Doubts about Bob!
I liked Bob as a player but have my reservations about him as a GM.
Some moves by Bob:
1) Lost Ron Hainsey, 13th overall pick, claimed off of waivers by Columbus. He is still young and leads Columbus defensemen is scoring with 28 points. We have nothing to show for him.
2) Traded Mike Ribeiro for Janne Niinimaa. Ribeiro has 41 points and is +7. Niinimaa has played 31 games, is a -8 and spends most nights watching from the press box. He is an unrestriced free agent that we will gladly lose but will have nothing to show for the trade. I don’t begrudge trading Ribeiro but we have to do better than Niinimaa.
3) JP Dumont wanted to play in Montreal, was willing to accept a hometown discount, has 51 points and is a +9. Yet we were not interested. Instead we actively pursued the likes of Elias and Shanahan, neither of whom wanted to play in Montreal.
4) Instead signed Sergei Samsonov to 3.5 million per season. He has 25 points in 60 games played. We can’t even give him away and his 3.5 million will count against next years cap.
5) Held onto Sheldon Souray who will walk at seasons end. Once again we will have nothing to show for him. Souray’s stock was at an all time high as he is playing for a new contract and big payday. There is no arguing he is having a tremendous season but he will not duplicate this season again productionwise and has always been injury prone. I know we need Souray if we are going to make a run at a playoff spot. However, the reality is that we are an average team at best and don’t have the horses, combined with the injury to Huet, to do any real damage in the playoffs that is providing we actually make it in. (Andrei Markov is another unrestriced free agent at seasons end, wouldn’t it be tragic to lose him as well!? I know he claims that he wants to remain in Montreal but nothing is guaranteed).
6) Traded Craig Rivet for Josh Gorges and a first round pick which seems like a good deal at the time as Rivet is an unrestricted free agent at seasons end. Unfortunately we lost some leadership and toughness in losing Rivet. Ironically we receive a “most sportsmanlike player” (Memorial Cup) in Gorges. Just what we need, another soft player.
When will Montreal’s management realize that we need some size and toughness. We have too many European players and too many small, soft players. We must be the easiest team in the NHL to play against. We definitely don’t intimidate anyone.
I hope Bob proves me wrong but thus far he has given us Habs fans little to cheer about.