Murray signs, Gorges vs. Diaz
Posted 9:49 AM ET | Comments 1
Apologies if this ends up being posted twice. Someone asked for a translation of my French blog, tried about 12 hours ago and it still hasn't shown up so here goes! First of all, I'd like to state that I am a fan of the Douglas Murray signing. Sure, this is a veteran that might be lacking in the speed department, but the Canadiens really needed to add a little muscle on the back-end of their lineup. Asking rookie Jarred Tinordi to handle that on his own (no offense to Franky Bouillon) would be simply unfair in my opinion. The addition of Murray does set up Bergevin's squad like last season's edition; with 8 one-way contracts on the blue line. And that's not even considering Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi who many believe to be close to ready. Some will even argue that Tinordi should be part of the opening day roster. For what it's worth, I think he earned his spot in last year's post-season; he should be in Montreal, not Hamilton. Is it really feasible for this team to carry 9 Defencemen once Alexei Emelin returns? If I were Therrien, this would be my D lineup once Emelin returns: Markov-Subban, Emelin-Diaz, Murray-Tinordi Réservistes: Gorges-Bouillon-Drewiske. While many will disagree with leaving Gorges out of the lineup, I think the potential to share the bottom two spots between the remaining four D makes more sense and that Gorges really is the out man out. I also think the 4 in question (Tinordi, Murray, Drewiske, Bouillon) will accept to a certain extent their role while I have no idea how Josh Gorges would react to such a scenario. To me, he's the ideal player (with value around the league too) to trade. There's only one problem; his contract! I really don't see many GM's around the league that would want to free Bergevin from this contract, not this year anyways. Can Bergevin pull a rabbit out of his hat or will either Markov or Diaz eventually be traded? Would you rather see Bergevin trade one of the offensive D-men? Sourceless internet reports seem to indicate Calgary as a possible destination for Diaz. Maybe that has more to do with the fact that Hartley was the first to tell the world to "Watch this kid, he's the real I tell ya!" In the end, only Bergevin knows what he wants to do, but it sure is an interesting scenario for him, and an interesting one for us to discuss as we all attempt to play a little couch-GM! Thanks for reading!
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