12 games after his acquisition at the trade deadline, Thomas Vanek has shut up all his
critics after showing his solid offensive play with his new line-mates Max Pacioretty and David Desharnais, the team's best line since they have been
reunited. Since his arrival with the Bleu Blanc Rouge, Vanek has scored six
goals and five assists for 11 points to go along with a +6 rating.
The 30-year-old Austrian now has 27 goals and 37 assists for
64 points in 72 games with the Canadiens, the Islanders and the Sabres this
season. The 6'2'', 205-lb, winger is an impending free agent at season's end,
but with the way he is playing with Desharnais and Pacioretty, who knows if the
sniper might decide to re-sign with Montreal.
The creative and intelligent Austrian has given head coach
Michel Therrien a true NHL first line that can score on a regular basis. Heck
that line scored the team's four goals last night in a 4-1 win against the
hapless Florida Panthers. A true offensive sniper, Vanek can float at times in
the defensive zone, but his puck-possession skills are excellent and he has
always a knack to get at the right place at the right time to bury his scoring
chances. The Habs are now 5-0 in their last five games and 8-2 in their last
ten games with Vanek on the team's top line. The line is a combined 12 goals
and 13 assists for 25 points in their last seven games, talk about domination.
With now 93 points (43-26-7) in 76 games, the Habs are
basically qualified for the playoffs and they are currently battling with the
Tampa Bay Lightning for the second place in the Altanta Division and home ice
advantage. With Tomas Plekanec now
centering the team's second line with youngters Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan
Gallagher, the Habs can count on two offensive lines to do damage, while
the third line of veterans Rene Bourque,
Daniel Briere and Brian Gionta
can play an effective two-way game.
Let's hope that this red-hot line remains together until the
end of the season and manages to find the back of the net on a regular basis
against the Lightning who can count on several offensive weapons such as Steven Stamkos, Valtteri Filppula, Teddy
Purcell, as well as rookies Ondrej
Palat, Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn, and rearguard Victor Hedman.
Finally, don't get your hopes too high Habs fans, as Thomas
Vaenk is most likely to test free agency comes July 1st after rejecting a
seven-year, $50 million offer from the New York Islanders prior to the NHL
trade deadline. Still, this doesn't mean that Thomas Vanek will not re-sign
long term with Montreal, it just means that the Austrian sniper is likely to
test his value on the market before making a decision regarding his long-term
future.
Should Vanek and GM Marc Bergevin find a common ground and
are able to keep the top-end sniper in Montreal, the organization will have to
get creative as the team needs to re-sign UFA Andrei Markov and RFA P.K.
Subban to expensive deals before the summer as these two players are the
cornerstones of the Habs' blue line.
Should Bergevin re-sign Thomas Vanek to a long-term deal or
simply let him walk away come July 1st?
Who should the team let go to make room
for the Austrian sniper? Brian Gionta? Lars Eller?
No Foolin' Fred Poulin
3 comments:
Gionta. Love the captain, he's adapted his game and embraced his role but at his current salary he's expendable.
Hate to see Gio go but 5.5 mil would probably take care of 2/3 of his salary. Release Bullion,and one or two of our d-men have to go to give Tinordi, Beaulieu and Pateryn a chance thus freeing up more salary and maybe they could dump Bork in a trade freeing up 3 mil. Sign Vanek up.Between Bork and Gio Vanek's salary would be covered.
Bouillon, Murray & Weaver are all UFA. Keep Weaver for depth, goodbye other two. Dumping Bourque so we don't take a buy-out hit would be ideal. But in order to do that, we'd need to absorb a bad contract in return.
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