Hello and welcome to another episode of Canadiens Time I’m D.F. Pendrys, your host. So it’s only been a few hours now since the Shea Weber trade has been announced. Obviously Canadiens fans are reacting to it. A lot of mixed reactions but certainly it’s sort of tough to both deal with the fact that everyone knew this was kind of coming but still now that has happened it’s sort of sort of rough to be faced with the reality of it.

Coming back Montreal’s way is Evgenii Dadonov. Last season played 78 games with the Vegas Golden Knights recording 43 points, 20 goals, 23 assists. He has a one-year contract so where as Weber had four years. So gives the Canadiens some flexibility and I’m not going to get into the intricacies of the whole contract situation. If you are into that I urge you to go seek out one of the expert articles cuz they will get it right and I will get it wrong.

So..so that’s that obviously is now leading people to wonder who will be the next Captain. There’s sort of there’s sort of two schools of thought there is the make Nick Suzuki the captain and also the sort of like name somebody like Joel Edmundson, Brendan Gallagher someone like that Captain and then eventually make Nick Suzuki captain. personally I originally was in the sort of make Edmundson or Gallagher Captain camp but…doesn’t make as much sense as just going to your future captain and just sticking with them cuz you know they’re going to be there for the next…you know Suzuki’s got a very long contract and you just know you just got continuity and the can just start building there so I think if they’re going to name a new captain they should name somebody who’s already going to be in the organization for a long time and not name somebody that they don’t know how long they’re going to be there and it sort of just have the sort of placeholder Captain it it just doesn’t make sense so I got to turned around on that one. So that’s that so we will wait with anticipation to find out who the captain is.

Meanwhile last week I talked about the Canadiens hiring Marie-Phillip Poulin. So several of the other better podcasts out there have talked about this hiring Ian Boisvert of “The build” talked about it and called it an “Unquestionable win for the organization” and have to agree there but he had a very interesting take on it and which I’m going to summarize in that he said that the main benefactor of the decision to hire her was not Poulin but that it was a great day for the Canadiens and the Canadiens were not really amplifying her but that they didn’t just hire her they hired one of the greatest women hockey players to ever live. Correct and it’s going to matter to young people coming in and seeing that and it’s going to matter to people in the organization coming through and they’re going to see that the Canadiens have extraordinary people and and a quote of his was it “should be unquestionable that they have the greatest people in charge of the organization.” And his point in the art…in his podcast was that that wasn’t the case before and so that could if as if that is the if that is sort of the culture that is being shown to people that enter the organization that can lead to good things and I I really found that take interesting and I really think it’s a very good one and so I want to give that a shout out here on and on my meager pod cuz I thought that was just a very very interesting take. And also speaking of pods so over on the Habby Hour Beth pointed out that just the idea of Poulin and Cole Caufield working together on development and I’m thinking wow that did that that is a that is a thought. Like just the idea of Cole learning from her is I mean I…I can’t even imagine what she might be able to teach him and what we might be able to see from that so that was a really good point on her part.

So moving on from that hiring, the Laval rocket unfortunately are no longer in the playoffs. They lost game 7 last night as I’m recording this up in Springfield. It was a lopsided game Springfield won that one, 4 to nothing. I was up there for that game. It was just…it was a really rough game to see that Laval just really could not get anything going. Springfield’s Charlie Lindgren really was stopping whatever they threw at him and also they had some golden opportunities they were not able to cash in on. And in the meantime Cayden Primeau was bailing them out a lot but they still gave up opportunity after opportunity and he couldn’t…he couldn’t save them forever and so that ultimately was the sort of the the result if you want sort of a more detailed breakdown you should look on Habs Eyes on the Prize were Scott Matla
does the whole recap and speaking of him over on his podcast Locked on Canadiens episode 638 he talked about the results but he also said that in spite of the loss that the building blocks are all there for the team to continue to progress and so there is plenty of hope there. And if you, when you think about it there’s certainly true of in there’s so many highly-touted prospects floating around and the and the Rocket you know lost in this series with two prospects sitting on the bench so it’s not sitting on the bench but scratched actually and we have more coming in so it’s there’s a lot of hope there to see where the Rocket can go.

And speaking of prospects, the Memorial Cup is coming up June 20th to the 29th for the juniors and the Hamilton Bulldogs and the Edmonton Oil Kings made it all the way to the Memorial Cup and of course Hamilton has Arber Xhekajs and..Xhekaj and Jan Mysak in and the Edmonton Oil Kings have Kaiden Guhle so they have the Montreal prospects still making it into the Memorial Cup so there’s going to be them in action as they continue on and this led to some discussion of those players who have been on the radar screen of the you know commentators so much and looking to another another segment of Locked on Canadiens 638 they talked about that those players in the Memorial Cup and talking about Xhekaj, Matla said he he’s mean he fights love to throw physical hit sometimes when he shouldn’t but he scores really nice goals from time to time and I’m just her a combining some quotes there but he had a concern in that if he’s he’s concerned that if he doesn’t want Xhekaj to think that he has to fight to keep a lineup place and hoping that he doesn’t get that impression because he has offensive talent and he certainly does, he scores a lot of goals so so that’s that’s a concern that Matla has. As for Mysak both Russ Cohen of the Locked on Flyers podcast who was doing a crossover and Matla spoke highly of him as well. And then they talked about Guhle and Laura Saba mentioned that in her eyes he’s the top prospect currently in the system who hasn’t made the team yet and it’s going to be interesting to see where he ends up and according to Russ Cohen his projection is the Guhle will challenge to be a number two defensemen and maybe even a number one and Matla believes he’s a very smart player so that’s sort of some more expert opinion rather than me trying to break down players which this just you don’t want me doing that.

But staying in juniors there was a great piece that came out by Hadi Kalakeche who took some of the players who are no longer in the playoffs in the QMJHL and he gave them final grades and I’m not going to tell you the grades and I’m not going to give you a lot of the detail because I want you to read the piece cuz what I do on here as I give you a little pieces and then I put it in the show notes and I urge you to go read what people are what people are writing cuz that’s that’s the whole point you know if I’m if I’m giving you what they wirhgt in here it’s not not really going to work so but I did have a little little bit little bits and pieces of what what was said and just just said I’ll share with you and this in this case it was the Joshua Roy, Riley kidney Xavier Simoneau and William Trudeau who had very good seasons. And for Roy who is been just recently made it all the way to Laval he was the QMJHL regular season scoring leader with 119 points it also and in Kalakeche’s opinion “Roy’s adaptability will help him greatly in climbing the echelons of pro hockey “ and that’s just one sentence out of a very detailed Scouting report so I really urge you to have a look at that. And Kidney was his team’s second-best player, “he excelled in the faceoff circle and made strong reads in all three zones to drive pucks towards the opponent’s end.“ That again once again that’s just a sentence out of a very detailed scouting report. Simoneau had a league-leading fort…17 assists in 14 playoff games and but he was noted that he takes avoidable penalties in Kalakeche’s eyes and but he’s found that “outside of a lack of discipline there really isn’t much to criticize in his game” and as for Trudeau in the regular season he scored eight goals and added 36 assists for 44 points in 68 games “but he took a major step up on both sides of the puck throughout the postseason. ” so that’s just just a bit run-down on prospects that the Habs hope to have at their disposal.

Moving back to the Pro game out of certified a know where Otto Leskinen was re-signed and the reaction to this was interesting. And back on Locked on Canadiens Laura Saba found that she saw this as a sign that some AHL players are going to be moving up to the NHL team and they needed to find somebody to fill in some roster spot on the Rocket. Scott Matla also saw him as a potential Insurance player for the NHL bottom pair but also given all the prospects floating around in the defense and there’s a ton of defenders were very young he found that Leskinen could be a more veteran presence in the AHL.

And just speaking of that podcast, won’t go into what they said but just…Locked on Canadiens 636 talked about Shane Wright Logan Cooley as well as Simon Nemec and David Jiříček on the eve of the draft and there’s been so much draft talk just not going to drop into the draft talk right now. It’s just you want to read more about the draft or hear more about the draft check out that that episode because it had had Russ Cohen and Rachel Donner on from Locked on Flyers and they talked about all of that.

Some quick hits before I disappear into the night. Over on the Happy Hour David Auger mentioned that training camp will be critically important this year and I I don’t think that’s an understatement. I mean there was so many players that are looked at as potential prospects and coming up and the sort of the amount of players who sort are showing potential from the AHL who maybe are looking to finally solidify their NHL spot and the question of say they draft Shane Wright well you know what what will they you two will he just slide right into the two C spot behind Suzuki and and of course it would if they don’t draft Shane Wright then what happens? And so it’s it’s it’s going to be very interesting to see what players really stand out as well as the question of what of those players that you’re going to be using you know in those…those games they…they can play before you have to send them down again so it’s it’s going to be a critical time and this is going to be Martin St. Louis’ you know first training camp so he gets to set that that culture from the start of the season so it’s that’s it seems obvious in it it it it is kind of intuitive but yeah it’s going to be very very important.

Also thanks thanks to Beth on this one who is right on almost everything that there was talk rumor about P.K. Subban rumored to be returning to the Habs but she pointed out that Brendan Gallagher is not getting along with Subban so that might be a very unlikely result so that’s just to keep in the back of your minds as that talk goes on. Also it came up that after he did an interview Brett kulak had mentioned that he was open to returning to the Montreal Canadiens and so that ignited some talk and Ian of The Build had mentioned that they might be it be great to have him back and that he’s a solid defenseman and that’s it’s it’s I don’t know if it’s going to fit them in they got plenty of defense defenseman but it but he was certainly would be a cheap player to bring on as a veteran and I know that because I asked the question of Locked on Canadiens and Scott and Ian told me so so the um it might be a useful player but it might also not fit into the long-term plans of Hughes and Gorton there.

And then of course the Josh Anderson saga is going on. You know Hughes is saying you know well we don’t want to trade him but you know that if somebody brings us a deal will we will hear it and all the I mean if you if you read the articles floating around in and you watch Twitter every every possible trade is coming up that involve Josh Anderson. He’ll get traded for a horse and anything it’s just it’s just too wild but in one of the things that I did hear an interesting scenario that Ian of the build brought up was he was he was sort of trying to put some reality back into the discussion and talking about does he fit in with the team’s teams cup window with probably won’t open until a few years from now as they rebuild but he wondered if the Rangers might be a good target because Gorton came for the Rangers so he knows a lot of the organization. And of course Kappo Kakko’s status is really up in the air with the Rangers given how that season ended and that if the Rangers thought they were a piece away they might consider you know paying a lot for Anderson. So just some really solid thoughts from Ian on that front and I don’t know if the Rangers will do that but it’s a it’s a it’s a good speculation as anything and it had is based in some logic on unlike just some of the other things that we’re seeing out there. So I’d be fascinated to see if the Canadiens made a deal with the Rangers on that thing I chords. On the other hand the Rangers might sense sense that Gorton knows them and want nothing to do with him so that’s that’s the other side to it. Okay I’ve talked a lot. Thanks for listening have a good night.