Comments on: Markov agrees to 4 year deal with Montreal

By: habsgod

habsgod — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:44:54 +0000

why can't you believe i just called wendy clark a fag?why? does the truth hurt?!!! is it true that he did live with cranston?

By: habsgod

habsgod — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:42:52 +0000

why can't you believe i just called wendy clark a fag?why? does the truth hurt?!!! is it true that he did live with cranston?

By: tucksfan

tucksfan — Thu, 31 May 2007 08:43:06 +0000

if they were making the sa,e a,ount i bet u could ask any gmanyone other then a montreal fan would rather have kaberle then markov anyday.

By: tucksfan

tucksfan — Thu, 31 May 2007 08:34:34 +0000

kaberle is the best no matter who the leafs get for d and no i dont want markov,we have to much d but ur rite bout 1 thing the leafs have a few over paid pieces of shit namely kubina+mccabe

By: BruMagnus

BruMagnus — Wed, 30 May 2007 08:22:16 +0000

We must have the same source.

By: BruMagnus

BruMagnus — Wed, 30 May 2007 08:17:08 +0000

Only a player can choose to resign.

By: nordiques100

nordiques100 — Wed, 30 May 2007 07:50:09 +0000

I understand completely your frustration.

My team toronto has done the same thing. reward those that failed with healthy contracts. they get justified by many because of the player's individual numbers or individual skill set, but bottom line they didnt win nor did these players help the team win.

By: Hoondog2

Hoondog2 — Wed, 30 May 2007 06:36:52 +0000

I'm pretty sure, but not positive that Phillips is resigned.

By: habsoverserver

habsoverserver — Tue, 29 May 2007 22:43:30 +0000

i agree with you assessment. i think montreal has signed too many onerous contracst to be able to afford six million a year for four years to Souray.

if monteal resigns all their veterans to higher priced contracts, they will have given raises to 1/3 of a team that didn't make the playoffs, which seems senseless. either that or gainey will finally conclude that it is better to trade for cheap young players than to foist money on unwanted free agents like Kovalev and Samsonov.

By: nordiques100

nordiques100 — Tue, 29 May 2007 21:26:26 +0000

it will be interesting to see what the team does with the cap room they have left. The habs are roughly at 29-30 million with 13 guys under contract. After what Bettman said monday, the cap looks like it will go up to 48-49 million leaving montreal about 18-19 mil under. thats a ton of space but it can fade quickly.

Their first order of business will likely to try and re-sign souray but they should handle their RFAs first. Higgins, Komisarek, Ryder, Plekanec all played well last year and deserve raises.

Plekanec was at 450K and with stats very similar to the leafs alex ponikarovsky, you have to thing plekanec will get a good raise, probably around 1.5 mil.

higgins was at around 650K and will likely be bumped over a mil at least. i say 1.25 mil for him.

komisarek was terrific last year and will get a bump up from 950K. we're probably looking at 1.75-2 mil for him.

ryder was already making just over 2 mil and will likely get some raise after scoring back to back 30 goal seasons. perhaps something over 3 mil is not out of the question.

so we have plekanec at 1.5, higgins at 1.25, komi at 2 and ryder at say 3.25, that adds another 8 mil to the payroll.

with the way souray played last year offensively, and similar guys like kubina at 5, mccabe at 5.75 and jovanovski at over 6 mil, souray is going to get something close to that. it would be far too wishful to think that his -28 rating will cause him to only get around 4 mil on the open market. if the habs want to keep him, they have to pony up 6 mil.

so if the habs sign those 5 guys, thats going to cost roughly 14 mil. their cap space has dwindled significantly with still 4 or 5 more guys to add to their 22-23 man roster.

they still need a centre for their top 2 lines, they need more defensive presence on the blueline, they could use more size and grit. plus a forward who could score wouldnt hurt.

what would help the cause is if they could ever dump samsonov and kovalev. they can bury samsonov in the minors because being under 35, he wont count against the cap if he is on the farm. thats a huge savings. kovalev is an attractive talent but he's owed 9 mil over the next 2 years. thats not attractive. getting these two off the books would save the habs 8 mil next year.

also a big help will be more youngsters emerging. kostitsyn should be a regular next year as well as lapierre and halak in nets. streit comes cheap as does latendresse and gorges. all these guys make less than 1 million. if the team could add maybe 1 or two more young cheap types that will help them have more cap room to add another veteran player.

one thing is certain, they need to play way way better 5 on 5. they lived and died on special teams, and while dominating in that area, they died anyways.