on the Canadiens, playing great and Subban's washed up!" True- But what makes you so sure that that's a good thing for the Canadiens?

One team has gone through two legitimate Stanley Cup Runs, the other hasn't even been able to make the playoffs more than once. Nashville got two great years out of Subban, saw his play decline in the third year, traded him without taking money in return. That is top of the food chain asset management in a salary cap world.

Returning to my small notes (1) and (2) from earlier, because they’re relevant now and they’re intertwined with my conclusion.

Because The Charlatan won with Gainey & Gauthier’s players, trading Subban away (and subsequently trading MaxPac away two years later) firmly makes this team his. Every player acquired is either someone he drafted, someone he (re-)signed or someone he traded for. The team is clearly his, the team is his creation, there’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. This is a team that he can clearly say is his and nobody would think twice about.

The problem is, his teams sucks. The problem is, his team isn’t close to being a legitimate contender. The problem is, this team isn’t going to be any good any time soon.

The reason?

Because we traded for Shea Weber.
Because we re-signed Price a year later.
Because those two combine for a nickel over $18M of capspace, which is about two dimes under 20% of the total.
Because we all know he’s going to re-sign Brendan Gallagher to a fucking ridiculous long-term contract despite every conceivable statistic showing that this is a terrible idea.
Because we haven’t drafted well, we have almost no young, cheap labor in our lineup.
Because we haven’t drafted well, we don’t have much of anything in terms of prospects knocking at the door.
Because of that, we’re stuck having to sign the Jordan Weals of the world, the Nick Cousins of the world, the Matthew Pecas of the world, instead of having players from Europe/Junior/AHL come up and fill those depth positions.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Shane Churla is turning things around. Alexander Romanov, Jayden Struble, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Ryan Poehling, Jordan Harris, Cayden Primeau, Cole Caufield are in our pipeline. That’s a pretty decent prospect pool if you ask me.

Which one of those players is going to have an impact in the 2020-2021 season? Maybe Kotkaniemi?
Which one of those players is going to have an impact in the 2021-2022 season? Kotkaniemi, in all likelihood. Romanov & Caufield, maybe? Maybe our 2020 first round pick, TBD?

Let’s say, once again, for the sake of argument. All the players I mentioned above are in the NHL or are knocking on the door to make it by the 2022-2023 season.

Shea Weber will be 38 years old. Carey Price will be 36 years old. Brendan Gallagher, who will be paid $8M+ / year by then, will be 31 years old. Jeff Petry, if he’s still around, will be paid more than the $6M he’s getting now and will be a hair shy of turning 35. Does anybody here truly believe that all of those players will maintain or even improve their play two & a half years from the end of this season? They’ll be out of their primes, if they aren’t already. I don’t know of many players that suddenly get better once they’re in their mid-30s.

No matter how you cut it, we are fucked. By the time that all those prospects that are showing real potential for the future are ready to make their way into the league, it'll be too late. Our core will have outgrown their worth.

Trading for Weber represents the colossal failure of this franchise of properly evaluating itself in an honest way. This organization completely misevaluated itself, and I'm not sure how. From the outside looking in, it's been clear to me for years that this was going to be a problem.

If we were the best drafting team in the league, then trading for Weber could have been completely understandable. Surround him & Price with cheap, young and talented players, and try to do what Tampa Bay did with the Drouin for Sergachev trade. However, that’s a fantasy and nowhere near reality.

Trading for Weber has signed, sealed, and is in the midst of delivering, a decade of mediocrity.

Price & Weber, along with the supporting cast of Gallagher & whomever else they decide to keep, will always keep us good enough to compete for a spot in the playoffs without ever being legitimate contenders, all the while never get bad enough to tank and be in the lottery. We could win the lottery this year and it would have almost no impact, the cycle will continue to repeat itself because we have too many older players taking up too much of the cap with nothing in the immediate pipeline to help out.

There’s only one solution. It sucks, it’s going to be painful, and we’re going to live through many hard years like the Leafs did in the 2010s.

It goes without saying, but The Charlatan needs to be removed from power before he makes even more mistakes that will jeapordize things even further. Every single player above the age of 24 needs to be traded immediately, for as many future assets as possible. If you want to keep a few, like Phillip Danault, then fine. But Price-Weber-Petry-Gallagher all need to be traded before the start of next season, if at all possible.

Some of you might think it's excessive and the scorched earth approach won't work, and you might be right. It might not work. But here's what I do know: The current approach? The one that we've been doing for nearly my whole life on this planet? The one that has been done by Houle, Savard, Gainey, Gauthier and The Charlatan? I can tell you for an outright fact that, it hasn't worked in the past, it isn't working right now and I see no reason to believe it's going to work in future.

The Montreal Canadiens used to be cream of the crop, not just across the NHL, but across North American sports franchises. Now? We're closer to a Mickey Mouse, mom & pops ran organization than we are to being the standard.

So, I'll ask again.

Who won the Subban for Weber trade?
And what makes you so sure that the Canadiens were on the winning end?

Happy Canada Day.

 

[Habsy]

Since you to the time to write it, I took the time to read it.

While you do make some strong points and do attempt to look at the deal in both a macro and micro sense I have to disagree that this single trade is the reason for mediocrity. It's multiple moves and truthfully injuries too. Now injuries tend to get mitigated by the acquisition of younger players as they do tend to stay healthier than older players like Weber who tend to succumb to nagging injuries more often.

I also believe you're missing the salient point of the trade, PK was about to have his NMC kick in for long term and while he was the better player early in the trade, he is no longer. This comes as a shock to most as Weber is older however Weber is maintaining his play due to plenty of rest and his for surgery which was already rumored, and confirmed by HP, that Weber had issues with his legs. Perhaps internal evaluation for the Habs showed that they did not want PK longterm with a NMC because they were afraid of the decline that we now see. This is unknown to us.

I think MB is average at best as a GM and is proving to be a company man just like the Molson's want. While his performance seems pedestrian to us, it appears the bosses disagree and like his performance.

You also have to consider that the Habs would likely not have the prospect pool they have if they didn't play poorly recently. To that point, should the Habs receive Lafreniere, MB will be forgiven by most for any transgressions.

I view the trade as a wash if only because PK only gave Nashville a couple of decent years (blaming Rinne isn't fact is conjecture btw) and for the reason that they got squat when they flipped PK.

Good discussion, thanks for taking the time.

 

[wiseguy1]

It was only a bad trade because Habs should have got a package of young prospects in return.

 

[CH1]

Great post GGpx. At the end of the day, the deal turned out to be less impactful than pretty much all of our initial reactions.

I don't think the Weber trade defined the Habs progression (or lack of it). The fact the Habs refuse to succumb to a complete overhaul wasn't predicated by the trade...in fact, it's more the reverse....the trade is a symptom of who's in charge. I mean....It's not too late to trade Weber for futures.

But, as you said, Bergy loves his security blankets (Price, Weber, Gallagher)

 

[GGpX]

Since you to the time to write it, I took the time to read it.

While you do make some strong points and do attempt to look at the deal in both a macro and micro sense I have to disagree that this single trade is the reason for mediocrity. It's multiple moves and truthfully injuries too. Now injuries tend to get mitigated by the acquisition of younger players as they do tend to stay healthier than older players like Weber who tend to succumb to nagging injuries more often.

Sure, there isn't one singular thing that dictates the whole of the team, short of winning the lottery and drafting a generational player like Crosby/McDavid. However, one single trade can give someone a clear indication as to what their intentions are. For example, what did the Gomez for McDonagh trade symbolize? It symbolized a panic move by someone who said to hell with the future, we're going to for it now. Then when you add the poor drafting, losing a bunch of UFAs for nothing in return, giving too much money to Gionta/MC/Hamrlik, those all fit in line with the major move of trading for Gomez. The Weber trade symbolized (and while I can't find the quote, I'm 99% sure he said it) that they thought they Weber was the missing piece that was going to lead the Canadiens to where they needed to be.

I also believe you're missing the salient point of the trade, PK was about to have his NMC kick in for long term and while he was the better player early in the trade, he is no longer. This comes as a shock to most as Weber is older however Weber is maintaining his play due to plenty of rest and his for surgery which was already rumored, and confirmed by HP, that Weber had issues with his legs. Perhaps internal evaluation for the Habs showed that they did not want PK longterm with a NMC because they were afraid of the decline that we now see. This is unknown to us.

I didn't mind trading Subban and I understand that there was a deadline to move him before the NMC kicks in. There was speculation that Montreal was trying to trade for Draisaitl out of Edmonton, but who knows how much of that was legit. Shea Weber wasn't the player I would have been aiming for, let's just say.

I think MB is average at best as a GM and is proving to be a company man just like the Molson's want. While his performance seems pedestrian to us, it appears the bosses disagree and like his performance.

Bergevin's major flaw is self-evaluation and thinks too highly of what he possesses. He is much too slow to turnover his personnel. There's no good reason Lefebvre should have lasted more than 2 or 3 years in the minors, let alone six full years. That's literally 4 years of draft picks coming from Junior wasted. There's no good reason Timmins should have continued to have any imput on this team's drafting, and I don't really know what his role in the amateur scouting is now. It says Shane Churla's the head of amateur scouting, but who has final word?

If all Bergevin had to do were trades, I think he'd be above average. He's made some excellent trades during his time here, most noteable the Weise & Flesichmann for Danault & 2nd.

You also have to consider that the Habs would likely not have the prospect pool they have if they didn't play poorly recently. To that point, should the Habs receive Lafreniere, MB will be forgiven by most for any transgressions.

Who knows. Maybe it would have been worse, maybe better, maybe +/- the same. I think that would only apply to the first or second round. They were still able to get Harris in the third, Primeau in the 7th. Teams weren't elbow to elbow trying to pick those two up. They also reached for Romanov, which is turning out to be a fantastic selection. Maybe if they were further back in the second, they still would have been available. It's impossible to know.

I view the trade as a wash if only because PK only gave Nashville a couple of decent years (blaming Rinne isn't fact is conjecture btw) and for the reason that they got squat when they flipped PK.

If you look at the trade itself and none of the outside circumstances, we won the trade. Not only did we win it, we won it pretty handily.

It's when I look at all of the other things going on that it becomes clear. The trade was a poison pill.

I know that blaming Rinne is conjecture, it's just my personal belief. I could just as easily be wrong.

Good discussion, thanks for taking the time.

Likewise, happy 4th of July this weekend.

 

[GGpX]

You know, I felt like writing that because Twitter is a shithole for any kind of interesting or downright civil discussion. Two days ago was the anniversary of the trade, it was basically universal that people miss Subban but boy were they happy to have Weber. And in my mind, I get it, but am I the only one that looks at other factors in all of this? Sure, I'm happy we have Weber, but in a way I wish we didn't?

So I tried talking with a few people on there, which was my first mistake, and I was sent nothing but insults in my mention for the most part. Reading my mentions, my second mistake.

Despite what some people here might possible believe, I'm not a contrarian. Watching Junior/NCAA hockey over the years has changed my perspective on how I think about hockey in the way that, conventional wisdom is often bullshit. Compare all of the draft classes with the final rankings, they're very different. But at the time of the draft, conventional wisdom said X or said Y. Conventional wisdom said that Greg Nemisz and Michael McCarron were first round caliber players, but when I saw them play, there was nothing that said anything about them being first round picks. And of course, if you say that publicly, you're crazy. You're trolling. You're doing it for attention.

Just go look at the draft thread right after the WJC where I had the audacity to suggest that it wouldn't be inconceiveable Quinton Byfield might be better than Lafrenière. There are some that are literally calling me an imbecile without ever addressing my points.

So my point of view has become, I will enumerate my points in the best way I can, and if I'm as retarded as some people seem to believe I am, I will gladly wait & read the counters to my ideas. Funny enough, I just rarely hear counters to my ideas outside of people throwing insults.

 

[Habsy]

Ask yourself this

If Weber were to be traded would be bring in more than PK did from NJ. My opinion is yes, he would, and likely a lot more.

 

[Habsy]

Oh and n most on Twitter are twits. Hence the name.


Ok, I made that up but I believe it.

 

[GGpX]

Yes, absolutely.

However, I think we all know he's not getting traded. Not only that, I don't think The Charlatan's even going to entertain the thought. Same goes for Gallagher.

 

[Habsy]

Not so sure. I could see a scenario where an offer could come from a team at a draft where a player they covet is available happening on a deal for Weber. Everything has its price.

 

[GEEMAN]

Great post GGPX , as usual your flair and insight is appreciated

My thoughts are as follows

We are fukced as you say because Nero never understood where this team stood in the NHL food chain

You have to look in the mirror and clearly determine WTF are you in this league ....Contender , middle of the pack and spinning the hamster wheel to nowhere , gut time , retool , etc...

PK was a dick that had to go who became bigger than the team , thats fine

We needed a youth type of deal , not Weber

Weber is solid if you have a 3 year window to win a cup , WE NEVER DID

JD trade was a disaster ...purely a media french issue that Nero knew he was crucified when he went elsewhere

We were too thin on talent and depth to have any benefit from these trades

When you make dumb moves you never progress , thats the Habs after an 8 year patch job

We are doomed for 5 more years at least, none of these moves were going to amount to shit only kick the can down the road

We simply dont have enough core talent and never did in Nero`s tenure

Some of us like myself called for a gut job 5 years ago .....a true gut the core blow up

In the end we might of been better off , we are no better now and are players are aging

We will fukc it up again overpaying Gally cause as usual " how the fukc can we move this guy like Price "

 

[Habsy]

To sum all that up

This team has no identity.

 

[GEEMAN]

To sum all that up

This team has no identity.

Bingo

I know 8 years is way too long to keep a GM when you suck shit

However by know we should of had 3-4 core players on this active roster to work with for 3-4 years

We have zilch , thats pathetic and upsetting

We might be the only team since 2012 that hasnt developed a core player

 

[Habsy]

Gallagher

 

[GGpX]

We drafted him in 2010, prior to The Charlatan arriving.

 

[Thunder]

Great post GGpX.

I agree with the statement that Montreal made a mistake by trading PK Subban for Shea Weber.

Weber brought a great skillset to the team, but they made a bigger hole in the team by trading 76 who had a more valuable skillset.

I believe in today’s NHL, puck moving defensemen, mobility and transition play to be of great importance to have success.

The Canadiens went from 79-76 duo to no Top Pairing puck moving D at all.
(Petry is a #3)

The lack of effective breakouts to relaunch the offense and strong transition play did hurt the Montreal Canadiens terribly offensively.

You just don’t move a Top Pairing PMD without at least trying to fill the gap one way or another.

Well they did managed to get away with it as Markov was still there in 2016-2017, the only year they made the playoff with Shea Weber.

When 79 left, the carrots were really cooked.

I posted a few stats about Pacioretty’s down season the last year he was in Montreal VS the years prior where he was Top 5 in goals in the NHL.

If I remember correctly, it was something like 60% of his goals had assists from either 76 or 79.

No D to feed him the puck or sprung him on breakaways killed his game that year.

The bottom line for me is that the league was heading in a direction : younger, faster, more skills with modern day defensemen who can do it all.

And Montreal went the opposite way.

Shea Weber could have been the missing piece on a team who had all its key bases covered, but there was to many glaring holes for him to make a difference.

Arguments aside, the bleu-blan-rouge just look odd on Shea Weber, does not fit him well at all.

 

[GEEMAN]

Great post GGpX.

I agree with the statement that Montreal made a mistake by trading PK Subban for Shea Weber.

Weber brought a great skillset to the team, but they made a bigger hole in the team by trading 76 who had a more valuable skillset.

I believe in today’s NHL, puck moving defensemen, mobility and transition play to be of great importance to have success.

The Canadiens went from 79-76 duo to no Top Pairing puck moving D at all.
(Petry is a #3)

The lack of effective breakouts to relaunch the offense and strong transition play did hurt the Montreal Canadiens terribly offensively.

You just don’t move a Top Pairing PMD without at least trying to fill the gap one way or another.

Well they did managed to get away with it as Markov was still there in 2016-2017, the only year they made the playoff with Shea Weber.

When 79 left, the carrots were really cooked.

I posted a few stats about Pacioretty’s down season the last year he was in Montreal VS the years prior where he was Top 5 in goals in the NHL.

If I remember correctly, it was something like 60% of his goals had assists from either 76 or 79.

No D to feed him the puck or sprung him on breakaways killed his game that year.

The bottom line for me is that the league was heading in a direction : younger, faster, more skills with modern day defensemen who can do it all.

And Montreal went the opposite way.

Shea Weber could have been the missing piece on a team who had all its key bases covered, but there was to many glaring holes for him to make a difference.

Arguments aside, the bleu-blan-rouge just look odd on Shea Weber, does not fit him well at all.

Then blunder #2 came with inking Price

The rest of the league was shying away from paying goalies as cups were won without anyone carrying you anymore

We end up overpaying for a goalie when nobody got paid in half a decade more than Lundquist

Every other position got new salary ceilings , we set a new bar for a declining asset

Then we get the great asset in Alzner because we were a 6th D away from a cup

 

[Habsy]

We drafted him in 2010, prior to The Charlatan arriving.

He was developed under MB.