What to do about Max Pacioretty...

We think we’ll never see the day that we’ll have too many good players on the team…

I mean look at the Leafs… we trade them Grabovski and now he’s their number one center. It makes you wonder what is going on in that organization…

Regardless, I look at the Habs this year and they seem to have an excess of excellence! They still need to cut 4 players and it’s hard, when players who were thought of as locks to play in Hamilton turn up the heat and play their hearts out in the preseason.

A perfect example of this is Max Pacioretty. This guy is just incredible. He seems to have such skill & hockey sense at such a young age, and with his play should be a shoe-in for a spot on the Canadiens roster. But no matter his determination and work ethic… it seems there is little, if any space for him.

I mean as I see it, up front we have:

Higgins-Koivu-Tanguay

Kovy-Lang-Latendresse

A.Kost-Plek-S.Kost

Begin-Lapierre-Kostopoulos

On d:

Komi-Markov

Hamrlik-O’Byrne

Gorges-Bouillon

And Price & Halak in nets…

That leaves 3 spots on a 23-man roster, two of which will certainly go to Laraque and Brisebois. That leaves Chipchura, Max Pac, Dandenault & Weber (as well as Denis, but I’m thinking he’ll be in Hamilton quite soon).

Assuming Dandenault doesn’t get traded, he seems like the guy that they’ll keep for that 3rd spot because of his experience & leadership. He’s one of the fastest (if not the fastest) skaters on the team hands-down, and he doesn’t mind being shuffled from defense to forward and back again.

Chipchura has had a so-so training camp, but he’s a talented young player, who hopefully will get his chance eventually, but he didn’t shine enough this year to bump someone else out of the roster.

Pacioretty on the other hand did. He outplayed and outskated many of the players, and easily made the biggest impression of any rookie at camp (though Weber had a good camp as well). You can tell he wants it, and that he wants it bad, but is his best better than someone on our current roster? If not, or if Carbonneau and Gainey have any uncertainty at all, I think he’d be better off in the minors, to be able to play a lot and work on some aspects of his game. But if they are sure, then someone is going to be sent packing… With such a solid roster, I really wonder who that person could be…