Guillaume Lefrançois: Well, well, hello, chicks and chicks.
Richard Labbé: Hello!
Simon-Olivier Lorange: [Simon-Olivier left the conversation]
G.L.: Killer joy.
R.L.: Canadian in four.
GL: I see that you are in mid-season form, which is encouraging for this sublime chat that we do not have, contrary to what Dom Gravel’s clever photo session suggests, does in person.
GROUND. : Yet another scenario which will weaken the public’s confidence in us…
G.L.: So let’s go by position. The idea for each position: I ask a basic question, and off we go. It’s clear ?
S.-O.L. : Attaboy !
G.L.: It’s fun, I feel like Donald Lautrec at the helm of The Lucky Wheel.
G.L.: Goalkeepers: who are the two goalkeepers who will share the net… in October 2024? I know it’s a year away, but with the uncertainty around Cayden Primeau, Samuel Montembeault’s upcoming contract, things could change quite a bit this season. So who?
GROUND. : Samuel Montembeault and Jake Allen.
G.L.: It’s plaaaaaaaate.
GROUND. : Allen is untradeable, at least without retaining a good sum. And Montembeault is the ideal candidate for the transition the Canadian is going through. While I think it’s now or never to give Primeau ice in October 2023, I don’t see him as a future keeper for the organization.
R.L.: I don’t see how it can’t be that. If Kent Hughes trades Allen’s contract to someone, give him the GM of the Year award right away.
R.L.: Cayden Primeau’s future is in the same place as the Cosmodôme.
GROUND. : I see what you did, Richard. And I liked that.
R.L.: I tell it like it is.
GROUND. : I find you curiously silent, my good Guillaume. Did we shock you?
G.L.: I rather see Dikembe (Montembeault, in reference to the former Congolese basketball player Dikembe Mutombo) a free agent (with or without compensation). Kent Hughes managed to pass Mike Hoffman, who has an equivalent salary, but with a less good reputation. I think he will find a solution for Allen, and then turn to the market.
R.L.: You think many things.
G.L.: I am learning to manage the dual role of panelist and analyst. Not everyone can do this masterfully like Jérémie Rainville!
R.L.: It’s like me in 1992 who “thought” I would one day go out with Cindy Crawford.
G.L.: Tsé, boss, if you didn’t believe it, no one was going to believe it for you.
GROUND. : Above all, I think that Allen must help his GM by having a good season, or at least a less worse season than last year.
Richard Labbé: By the way, is he still your candidate for the surprise of the year at the CH?
G.L. : Oyoyoye.
GROUND. : I don’t like your attitude, Richard. The season is very young for comments like this.
G.L.: [Simon-Olivier, crying in a ball under his desk] So no one here sees a spectacular rise of Jakub Dobeš, from Ohio (pronounced o-yo) to Montreal in one year?
SOL. : Not.
R.L.: No more.
R.L.: By the way, I don’t understand this sudden craze for Dobeš. It seems to me that we are a little afraid with him.
G.L.: I’m not leaving in fear, that said. But he’s 6’4″ and as a wrestler who has since fallen from grace once said, you can’t teach that.
R.L.: I was looking forward to your wrestling references.
G.L.: But that’s pretty much my only argument for Dobeš’ rapid rise, so as lawyers do, I’m putting my suitcase down.
GROUND. : Joe Vrbetic is 6’6″, Guillaume.
G.L.: That’s true. He’s bigger.
GROUND. : But no longer good.
R.L.: And how much for your mentor Darren Pang?
G.L.: 5’5”, I think. Wait, I have a photo.
I’m 2 inches taller, so it looks like 5’5″.
R.L.: Who else offers content like this? Person.
G.L.: OK, so Allen-Montembeault in October 2024, the majority wins. But I’m going to take screenshots that I’ll bring out when we arrive at the golf tournament and meet Samuel Montembeault’s new partner.
S.-O.L. : Genre CONNOR HELLEBUYCK ?
[on the internet in 20 minutes: “Connor Hellebuyck in Montreal: it’s done” ]
