Pickups part two: The Big D, Moen, some Swedish dude, and a bag of chips that isn't being sniped by Kyle Wellwood

Time to look at the defense, as our fearless GM plans to add truculence, belligerence.. wait, that's Brian Burke. That said, Burke and Gainey both seem to be playing the "Who can make a bigger splash in Free Agency" game of one-upping each other.

Both also seem to think that having a dozen defensemen is a good idea.

I'm going to be forward - I like the Habs defense this season more than last. While we lost the uppity traitor who isn't worthy of a second of our excuse me we lost the towering presence of Mike Komisarek (who occasionally has given the puck to his teammates and not the opposition, I've heard), we've gained the second biggest player in the league, and unlike most Toronto Maple Leafs players, was actually introduced to this strange foreign concept called "the Cup"; plus we grabbed someone with a hell of a shot, as well as a guy who can move, shoot, and grow an amazing beard.

Oh and Travis Moen, who doesn't play defense, but he can run people over, so it's close enough.

Also a lot of people are pointing out that everyone is a left-handed shot. Who cares? I don't think this will be truly adverse as the main time the D is attacking is on the powerplay anyway, and that slight adjustment wont lead to a huge defensive liability.

Gill - I'm not ashamed to admit this, but I've always been a Hal Gill fan. You don't hear much about him, but doesn't that just mean he's doing his job well? He's slow, but that's less relevant when one stride takes you halfway across the rink. I also can't see him turtling on the ground after a random encounter with a wild Lucic. On his own he's not really a Komisarek replacement, but people wouldn't be criticizing our GM for wasting all our money if he hadn't actually spent all our money

Spacek - Ignoring the fact that I desperately want to call him Sissy, Spacey put up 45 points last season. Sure it's not Striet or Souray numbers, but is realistically only ten behind that. He fills the role of helping make the puck go behind the goalie on powerplays, and is hardly a burden on even strength. Good pickup.

Mara - Man that guy has an awesome beard. I won't lie, I don' know what this guy does. He has 21 points so he can clearly help us there, but that's not jump-out amazing numbers. I don't have anything witty or clever to say so instead I'll just leave the same beard comment every other blogger and commentator has made and move on with my life.

These acquisitions are a lot better than they look, while they dont have the brand power of Brian Burke's pickups, the fact that the Leafs opponent's biggest challenge will be stopping Jason Blake is hardly a cause for concern. It's clear to see what role Gill and Spacek fill, and Mara can hopefully do a bit of both of those roles to clear the inconsistancy and the fact that Gill is about as quick as Kyle Wellwood* getting ready to train.

We put some size up front too though

Travis Moen - Hey another cup ring! And he was on corner gas! Moen is a big player to abuse people who try to obstruct... the big three (see previous entry). This sets up great fights for fourth line positions, but I like him on Line 3 working with Lapierre and Latendress. That line has some real talent and will most certainly be giving out some serious bruises.

Engqvist - Unknown quantity. We have him for three years. He's a huge centre, but, as said, unknown quantity. And who knows where he fits on our depth chart? Excluding Cammalleri (who is in reality a centre), our centres are Scott Gomez, TradebaitTomas Plekanec, Maxim Lapierre, Glenn Metropolit, Kyle Chipchura, TooLazytoGoogleYourFirstName Enqvist, and any other random prospect we run into who is BIG CENTRE. Which leads to the signing I'm both happy and confused about

Chipchura - I love Kyle Chipchura. He's a strong leader, he helps keep the Bulldogs in line, and we have him, likely at most for one more year. The problem is he's played like, a dozen games in the NHL, tops. When talking big centres we really should be giving him more of a chance. He can't replace Pleks if he gets moved either, and Lapierre is way too strong to open that up, so hey, lets put him on a wing, trade Metropolit, something. Let Chips out there - Hell, last time he played in an important role was at the world juniors and maybe that might be a kick in the pants to motivate another certain WJC alum who really needs bloggers (and Bob Cole) to stop making comparisons between his name and a Bob Barker Drew Carey hosted show.



So we're big [outside of the first line] with new aquisitions, and overextended at centre. But there's another problem. We're overextended at D as well

Markov was our leading scorer before he missed three games at the end of the season. He's firmly in
Mara, Gil and Spacek will play. They're new, and high paid.
Hamrlik while having rough patches is still very much a strong part of this team
Gorges is fairly talented, and I don't see why we'd shun competence

But here's the problem:
We have Janik Weber, PK Subban, and Ryan Obyrne as well.
Subban should be invalidated right away. Let him play in the AHL at least a while to gain a level of professional exposure. That said, he should be up sooner than later.

Obyrne is incompetent, but he still has that RIGHT HANDED SHOT... and is, recurring theme here, huge. If he worked with Hal Gill we may have the slowest yet largest D pairing in the league. We cant just shun him.

Weber is pretty much good on every level, and is actually ready to play for us. But where do we PUT HIM?

This is an organizational nightmare, and now there's talk about bringing back Matthieu Schneider too; because that totally makes sense. I love Schneider, and think he'd be a great leader, but we really cant have eleven players fighting for six positions. Luckily Eklund reported it so I'm sure it wont happen. Till next time.














* Yes, I know Kyle Wellwood jokes are popularized by down goes brown; great blog, I suggest you all read it. That said I'm sure everyone was making them before reading them there, and I don't plan on stopping.