Vacation...

Tragically Hab and The Doc are currently on vacation, but we'll be back, ready to blog Gomez, Mara, Moen, Cammalleri, Gionta, Spacek and all your other favourite Habs.

Can you say Stanley Cup 2010? 

Interesting signings...

Gionta, Cammalleri, talented but tiny. Spacek, perhaps a really good, quiet move for a puck-moving defenceman. Hal Gill, beast, giant, slow.

A new team, a new identity. More promise? On vacation now, but more to come as the summer unfolds.

And what of L'Artiste?

Gomez a Hab

Higgins to the NYR...wow...as per TSN. 

Thoughts on the Draft

Pretty good summary of the Canadiens' picks can be found here:

http://habsinsideout.com/boone/20778

As for the overall feel, it didn't seem as though things were quite as unpredictable as you might have otherwise guessed. The first 30 picks went largely in order of what the experts had predicted, and there wasn't much movement in terms of players being swapped or huge jumps in pick position.

The night started off with the big news of Chris Pronger being traded to Philly, and that was really it in terms of impact moves until earlier today when the Flames acquired the rights to negotiate with Jay Bouwmeester. In perhaps a bit of a surprise there was hardly any noise at all from the hometown Habs, although with UFA season kicking off on Wednesday that will surely change in the very near future. Right???

Feeling Drafty

It's the big day in Montreal, as the NHL holds the first round of it's annual entry draft. Many questions will hopefully be answered before the day is out, including:

-What order will the top three prospects (Tavares, Hedman and Duchene) go in, and who will they go to?

-Will we see any trades (picks, players or both)? Rumors continue to swirl about Lecavalier, Bouwmeester, Kaberle and others, so will anything actually come to pass?

-What crazy scheme will Brian Burke orchestrate?

-How soundly will Garry Bettman be booed?

-What position will the player from Minnesota that the Habs draft in the first round play?


For the answers to these questions and more, tune in to TSN tonight at 7 PM.

Come on Molsons...

Bring us Vinny. 

Habs Sold

Looks like deja vu all over again, with the Molson family set to take over majority control of Les Habitants from George Gillett pending the necessary league approval.

The price of the transaction is expected to be in excess of $500 million.

No word yet on what effect (if any) this will have on management and the roster with the entry draft set for this coming Friday in Montreal. It's expected that more information to those ends will come out later in the week as details on the sale are expanded.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=282431

Congratulations...

to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the 2009 Stanley Cup Champions...as I predicted. And many of you did, too!