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Habs sign Alexander Radulov to one-year, $5.75M deal

Babe Ruth was bigger than the Yankees. Imagine if they curbed his antics?

There was no TV, internet or social media when Ruth played (and played around) Additionally, the newspaper and radio reporters back then never reported what they saw. They conspired with teams to keep the public image of the players squeaky clean. In return they got the proverbial free lunch for which they became famous. That's why for many years, sports reporters were scorned by "real" journalists who actually spoke up when the people they covered did bad things.
 
The one year deal could work out better given he wont need to be protected for expansion.

We wont need to use a slot on him and can sign him again after the draft

I don't think protecting forwards is going a big issue for this team. We had trouble filing up the list prior to the draft. As of right now Max, AG, Gally, Shaw and Plek seems to be the only obvious choices to be protected.
 
Subban was a bit of a flake and his persona was becoming bigger than the Habs logo, which is a big no-no. As one Montreal journalist said, many of the casual hockey fans were a bigger Subban fan than a Habs fan.

Gretzky was more popular than the Kings or the Oilers, I don't feel it was ever a problem.
 
Gretzky was more popular than the Kings or the Oilers, I don't feel it was ever a problem.

yep. Most mega stars transcend their team's logo (which is by definition temporary and subject to change)
 
I don't think protecting forwards is going a big issue for this team. We had trouble filing up the list prior to the draft. As of right now Max, AG, Gally, Shaw and Plek seems to be the only obvious choices to be protected.
Its still an extra slot to keep one more guy. Flexibility is good.

What if carr really impresses this year, and hudon takes another step forward. There are your last two guys.

Or we make a trade during the season. That could be another slot
 
Its still an extra slot to keep one more guy. Flexibility is good.

What if carr really impresses this year, and hudon takes another step forward. There are your last two guys.

Or we make a trade during the season. That could be another slot

I agree, just pointing it that it might not be such a big issue. I fully expect Carr to be in there if he has a good season.
 
Gretzky was more popular than the Kings or the Oilers, I don't feel it was ever a problem.

There were no casual hockey fans back in the day in Edmonton, Oilers and Gretzky were one and the same. Multi ethnic Montreal considered Subban a visible minority success story even though soccer or basketball may have been their first passion. As for LA...well hockey was what? The 4th most important sport?
 
Poile hinted that Subban's popularity off the ice was one of the factor in acquiring him. He will be great for the Predators' popularity.
 
Poile hinted that Subban's popularity off the ice was one of the factor in acquiring him. He will be great for the Predators' popularity.

Yes but there wont be a call for execution every time Laviolette questions Subban's decision making on the ice. It was becoimg unmanageable in Montreal.
 
I recall, we were discussing how Subban is the one player in the NHL presently who could transcend the sport and "sell it" in the US. Lo and behold a couple of weeks later....
 
I recall, we were discussing how Subban is the one player in the NHL presently who could transcend the sport and "sell it" in the US. Lo and behold a couple of weeks later....

Yep but shocked it was Nashville, I thought the Ducks in Anaheim would have been an ideal trading partner. Man ...Subban would have loved going to LA.
 
I prefer it ended up being Nashville, they're good enthusiastic fans, if the sport is ever going to grow it has to in the southern US markets, that passion would never be there in OC amongst the gag me with a spoon populace. Subban's "Bo knows" approach on the ice and salesmanship off it will do wonders. Subban as Reggie once said "will be the straw that stirs the drink".
Bettman should be doing triple summersaults, his southern expansion plan of the past 20-years just got its biggest boost.

Question: how long before Subban hosts SNL?
 
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I prefer it ended up being Nashville, they're good enthusiastic fans, if the sport is ever going to grow it has to in the southern US markets, that passion would never be there in OC amongst the gag me with a spoon populace

True, there should be a team in Houston, huge market there...maybe Subban will help.
 
I don't think protecting forwards is going a big issue for this team. We had trouble filing up the list prior to the draft. As of right now Max, AG, Gally, Shaw and Plek seems to be the only obvious choices to be protected.

Why would you waste a slot to protect Plekanec? If Vegas claims him I'll send them flowers and a thank-you card.
 
I recall, we were discussing how Subban is the one player in the NHL presently who could transcend the sport and "sell it" in the US. Lo and behold a couple of weeks later....

The Habs certainly don't need Subban to sell jerseys but I expect a backlash from the young fans if they don't have a great season next year. Geoff has to be a little bit worried.
 
Again, who cares what his hair looked like?

I was responding to the Jekyll and Hyde comment about MB and couldn't help but notice that he is known for his style yet he looked a little ragged at the podium as if he had lost his edge.

That's all... nothing see here... move on.
 
As McGuire said yesterday, MB did all the right things this time vs Semin. Deep discussion w Slava Fetisov on Radulov's behavior while in the KHL, Weber's buy in on his character,and personal 1-on-1 with Radulov which he never did with Semin. All came out positive. So let's see.

The Semin experiment wasn't a bad idea as it only cost a million. The problem was he had no back-up for a useless Semin so in the end we debated whether the Habs were better with him in or out of the line-up because we had no one else with skill to replace him. Pretty sad really.

The Radulov experiment is a lot riskier because you can't bench a $5.75M player without really hurting team.

I like the odds though of this working out well for the team.
 
The Semin experiment wasn't a bad idea as it only cost a million. The problem was he had no back-up for a useless Semin so in the end we debated whether the Habs were better with him in or out of the line-up because we had no one else with skill to replace him. Pretty sad really.

The Radulov experiment is a lot riskier because you can't bench a $5.75M player without really hurting team.

I like the odds though of this working out well for the team.

we should have had a backup plan, the plan hit a tree
 
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