HEADLINES | Ranking the Habs, Weber, King, Desharnais, Barberio, more

All Habs Headlines: Friday August 5, 2016
	On this day in hockey history… 1937 — Former NHL and Olympics head coach Herb Brooks was born in St. Paul, Minnesota.
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► Habs Management Near Bottom of the League

• The Score has unveiled their organizational rankings this week for all NHL teams. Their evaluation confirms what many of us have been saying for a long time: the Canadiens have saddled themselves with some of the least talented management personnel in the league.
• With respect to key management roles, the Canadiens are ranked 24th in the NHL. The number one ranking is held by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
• The Canadiens are dragged down by weakness at the coaching and general manager positions. Michel Therrien is ranked 24th while Marc Bergevin is ranked 26th.
• There is some good news in the report for the Canadiens with Geoff Molson being the fourth ranked owner. Trevor Timmins and the Habs farm system is rated ninth in the league.

► Weber Will Pay A Visit

• The behaviour of some members of the mainstream media following the trade of P.K. Subban has been nothing short of reprehensible. Manufacturing a faux controversy about Shea Weber not yet visiting Montreal is one of the worst examples.
• Weber torpedoed the false narrative by confirming that he will attend Michel Therrien’s golf tournament next week.

Shea Weber à Montréal mardi https://t.co/HWTjirA2LZ

— La Presse Sports (@LaPresse_Sports) August 5, 2016

► Habs Lose Jay

• Frank Jay, former Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting for the Montreal Canadiens, has been hired as an amateur scout by the Edmonton Oilers.
• The Oilers also announced that Keith Gretzky has been appointed as the new Assistant General Manager.

► King is a Comet

• Jason King, former Director of Hockey Operations for the St. John’s IceCaps, is now an assistant coach of the Utica Comets. The Comets are the AHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks.

► Desharnais Content With His Role

• With the potential for this to be his final season in Montreal, David Desharnais is heading into the 2016-17 campaign looking forward to the re-vamped Canadiens.
• In an interview with LaPresse, Desharnais, one of two French-Canadian players assuredly on the roster, expressed his content with his role, and the state of the team heading into next season. “I was on the first line, I was on the second, third, and I’ll probably start on the third. I loved my role last year, at the beginning of the year at least, maybe not after […] There is depth on the team and it’s perfect like that,” said the Laurier Station, Quebec native.
• Last season Desharnais recorded his lowest points-per-game total since becoming a member of the Canadiens organization full-time in 2011-12.

► Barberio Excited About Weber

• In a piece in LaPresse, Olivier Bossé spoke with Canadiens defenceman Marc Barberio, who made his presence felt during his opportunities last season, and is excited about the arrival of Shea Weber.
• “Shea Weber will become the darling of Canadiens fans soon enough. We lost a player with a lot of talent and fans had a big place in their hearts for P.K. (Subban), but Weber has a pretty physical style of play. And his point shot isn’t bad!” said Barberio.
• The Kirkland, Quebec native scored two goals last season, along with a career-high eight assists and 10 points, despite playing in his lowest amount of games in an NHL season to date.
• Barberio’s presence on the Canadiens’ NHL roster to begin next season is still very much up in the air, including Barberio the Canadiens have eight defenceman on NHL contract, and that’s not taking into account Mikhail Sergachev.

► Weber Enthusiastic, According To Agent

• As far as extraneous anger is concerned, few topics trump concern over Shea Weber not yet visiting Montreal, despite that, his agent says, Weber should be on his way to Quebec soon, being very excited.
• In an interview with Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette, Jarrett Bousquet, Weber’s agent, expressed his client’s excitement for donning a Canadiens uniform.
• “His initial reaction (to the trade) was there was a pause and a little bit of shock. And then when he realized it was true, he was pretty excited,” he told Cowan and the Gazette.
• As has been relatively lost in this PR nightmare, the Habs will be icing an improved team next season, “Obviously, now he’s extremely excited being back in Canada and the pieces that they’ve put together. And he knows Carey Price from B.C. and the Olympics and whatnot, so I know he’s very excited now.”

► RFA’s Receive Insurance

• The justifiably maligned World Cup of Hockey will see two of it’s most enticing teams receive a boost in the form of insurance facilitating unsigned RFA’s’ ability to participate in the tournament.
• According to the Gary Lawless of TSN, the likes of Jacob Trouba and Nikita Kucherov will be insured while hitting the ice in mid-September regardless if they reach an agreement on their contracts.
• Lawless reported via his Twitter account “[P]artnership between #nhl and #nhlpa known as World Cup of Hockey will provide a form of asset value protection (insurance) for free agents.”
• Accompanying Trouba on Team North America due to this caveat are Calgary Flames teammates Johhny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, both of which, obviously, are yet to come to terms on contract extensions.

► Russell Waiting

• One of the biggest fish remaining in the depleted ocean, Kris Russell, is remaining in that state not due to a lack of interest, but the infamous salary cap crunch.
• On his Twitter account, Darren Dreger of TSN, wrote that Russell has remained unsigned due to waiting for team to clear up some salary cap space.
• “Kris Russell camp is still waiting for a few teams to clear money. Free agency can be a tough waiting game,” he said early Thursday morning.
• Russell is currently the second largest point of contention between analytics and old-school intangibles in a summer chock full of annoying discussions between two dogmatic sides.
• Last season, Russell was second in the league in blocked shots, trailing Francois Beauchemin by 46 while playing in 20 less games.

► Engelland Excited For Las Vegas

• Deryk Engelland not only resides in Las Vegas during the offseason with his family, but played there multiple seasons in the ECHL between 2003-05, and he gave his opinion on another team coming to the desert.
• Speaking with the Calgary Flames’ official website, the man who has more penalty minutes than games played offered his remarks on Las Vegas as a hockey town ““I was excited when I heard,” said Engelland.
• “Just to have a professional sports team here, and it be hockey, is great for even after I’m doing playing. I can take my boys to games and all those kinds of things. It’s fun to know I’ll have a team in our hometown to cheer for and root on,” he continued.
• The veteran also noted the allure of the strip becomes benign ““It wears off. We’ve lived here 12 years. It’s almost a hassle to go down there now. Everyone that’s down there are tourists.”

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