Hockey Trade Rumors

Since July 2nd, when the Habs signed Roman Hamrlik, people have been wondering why they would sign him, Bryan Smolinski, Tom Kostopoulos and Jamie Rivers. Well, here’s my reasoning, which quite possibly could be Gainey’s reasoning as well.

The Montreal Canadiens sign Defencemen Jamie Rivers to a two year contract. Rivers 32 years old played 31 games with the Blues last season was a -7.

For the most part, the frenzy of free agent signings has come and gone.  And once again the Montreal Canadiens have nothing to show for it.  However,  I sincerely believe the organization made every effort to sign quality players to improve the club.  For various reasons they were not able to land any big name free agents.   This is not the end of the world. 

Stop Crying Already

Time and time again I end up reading blogs and opinions from angered hockey fans expressing resentment towards top end players not signing with their teams. These sentiments are even more highlighted in hockey cities such as my hometown of Montreal. Now, here is a different perspective for you. Life as a Player. I’ll focus formost on the Canadiens only because I’m most familiar with their situation. The whole city was outraged when the city couldn’t land Daniel Briere or Ryan Smyth. Well lets look at factors for them deciding their futures.

To be honest, I really do feel Gainey has done an exceptional job being a GM. We can’t blame him for missing out on signing the top UFAs or FAs every year since it isn’t because of him why the players are not signing with MTL. It’s like Gainey said it’s more like teammates, geography, high taxes in MTL, and don’t forget the crazy media that puts so much pressure on you to play mistake-free every game.

Ok, here’s what I have come up with so far for Montreal’s line up come October. NOTE, this isn’t final and is based on what I believe it will look like as of this very moment ( 1:23 PM, July 5, 2007)

Ok, so Gainey didn’t land an amazing free agent. People really need to stop blaming him for it though. It is not his fault. There is talk of replacing Gainey and that is nuts! Gainey is the best thing to happen to this club. Yes he is very laid back but he is trying there it no doubt about it.

I know this could sound strange and easy to say. But as I already said on another news, the problem in Montreal is not the pression or the taxes or the French. The problem here is that we don’t have the team of kids that has rised yet. So, from there, another internal problem that is bigger than the fact that we don’t have a good team is there: WE have a big lack of leadership at the GM spot. Don’t try to make me believe that Gainey could be convincing with his attitude. He is respected from the leagues owners, right, but when happen the time to discuss with players, its another game! He don’t have the credibility we want from him.

Ok the MONTREAL CANAIDIAS are not a better team from last year, but maybe the young guys will be better with another year of experience….

I am still very disapointed about the work of Bob Gainey since he is with us. But, I has to say that the draft picks that André Savard made were very very good and we begin to recognize how good he was. The problem with Bob Gainey is that he has to fight and be very convincing to bring a big player here. The problem is not pressure, or taxes or french! The problem here is that we are a team that is perceived by the others to don’t know what we want and where we go. When we’ll have a better team with the rising of the kids, everything will be easier. However, I really like the move to replace Bonk by Smolinski and serioustly Im getting used to the Hamrlik one.

Slava ” The Wizard” Kozlov wouldn’t be another Samsonov, he has better hockey smarts and would be a great additional playmaker along side Kovalev. I say he can bring out the Kovalev in the pittsburgh years. I don’T like these overpaid long term contracts that have been going out to the players, maybe a 3 yrs/ 4.5 million dollar contract would do for Kozlov.

According to rds.ca, Peter Forsberg is currently in Montreal with his agent Don Baizley.

The article headline on rds.ca is: ‘Forsberg in MTL: Smoke without the fire’, claiming that both Forsberg and his agent are just there…for no apparent reason.

The more I think about, the more I want Souray to re-sign with the Habs. At the beginning of the free agent frenzy, tehre was all that hype/crap about Rafalski coming to Montreal. With that news, I was ready to sever ties with Souray and let him and his bonnie lass reunite on the west coast. As everyone know, Rafalski signed with Detroit. We are now solid in defense, but if we’re going to be a defensive team like last year, we need Souray. Here’s what our defense looks like now…