Monday Mailbag: Scoot Edition

What’s up everybody, I just finished froshing for the third year in a row, and during the tiny break I have before going to a concert tonight, I’ve decided to answer some of your questions.

The Montreal Canadiens (didn’t even get an interview).

In 20 years when the Leafs dynasty finally ends and Seattle needs a veteran for their cup run.

I didn’t have time to watch the rookie tournament this weekend, but I did hear lots of good things about Bracco, Liljegren, and SDA.

Kapanen would probably be the smart choice, as it gives him a bigger role and he has the skill to play with Matthews. But, knowing Babcock, it’ll be Connor Brown, which isn’t a terrible choice, but not the best.

First, they should probably move one of Rielly, Gardiner, or Dermott over to the right side, so that we don’t have one of them getting bottom pair minutes (I’d say Rielly, so that you could have a top pair of Gardiner and Rielly). Then, you give Carrick the second pair spot, because he played well in that role in 2016-17, and then give one of Holl, Zaitsev, Marincin, and Ozhiganov the last spot. No big names, but it’d be an improvement over Hainsey-Zaitsev-Polak.

If this was the Lou regime, I could potentially buy this conspiracy theory, but Dubas has made no indications that he’s sticking with the hair/jersey policies, so I doubt it.

I’d answer this question honestly, but that’d require me to pay any attention to a team as bad as the Habs. Nick Suzuki is a big add for them, and Pronman ranked them pretty high on his rankings, so I’ll say them.

I think we found a worse GM than Bergevin.

The key to being a successful franchise is constantly bringing in new prospects when you have to let players go to free agency when they want to much money, and those prospects being good enough to stop the bleeding at the very least. We’re currently seeing that with Kapanen and Johnsson likely to get bigger roles with JVR, Bozak, Komarov, and Plekanec gone, and Carrick or Holl with Polak gone. I never want to bring them up until their ready, but you also need to give them a chance to show they’re ready.

As for letting them go, I’d probably say 23 or 24 is when you should have a feel for what they are, and if you don’t like them, you can try and throw them into a trade, like what the Leafs did with Rychel. Don’t hang on to them though, because that’s when it starts to just take up roster spots that could be given to better prospects, like Gauthier.

My bet is that he doesn’t make the team out of camp this year, plays a bigger role with the Marlies, is an injury call-up at some point this year, starts to show what he’s made of, and then he impresses in camp in 2019 and makes the team. That seems to be the most logical reasoning to deal with Liljegren.

Not as bad as the Sens.

Did the Habs not even get an interview?

(The answer is yes).

Suzuki is (to my knowledge) a really good prospect, and most importantly, a center, which is what the Habs need right now. He’s no Auston Matthews, or John Tavares, or even a Nazem Kadri, but he’s still pretty good.

It’s a shame that he’s just going to be forced to play on the wing for five years until he gets traded for a worse winger that the Habs will then try to play as a center.