Friday, June 29, 2007

To Trade Huet?

Trade Huet? Some recent posts of fans have been looking at trading Huet as a solid strategy for the future. That's lunacy in my books – I'll tell you why.

1) Experience. Carey Price and Jaroslav Halak combine for 40 odd years between the two of them. This is Montreal, there will be 3-4 game losing streaks. They need help getting through those

2) Mentorship. Cristobal Huet is a class act. He is calm, intelligent and well spoken. Whoever our next goalie is could learn a lot from his demeanour and approach to the game. He is an excellent mentor for whoever would back him up, or who he backs up.

3) Hamilton. Keeping the winning going in Hamilton would be a good thing. Look at Buffalo and New Jersey. Those two teams benefit from farm systems that commit to winning. Winning breeds winners and that's what we want. What could be better than having the number one regular season AHL goalie (Halak) or the Calder Cup MVP goalie (Price) leading our other assets down there.

4) French language. Huet is French, he gives great, clear, intelligent interviews in French (and English). Keeping his voice in there provides good analysis of events for the RDS gang – who cover every minute of the Habs season.

5) Trade value. Huet's value has never been lower since he won that streak of games back in February 2006. Trading him would not return value. Trading Price would, his value has never been higher, and his potential probably got an upgrade too. Halak may be seen as a flash in the pan, but he did post amazing AHL numbers then translated that to the NHL. Not shabby. His value is high too (only limited by his size).

6) Depth. Beyond Halak and Price, the goalies aren't exactly mind-blowing. 3 NHL-capable goalies is depth, 2 is thin. Remember when Roy used to get injured? Not good in the post-Hayward years...

7) Finally, Huet is good. He could have won the Vezina two years ago with a few more games. He was an allstar last year.His play up to December (barring early October) was sensational – top 3 in GAA and save %. A slip in play in January/February saw his fortunes slide. I don't think the losing was all his fault.


Don't trade Huet. There's no good reason to do so in my opinion.

3 comments:

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  2. When they deem that Price is ready, and I expect that will happen sooner or later, he'll be gone because he's worth something on the trade market and Halak isn't and they can't contemplate trading Price. Until then, I think they need to play Huet and try to increase his value. Halak should be given lots of opportunity too because he will also be trade bait at some point because he's probably too good to sit on the bench, which is what he will eventually do. But I know nothing; it's just what I happen to think today. :)

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  3. In my opinion, well you read it, it would be hard to get return for Huet that could match all his qualities. If anyone is traded it must be Halak, or indeed Price. If I were GM, I would be keeping all three.

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