Gainey's Roll Of The Dice
by Robert L on Jun 23, 2009 8:51 PM EDT
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Aside from the Molson family buying the Candiens lock, stock and barrel this past week, good news in regards to the team has been at a minimum. With the draft just days ahead, reports are that Gainey will not have any announcement pertaining to free agents - the club's own - until after the draft. That leaves three days between the opening of the summer market to make some steps forward. Does that make you as nervous as it does me?
I'm not liking this much at all. The Canadiens cupboard is rather bare at the moment.
With the future of ten free agents in waiting, the legendary Gainey patience is testing the same patience and faith of the entire fanbase, media included. Rumours, both wild, speculative, and sensible, are doing nothing to quell the emotions of everyone invloved.
Rather, make that everyone not invloved.
We, on the outside, have no inkling of his thinking. Yes, it was an intersting concept to have great cash flexibility this off season, but I'm hardly content that the current free agent pool in waiting offers the solution the club needs.
My own personal position comes closer to being comfortable with the known quantities of last season's team that it does with the variables of available free agents about to be signed this summer.
Gainey must have a rock solid plan in place for the amount of time he's taking to settle these concerns, but I don't see it, and I'm not quite sure I ever have.
To me, the prime area of concern on the Canadiens is upgrading at the center position, and barring an unforeseen trade, I don't see alot of improvement on the horizon with free agency.
A quick scan through the available quantities offers little reassurance. Here's a rundown for Sports City.com:
Twenty seven year old Mike Cammalleri is coming off a career season in which he hit for 82 points while centering Jarome Iginla. The pair made for a pretty synched duo, but there are no Iginlas in Montreal. Still, for the salary he's likely to command - 2 career playoff goals.
Right below is Henrik Sedin, who has a shotgun riding brother that is part of any deal. The twins are an interesting option that ought to eat up a sizeable chunk of annual renumeration, especially with words the boys want a long term - 12 year - deal for their services and dedication. For all the playoff success this duo has had, I'd tiptoe around this landmine. No thanks!
Knowing what Saku Koivu has consistently brought to the Canadiens table, it's starting to get bleak should he not return.
After Cammalleri and Sedin, we get into the Victor Kozlov / Steve Sullivan / Brendan Morrison grey area. If these are options up for discussion, we're in a heck of a doggie bag!
Such, then makes Lang alluring once more.
Down the list is one interesting name, that of 28 year old Alexandre Giroux, of the Washington Capitals / Hershey Bears. Giroux, as local as his name suggests, had a killer regular season and a dominant playoff while leading the Bears to the Calder Cup. All the mitigating factors are present to suggest he's low end help for an NHL team looking to get into the middle of the pack. And the Calder ain't named Stanley.
Last season, the Canadiens middle of Koivu, Lang, Plekanec, and Lapierre had a certain upside over 50 games, and much less in the final run.
The team taking the big mug had Crosby, Malkin, and Staal.
It begs the unreal notion - would the Canadiens measure up with say, Henrik, Cammalleri and Lang?
I'm not too sure they'd be all that further ahead.
There are teams out there who want to free up cap space and dump big salaried players. You can bet that they have spoken with Gainey more than once. Daniel Briere is available at Harlem hooker rates; sacrificing Patrick Marleau might be part of San Jose's rethink and retool, and depending on Oren Koules mood of the moment in T Bay, Vinny might also be up for graps.
As for Briere, who shunned the Habs two off season's ago, he's about to become an NHL orphan and it looks good on him. Marleau, as good as he can look in the regular season, has never taken his club to another level despite playing on some very strong clubs.
On Lecavalier, there are concerns dealing with the weight of his contract, the length of it, and injuries leading to uminformed views that he's damaged goods. Unless one has a medical report on Lecavalier's surgery, such is opinions are discountable.
It remains that Lecavalier is the one player mentioned above that can be spoken in the same breath as Crosby and Malkin concerning achievements. He's won what the Canadiens are after, which makes him a logical starting point, should he truly be available.
Gainey's dice roll almost implies that he knows of something we are not privelege to. His stoic demeanor and poker face could also suggest a bluff. In Gainey paraphrase, he often speaks of the cards in his deck as aces and kings in terms of assets. To further the analogies, he plays his cards close, reveals little in the way of a hint at where he's headed.
Should the GM have nothing but deuces in a month, he will have gambled and lost.
His time in Montreal would be up.
It makes me wonder why this risk would be run?
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I don’t like to say it, but the blame is totally all Gainey’s. He arrived in 2003 and must have known that centre ice needed shoring up. Five years later we may be even worse off then in ‘03, especially if Koivu walks. Now it’s time to hit the panic button. It ain’t dark yet, but it’s gettin’ there.
No need to panic
Gainey always some aces up his sleeve.
Though there are many more free agents this year, he always plugs the holes.
Face it, barring injuries he managed to put a good team together.
He surprised many with the Tanguay deal at last year’s draft and had a great Sundin substitution with Lang. Unless Lang has full clearance to return though, I honestly don’t see him back next season in Montreal.
WIth Koivu I see it two ways: 1. returning for equal or a lower pay over a 3-4 year deal, or 2. returning for equal or lower pay over a 3-4 year deal… He’s not going anywhere.
Regardless I can see Antropov in the lineup in either scenario at a 4-5 mil range.
Hmmm Kovalev (if signed) Antropov and A Kostitsyn…..could work.
Gainey should have been fired by now
He is going into his seventh season and the team is in shambles, with nothing to show for his time at the helm. Firing Carbonneau when he did was the worst move of any Montreal G.M. in the years I’ve been following the team. Under Gainey as coach, I think the club won 6 out of 20 games, and got their ass handed to them in the playoffs. Carbo had the best winning percentage of any Montreal coach since Scotty Bowman. Clearly the wrong guy was fired at the time, and a big reason Gainey isn’t doing too much in terms of roster moves is that HE NO LONGER HAS THE AUTHORITY. You can bet that Pierre Boivin has told Bo(zo) to take a seat at the end of the bench until the ownership situation is settled. I would be willing to bet that Jacques Martin was the choice of the team President and not necessarily the choice of the current G.M. when he was hired.
Boivin has zero involvement in hockey operations and Gainey answers directly to Gillett. If you know anything about Boivin, there’s no hockey in his background – it’s strictly financial and organizational.
Before Gainey, the Canadiens missed the playoffs in four of five seasons. Since then, it has been in them four years out of five. I didn’t believe the Carbonneau firing was right, but then again, who does who is not inside the walls.
Martin was Gainey’s choice 100% – it’s obvious in the lineage. The guy coaches like Gainey played.
It takes between five and seven seasons to turn a team around – unless it tanks and drafts and gets lucky like Pittsburgh with a player like Crosby or Malkin. Montreal has had those draft luxuries.
In my take, Gainey has this year to prove he should stay on.
It was Boivin, not Gainey, who specified several months ago..
…that the next coach of the team WOULD BE BILINGUAL AND EXPERIENCED. That seems to fit Martin pretty thoroughly.
by robert ethan on Jun 24, 2009 3:08 PM EDT up reply actions
You write a lot of stuff here, which I presume is for the purpose of “discussion”, why are you so defensive when someone questions your opinions? Especially when they provide supporting background for their arguments.
by robert ethan on Jun 24, 2009 3:10 PM EDT up reply actions
Boivin can specify all he wants, it’s still not his shot to call. All Habs coaches going back to Jacques Lemaire have been bilingual, and it would always have been Gainey’s preference to find one who is both experienced and bilingual. It’s pretty well the dictum for a Canadiens coach.
Sorry, I don’t see where I defended an “opinion” of mine. As well, I also do not see “supporting background” in your statement. You suggest Boivin is practically running the team. I suppose the outgoing owner decided the person without hockey acumen is best suited to run the show. That’s not a fact – it’s an opinion of yours.
I don’t usually defend an opinion of mine, but I’ll fairly admit when I’m off. That said, I don’t waiver much on them after posting them, because as they are the way I look at things, my opinion is just as valid as anyone else’s, yours included.
Facts and truth are a complete other matter. When someone errs in a statement, or when something they state is misleading, or even on those very, very rare occurances when someone is talking out of their ass about a matter that is a foregone truth, it may look to some that I am being defensive, but I’m truly only clarifying a fact.
Should you choose to think that Boivin is running the Habs and that Gainey is maybe a lame duck G.M. that is your perogative.
I call what you are saying an opinion – just as you feel Gainey should be canned.
It might be that your point of view is that all this is for discussion purposes. Me, I’ve already said what I had to say on the subject, really. Readers either agree or don’t.
Twenty seven year old Mike Cammalleri is coming off a career season in which he hit for 82 points while centering Jarome Iginla. The pair made for a pretty synched duo, but there are no Iginlas in Montreal. Still, for the salary he’s likely to command – 2 career playoff goals.
HockeyDB has a minor error where it’s counting his playoff totals twice. In any case, three points in six games, while not stellar, is also kind of a small sample size. I mean, the guy played in LA until last year: that’s not a recipe for racking up playoff points.
SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there)
DB does that consistently with most recent playoff seasons being double posted. I don’t think either of us went by totals in any regard.
All I’m pointing out with that comment, was that Cammalleri is far from a s sure bet, given that he hasn’t had opportunities in the past that to grab a whole lot of playoff game experience. On the flipside, a better situation could provide him with all kinds of opportunity for experience and success. He definitely has the talent.
In that, I definitely agree. Heck, I thought Calgary would be a good place for him to go after those years in LA, and it seemed to do just fine for him. That whole Flames team was a mess during the playoffs, anyway: too many injuries to key players leaving virtually no hope of success. Just the way I like ’em. ;)
SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there)
Losing a top 4 D in 3 consecutive years for no return, and only getting one to replace them (who is older than the 3 you let go for nothing) is not sound asset maanagement. Sure, Streit wasn’t a top 4 D with us, but he is now, so it looks bad on him. And face it, there are no in house replacements ready to go at the moment. He’ll need to step up big time elsewhere… and if it’s via trade, it’s not good either, since you’re giving up assets to replace ones you lost for nothing.
He’s fired his whole coaching staff save Kirk Muller, and hasn’t made a player personnel move since signing that Swedish prospect and P.K. Subban in mid-May. He better know something we all don’t, or this team has been weakened from a consistent playoff team (4 out of 5 years under Bob) to a middling “might make it” team like Edmonton or Florida.
Hockey blogging can't get any flatter.
If I gotta hear about Nik “I have no desire to play” Antropov becoming a Hab once more I think I’m going to blow chunks.
I don’t care he’s 6’5 and 220…. he isn’t playing like Byfulien I don’t want him. Leave him in the rotting zone of NY where players get huge salaries and make no real contribution to the league. Save Lundquist… he’s stellar.
But seriously folks if 99 percent of you are moaning for a power forward, take a gander at what we may be giving up (players or salaries) for them. Like getting rid of Markov for someone big up front does nothing for us. Trading away Price or Halak (I know some people still have little faith in Jaro as a starter, but he could have been had Huet not played so so and been given the reigns to the playoffs).
Sign a few of what we have, don’t trade away the future and we’ll make out ok..
by Cruisin4aBruisin on Jun 24, 2009 2:05 PM EDT reply actions
Markov’s not going anywhere. I think that’s Hockey Buzzard jackoff rumour. It’s like throwing a plate of fish at the ceiling and seeing what sticks. I seriously think those boneheads get off on seeing how much people suck up their shit. My rule of thumb on speculation is that 99% of it is totally made up. When true facts hit the street, you’ll see a GM call out another quite loudly – Gainey/Lawton is an example.
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