Here is a blog I found that has some interesting ideas/info in it.

Habtastic


By: The Hoser

Well, day 2 in the NHL's free-agent seasons is drawing to a close, and, save the re-signing of 5'8" firehydrant Franis Boullion, the Montreal Canadiens are yet to make a move. There were rumours about Gainey putting in a strong offer for Patrik Elias - rumoured to be 8 million - but, of course, that didn't work out, with Elias signing a peculier 7-year, 6 million dollar deal back in New Jersey. The other guy the Habs were supposed to be terribly interested in, Jason Arnott, also signed elsewhere, in Nashville for 5 years.

Ribeiro finally appears to have gotten it, for he's reportedly been in the Bell Centre gym's with Sheldon Souray and future star Gui Lattendresse, bulking up and adding some mass. If this proves true, he may just develop into the second line center we've been looking for. He'll never be known as a power forward, but a little more mass (Wether by Bowflex or McDonalds, I don't care at this point) could make Ribeiro harder to knock off the puck and a much better player. Although I was always one of his detractors, if he shows some effort into improving his game and has a breakout season I may just change my mind.

Obviously there are still a lot of trade options - I'm not sure Aebischer will start the season in a Habs uniform - and free-agency is far from over, but I wouldn't expect to see a team that's significantly different next season. I highly doubt we'll see Zednik back - I hear he requested a trade anyways - and can't say that I miss him, and we already know Bulis is a goner, but aside from that we'll have essentially the same team with a few rookies (Kostitsyn, Grabovsky, and maybe Lattendresse is Gainey thinks he's ready come training camp. Word is he's already bulked up to 230lbs working out at the Bell Centre 6 days a week.) taking the place of the dearly departed.

Now, you may ask "Isn't that the same team that finished 7th in their conference and lost in the first round?" Yes and no. Keep in mind that that same team, despite being one of the youngest, least-experianced in the league, and despite having shotty goaltending for 1/2 of the year, and despite having untimly injuries to Saku Koivu and Alex Kovalev, was one horrific eye injury away from eliminated the Stanley Cup Champions. People, the Habs aren't some project team that needs to have a 7.8 million dollar orangataung and a 4 million dollar attitude problem to be successful. We've got a team that is a lot like Buffalo, although in my opinion we're grittyer than they are, in that we rely more on a team-style rather than an individual All-Star Team mentality.

The new NHL is all about the team, and people need to realise that. GM's league-wide are blowing their load early and aquiring a plethora of high-paid, long-term players, and it's going to come back and bite them. Take NJ for example. They have 39 million tied up in 16 players - 2 of which are being paid 4 million to sit in the pressbox and eat popcorn - and they still have to sign Gionta and Gomez. They're absolutely screwed, they'll have to trade a lot of their vital players just to get under cap in time for the season opener. Who'll Elias play with over the next 7 years then?

It's the same with Boston and Toronto. Boston went out and got Chara and That Guy Who Isn't Ilya Kovalchuk But Plays on His Line, a combined 11.8 million a year, and still have to sign RFA's like Bergeron and Boyes. Toronto is off spending money in spades, paying 5 million for a power-play specialist, and 2.1 million for a pylon who couldn't beat up Mike Ribeiro. They've got over 24 million tied up in 5 players, 3 of which are nearly useless 5-on-5, and a bunch of nobodies populating the rest of the team.

Meanwhile, Montreal is relying on the strength of it's organisation - it's remarkably deep prospect pool and plethora of young players at every position - rather than overpayed UFA's to improve. Basically, Bob sat down with Arnott and said "We'll give you 4.5 mill for 2 seasons." because he knows in 2 seasons we won't need him anymore and he'll be expendable. So he goes and signs with Nashville for 5 years. Oh well, we tried but we're not going to change the way WE negotiate to accomodate HIM.

In a perfect world, we'd try and trade Zednik to a team with some good young prospects but few roster players (Thinking Pittsburgh or Washington, here), where he'd get a lot of ice time (Which is what he wants) and we'd get a good-to-decent prospect in return, preferably a big center. If Ribeiro commits to working out I'm willing to give him a shot. And, of course, we'll have to wait and see where Aebischer goes (Starting to think that maybe, if Pittsburgh wants to get much better right now, Staal isn't out of the question... Aebischer, Zednik, and a 1st round pick for Staal? They need goaltending, afterall...)

Well, that's all for now... I'll be hanging around (Read: spend 90% of my free time there) the Habs official forum (Username:Hoser) if you want to contact me. Should have another post up soon enough.