1. Sweet pick! McNeill was there, but cant pass up on one of best junior d-men in Canada.
   Another good group of picks by Habs. Lots of d-men, which you can never have too many.

2. Yes, you can never have too many defensemen, especially when you keep trading away your blue-chip defensive prospects for guys like Scott Gomez.

   But at what point is Gauthier going to address the problem of a lack of size up front?! It’s frustrating as hell to suffer while Boston and Philadelphia pound Montreal’s tiny forwards into submission year after year, and then, when the draft rolls around and the Habs have the opportunity to do something about it, they keep passing on big power forwards, our biggest need, in favour of guys like Leblanc and Beaulieu. Having Chris Kreider and Mark McNeill in our system would make me feel a lot better about Montreal’s future.

   It’s time to stop picking players for political reasons and start winning some Stanley Cups.

3. tiny forwards?, you must listen to toronto media too much sir; 11, 21, 13, 58 are small, but
   46, 81, 67, 53, 57, Engqvist, Nattenin, Avtsin, Palushaj, Trotter are all good sized.
   Could they use another big top 6 winger, sure most teams can.

   But again, the average size of Habs was 6’0 or 6’1 and 200lbs, which is exact same as Bruins (and most of NHL teams).
   One bounce and your tiny Habs would of beat the so called, 1970’s stereotype, “Big bad Bruins” and Neely would of been questioned for his slow forwards and why cant they be faster and more mobile like the Habs!

4. I don’t need the Toronto media or anyone else to tell me that the Habs get physically pummelled on a regular basis, especially, but not exclusively, up front. In recent memory, Montreal’s last two playoff exits have come at the hands of physically superior teams. Mind you, both teams had superior head coaches, too.

   I find your comment about certain players within the organization being “good sized” vexing. Surely you realize that being “good sized” has nothing to do with being physical. At 6’7″ and 240 lb, Hal Gill is the league’s poster boy for wasted size. You list Benoit Pouliot (“57”) as as example of Montreal’s size up front. Are you kidding me? When was the last time he hit anyone, except by accident? Kostitsyn, Eller and White are the only forwards who even try to engage the body with any regularity, and AK, despite being a team leader in hits, would likely be among the first to admit that it’s not the best part of his game. Jacques Martin, in his finite (yes, “finite”) wisdom, was only playing Eller 6-9 minutes a game before Pacioretty got hurt, Pouliot got benched, and Lapierre got traded. White got even less ice time than that. Physically, they and the rest of the team were insignificant.

   The rest of your examples, all be them Bulldogs, aren’t consistently physical players. Their presence intimidates no one.

   You can’t honestly believe that, despite their meaningless “average size” similarities, Montreal’s forwards compare to Boston’s in terms of their physicality. Not even Montreal’s MSM is foolish enough to suggest that.

   The fact that the Habs need size up front, especially down the middle, is one of the few things about which followers of the team generally agree…until now, apparently.

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