Hockey Trade Rumors

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…

TSN’s sister station in Quebec RDS reports that the Montreal Canadiens have signed forward Tom Kostopoulos to a two-year contract worth $900,000 a season.

This article is solely based on my opinion and what I think about the signings by the Habs. With that said, at first i hated the Hamrlik and Smolinski signings but, if one were to truly think about it, they are fairly good signings possibly bordering great signings.

RDS is reporting that the Canadiens may be done with free agency…

Bon Gainey confirmed that if something were to happen, it would probably be a trade. He also confirmed that the Canadiens weren’t interested by Alexei Yashin and/or Brendan Shanahan.

Well Bob, it’s been another free agent frenzy and the Habs remain unimproved. You don’t manage to sign Briere. Okay….we can’t get everyone. You don’t manage to sign Gomez. Hmmm…this is starting to look similar to last year.

It’s the day before the free agency market! Montreal is a major buyer at this years UFA giveaway. But what do we really need? Sure we could try to go for Gomez and Yashin and Kariya, but will they lead us to the the 25 Stanley Cup? Here’s what our team looks like as of now, including our UFA’s who might leave. Now some might say we could insert Garth Murray or Aaron Downey into the (empty) spots, but (empty) signifies the lack of a solid player who will fill that spot all season barring injury.

Hi everybody, it’s my first writing out here but I’m reading you guys at least once by week. I heard about Things like Marleau (that I found would be the best pick for Montréal since 2 years, bu they won’t do it), Briere, Yashin, Drury…. You don’t find that all this is too easy to think and that something more underground or just more flashy could happen. Bob never thinks like the Habs fans and everytime he did a move we are all surprised or chocked. So Here quickly what I’m seeing the habs could do.

This is my first news post on HTR , I’ll try not to rattle on too much.Montreal is truly a great team with a huge amount of depth and prospects to fill up our lines for years. I’m tired of hearing Marleau, Briere , Yashin…

Hi there and welcome to what may be a regular “reality check” to Montreal Canadien fans. This will basically depend on the fury that will strike their heart next season when Brière/Drury/Any UFA who will sign will have a bad two week period.

Courtesy of RDS and Canadiens.com:

Michael Lambert was not given a qualifying offer, and has now become a free agent.