If Cammalleri is done, do Habs become sellers?

[rocket2981]

We got to be honest, the Cammalleri's injury looked frightening yesterday and we all expect the bad news letters (A-C-L). Without him, our chances at the playoffs will be fringe at best. I'm actually wondering if Gainey would not be better selling some assets to infuse some much needed quality youth/picks in this organization.

- We could deal Plekanec to a contender and try to resign him this summer, anyway with our cap situation it would be a tough job resigning him. I think he can bring back a good young player and a late 1st rounder.

- Metropolit can help a contending team as a 4th line specialist. A 5th rounder would be OK.

- A goalie need to go, Gainey has to figure out what to do with the situation as both guys are RFAs and it would be better for the cap situation to keep 1 of him on a long-term deal with a cheap veteran backup on a 1 or 2 year deal (1 M$ per year).

- We don't need Mara anyway and he can help a team as a 6th Dman. 5th or 6th rounder would also do the job.

What do you think?

[sh00n]

I've heard rumblings that Cammo might not actually have any ACL/MCL damage, and it might just be a lower broken leg - which is what I'm praying for. If that's the case, he won't lose any explosiveness and he'll only be out 4-6 weeks.

If Cammo is really gone for the rest of the year, I want us to keep going for the playoffs. Keep going for it, and if the team really just can't make it, become sellers at the deadline. If Gainey truly wants to rebuild this team, now is his chance to do it. And if you're rebuilding, it becomes a lot more clear which goalie we need to keep - and that's Carey Price. We need to move Halak and demand that any team who wants him has to take back Gomez's contract as well. We need to move Hammer, Gill and Mara, in that order. Shop the Kostitsyns and see what they can bring back. Ditto D'Agostini.

With that being said, we should give more ice time to Weber and finally bring up PK to see how he does. I'd also like to see Trotter get some burn this year.

Come this summer, lock up Price long term, and with the cleared cap space in the Gomez/Hammer trades, lock up Pleks long term on an affordable cap hit. Re-sign Pouliot. Offer Bergeron a small deal. Ditto Lapierre.

If we really can clear up cap space by trading away our bad contracts, I say the first thing you look for is a veteran back up goaltender for Carey. Whether it be Ellis, Niitymaki, Hedberg or Raycroft, I'll be happy. My most preferred back up would be Ty Conklin, though.

Next: DEFENSE. 2010 is going to have an insane level of talent when it comes to defense. Aged, but insanely talented. Lidstrom, Neidermayer, Gonchar, Kubina, Blake will all be there. I'd love to see us land Kubina on a good contract and then land Seidenberg, Aucoin, Mitchell, or even Schneider if we can't bring back MAB.

After defense, our next priority has to be depth and size. Key free agents based on position that we should go after:

C
Saku Koivu
Patrick Marleau
Mike Modano
Olli Jokinen
Matt Cullen
John Madden

LW
Ilya Kovalchuk
Paul Kariya
Alex Frolov
Ray Whitney
Tomas Holmstrom
Keith Tkachuk
Rene Bourque

RW
Milan Hejduk
Owen Nolan
Teemu Selanne
Bill Guerin
Mark Recchi
Shawn Thornton

I bolded the guys I would like to see us go after. Going after Kovalchuk and Marleau is obvious. Koivu would give us the perfect center to replace Gomez with. Frolov was amazing with Cammo in LA, so I'd like to see them paired up again. Holmstrom gets in front of the net and does the dirty work - as annoying as he is, I'd love to have him in Montreal. Him and Pouliot on the same line would cause so many headaches for other teams. Bourque is going to be a stud.

Gainey's wanted Selanne for a long time, and I'd love to see him in Montreal. Even at his age, he can still fill it up. Ditto Recchi; who would be a perfect veteran influence on a rebuilding team. And if you're looking to grab a goon, I think Thornton is the perfect goon and my personal favourite for a tough guy. But I won't admit it too often since he plays for Boston.

There's also a lot of quality restricted free agents that I'd like to see us in play for. My personal list:
Bobby Ryan
Bryan Little
Wojtek Wolski
James Neal
Denis Grebeshkov
Gilbert Brule
Brad Richardson
Cal Clutterbuck (Funny story: a friend of mine met Clutterbuck's mom when Minny was in town, she was shopping at the store my friend works at. His mom told my friend that she's always loved the Habs and hopes Cal gets traded here. Gainey should definitely go after him)
Niklas Bergfors
Matt Moulson
Braydon Coburn
Scottie Upshall
Peter Mueller
Devin Setoguchi
David Perron
Ian White
Tomas Fleischmann

My dream scenario is our team would come out being a lot younger, more mobile, stronger and tougher.

sh00n's dream Montreal Canadiens 2010/2011

If Hammer is traded, I'd love to see it be in a deal that brings back Souray.

Cammalleri/Plekanec/Frolov
Bourque/Koivu/Gionta
Holmstrom/Metropolit/Pouliot
Thornton/Lapierre/Recchi

Markov/Souray
Spacek/Gorges
PK/MAB

Price
Conklin/Niittymaki

My fingers hurt.

[rocket2981]

Entertaining ideas but I don't agree on several points with you.

There's no way a team will take on Gomez just to have Halak, we are stuck with Gomez unless we take on a similar salaried guy like Lecavalier.

I don't really like some of the UFAs that you like, guys like Koivu, Recchi, Nolan and other guys like that are basically done IMO and we certainly not going to bring back Koivu in MTL. He gave his heart and all but it would just be weird.

I also don't want to see Subban in MTL, he is our best prospect and Guy Boucher is doing a solid job with him in HAM, just let him dominate in the AHL and go as far as he can in the AHL playoffs. The Bullodgs can win it all this year and it would give an awesome experience to these guys. I can see Trotter been called up and have a real chance though, this guy intrigues me...

[sh00n]

I don't like Nolan, he was just one of the bigger names on the list of FA's.

I'd love Recchi, though. Been saying that since he was in Tampa. The perfect vet to have.