All Habs Headlines: Thursday February 25, 2016
	On this day in hockey history… 1971 — Montreal’s Pete Mahovlich scored his first career NHL hat trick as the Canadiens won 5-3 against the Kings, at Los Angeles.  1990 — Eric Desjardins scored the 15,000th goal in Montreal Canadiens’ history, in the first period of a 6-5 win over the Blues, at the Forum.  2004 — New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur became the first goaltender in NHL history to win 30 games in 9 consecutive seasons. He surpassed Patrick Roy’s record of 8 straight seasons.
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► Travel Day

• The Canadiens skated away with a surprising 4-3 win on Wednesday night in Washington.  Read about it here: RECAP | Canadiens – Capitals: Habs Beat the Best
• The IceCaps were in Albany on Wednesday to meet the Devils. Here’s how it turned out: RECAP | IceCaps – Devils: ‘Almost’ Isn’t Enough in Albany

► Injuries mounting

• The Canadiens injured reserve list now includes Carey Price, Daniel Carr, David Desharnais, Brian Flynn, Jeff Petry, and Tom Gilbert.
• The Habs announced on Thursday that Jeff Petry is done for the season. He will undergo surgery for a sports hernia.
• On Wednesday, Tom Gilbert had surgery on his left knee in Florida. He is expected to be out of action for approximately six months.  Gilbert is a unrestricted free agent on July 1st.

► Deadline just around the corner

• The Canadiens list of tradeable assets has become shorter over the last week or two. Injuries to David Desharnais and Tom Gilbert keep them safe while the team locked up Paul Byron for the next three seasons.
• Pending UFA’s include Dale Weise, Tomas Fleischmann, Victor Bartley are probably involved in trade talks. Ben Scrivens is likely safe for now given the need in goal.
• In St John’s, John Scott, Bud Holloway and Gabriel Dumont will be unrestricted free agents on Jult 1st.
• It has surfaced that Alex Galchenyuk and Lars Eller could be available.

#Habs director of pro scouting Vaughn Karpan and amateur scout Scott Masters in attendance for Sharks – Avs ce soir, in COL.

— L.A. Lariviere (@L_A_theRiver) February 25, 2016

#Habs GM #Bergevin working the trade channels HARD. #NHL #TradeDeadline #ThisIsntPlayStation pic.twitter.com/Ewwq9jPzjK

— Bloumeister (@Bloumeister) February 23, 2016

► Laine dazzles

• At the junior development tournament in Lake Placid last August, while the mainstream folks were reporting on Auston Matthews non-stop, the All Habs team was advising you to give some attention to Jesse Puljujärvi and Patrik Laine.
• It was good advice. Puljujärvi and Laine were sensational at the World Juniors Championships enroute to a gold medal performance by Finland in Helsinki.
• Laine displayed his talent in a recent game with the teams playing three-on-three.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyjjRwQt5G8

► Byron re-signs

• As Canadiens fans ardently count down to February 29th, Marc Bergevin has locked up a key piece to the team’s bottom six.
• The Canadiens and Paul Byron have agreed on a contract extension worth $3.5 million that will keep the forward in Montreal for the next three seasons.
• The waiver-wire acquisition make his now unassailable spot in the Habs lineup following coming over from the Flames who are somehow worse than the Canadiens this season.
• Byron had a career-high eight goals in 40 games and was in the top-five in the NHL for short handed goals prior to heading to the I.R. due to a lower-body injury.
• Should Michel Therrien return in 2016-17, Byron will be another incarnation of Dale Weise, in that he will be played out of position and in the top-six as we saw when he was in the lineup.

Paul Byron signs 3-year, $3.5 Million contract extenion. Year 1 – $1M + 300K signing bonus, Year 2 – $1.2M, Year 3 – $1M. @TVASports

— Louis Jean (@LouisJean_TVA) February 24, 2016

Teams were calling Habs about Byron, pending UFA. But Montreal wanted to keep him. New contract makes it official

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) February 24, 2016

► Offseason bound

• With the Canadiens season all but relegated to a contest for a top-six pick, some players are taking a realistic approach when coming head-to-head with the grim reality of the situation.
• Alexei Emelin, who’s name will be in the ether of uncertain taint that is the NHL trade deadline, commented in a rare media appearance on the state of the team he has spent his entire career with.
• “We have no more chance to make the playoffs this season and it’s hard for everybody,” the Russian blueliner told the media in preparation for Wednesday night’s game against Washington.
• In 51 games this season the former third round pick has six assists and a minus-eight rating while rotating between the second and third defensive pairings.

► On the market

• The spurn in which some members of the Canadiens fan base have sent Lars Eller’s way has been remarkable and they may be vindicated very soon.
• According to Eric Engels of Sportsnet, the Canadiens have placed Lars Eller back to his perpetual home, on the trading block.
• The Danish centreman has been one of the Canadiens’ most consistent forwards this season, not in terms of points, despite his position being anything but.
• The former 13th overall pick turned bunching bag, turned accepted third line presence has 10 goals and 18 points in all 61 games the Canadiens have played in 2015-15, ranking him 10th on the team in points.
• With Jacob De La Rose’s play of late Eller’s third line centreman role is not unequivocally his, but one would be worried that he gets dealt instead of David Desharnais.

► Big deal for P.K.

• The most maligned and fifth-highest paid defenceman in the NHL, P.K. Subban has been on the receiving end of pure disdain and the insatiable fan base but the blueliner could’ve been elsewhere.
• According to Elliotte Friedman who disseminated the information on his “30 Thoughts” column, the Philadelphia Flyers offered an extremely large package for Subban back in the summer of 2014, during contract negotiations.
• The package was said to be containing former first round pick Samuel Morin along with other sizeable assets to garner the former Norris Trophy winner.
• TVA Sports was reporting that the package also included a first round pick in that year’s draft and a “quality player not named Claude Giroux”, insinuating either Wayne Simmonds or Jakub Voracek.

► John Scott movie in the works

• Mandalay Sports Media has secured the exclusive rights to the John Scott story, a feature film about the St. John’s IceCaps journeyman.
• The script will be written by Mitch Albom, a sportswriter for the Detroit Free Press. Albom is best known for authoring “Tuesdays With Morrie” and “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.”

► Kovalchuk stripped of captaincy

• The odd saga involving former Atlanta Thrasher captain Ilya Kovalchuk has taken a turn for the climactic as the winger has reportedly been stripped of his captaincy and may be headed overseas.
• The former first overall pick does still need approval from all 30 GM’s prior to rendering the NHL, or he can wait until the 2017-18 season, when he is eligible.
• Some have sanely rumoured that Kovalchuk would be heading back to the place he ripped the heart out of in New Jersey, a team more desperate for offence than the Canadiens, incredibly.
• Considering he heavy Russian contingent in Montreal one might wonder if he would be a fit with the Canadiens, however, considering their cap situation and infatuation with character players after a pair of unmitigated disasters with Semin and Kassian, I wouldn’t bet on it.
• In 50 games this season Kovalchuk has 16 goals and 49 points with a minus-five rating, he had 417 goals and 816 points in 816 games in the NHL prior to leaving for the KHL.

► Weber headed to a championship?

• The Washington Capitals have swung a deal with the Buffalo Sabres that sends Mike Weber to Washington in exchange of a third round pick in next year’s draft.
• The Capitals, who already have considerable talent on their blueline, acquire the insurance policy in preparation of another injury to Brooks Orpik or the instability of a young left side.
• The 28-year old impregnable defenceman joins a Capitals team destined for greatness with the most redoubtable roster to have ever surrounded Alex Ovechkin in all his years as one of the NHL’s elite.
• In 35 games this season Weber has one goal and five points accompanied by a plus-three rating on an abhorrent Buffalo Sabres team with a lot to look forwards to in the coming seasons.

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