Hockey Trade Rumors

Higgins – Koivu – Kovalev

Plekanec – Bonk – Ryder

(empty) – Begin – Johnson

(empty) – Lapierre – Latendresse

Souray – Markov

Komisarek – Streit

Bouillon – Dandenault

Now let’s subtract the players who are likely to leave. We get:

Higgins – Koivu – Kovalev

Plekanec – (empty) – Ryder

(empty) – Begin – (empty)

(empty) – Lapierre – Latendresse

(empty) – Markov

Komisarek – Streit

Bouillon – Dandenault

This is all fine and dandy, but some of these players are not playing on lines that they deserve. If we were to fine tune our lines they would look something like this:

(empty) – (empty) – Kovalev

Higgins – Koivu – Ryder

Plekanec – Begin – (empty)

Latendresse – Lapierre – Kostitsyn

(empty) – Markov

Komisarek – Streit

Bouillon – (empty)

Now just looking at this makes me cry! 2 spots on our first line…EMPTY!! Boy Bob, you need to work some miracles. Who can keep up with Kovalev and get him to be excited and play to his full potential? Who can replace Souray on our PP and hopefully do a better job of defending our side of the ice? Who has boundless energy to be able to play with Begin and Plekanec and be the greatest energy line in the NHL? Who can replace Dandenault on the third defensive line seeing that he has over-stayed his visit in Montreal. Here’s an idea…

Blake – Briere – Kovalev

Higgins – Koivu – Ryder

Plekanec – Begin – Bertuzzi

Latendresse – Lapierre – Kostitsyn

Markov – Komisarek

Sutton – Bouillon

Streit – Preissing

It’s salary time!

Available cap room: 19.7M

Ryder – 2M

Plekanec – 2M

Briere – 7M

Blake – 3.5M

Bertuzzi – 2M

Sutton – 1.5M

Preissing – 1.7M

Okay, so now that you see that we can afford all these players, let me explain why we are going to get these players. Briere and Blake are just the combination to go with Kovalev. All three are fast, speedy and quick. How else can I put it? They’ll be the fastest line in the NHL. All of them can score, Blake (69 points), Briere (95 points), and Kovalev (47 points) and that’s him being lazy. Imagine the spark he’ll get when he finds out his linemates are Briere and Blake. My mouth’s watering already!! That fixes up our team’s common and justified misconception of being a offense-lacking group. Todd Bertuzzi….now I know that there was a survey in which 80% of Montrealers did not like Bertuzzi, but no one will say anything once we get him. He may be mean, he may have lost his scoring touch, but he sure as hell hasn’t slowed down and he sure as hell hasn’t shrunk, so that leaves him as the ideal candidate for our third line. Offense covered, let’s move to defense. Komisarek is ready to take up a first line job. He’ll do well until O’Bryne or Fischer comes along. Him and Markov will be a shut-down unit and will get plenty of PP time. Markov can cover some of Souray’s offensive contributions, but we will now also have Sutton and Pressing on our second PP unit and they will provide plenty of offense. Sutton’s booming shot and Pressing’s smart passes. Sutton will also click with Bouillon allowing him to display his speed and offensive capabilities. Streit and Pressing will be a solid defensive unit. Both are a little too offensive-minded to be playing with each other, but hey…they’ll work out who gets to join the rush every shift because believe me, there is going to be a rush. With Blake/Briere/Kovalev being our team’s face. With Higgins/Koivu/Ryder providing ample scoring and leadership in the lockeroom. With Plekanec/Begin/Bertuzzi pounding and forechecking hard in the opponent’s zone. With Latendresse/Lapierre/Kostitsyn being our “goons”…HELLO LORD STANLEY!!