Comments on: Should The Habs Re-Build?

By: habsoverserver

habsoverserver — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 17:45:56 +0000

wish we had kopitar.

By: nychabfan

nychabfan — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 16:04:14 +0000

Ihe situation with Gainey's drafting is even worse, Lapierre and Latengresses are SECOND roun picks, and Lamoriello enjoys having Parise( a no-brainer first round instead of Kastitsyn, who might never be an impact player). There are too many examples like this, last year Fisher instead of Girough?.C'mon!

By: Habroller

Habroller — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:02:06 +0000

The Habs definitely aren't in a rebuilding phasis. The rebuilding has been done through a more than decent drafting by Savard & Gainey. The youth is good and is coming soon. Sure they should continue such decent drafting, but if by rebuilding they mean spending a few years in the League's dump to scrounge a few high draft picks, by no mean I think it is necessary.

I say bring the KGK Line next year in Montreal (or in the worst case in Hamilton) and start building chemistry between the Byelorussians right away, because they might bring offensive strength together for a long time (including all international competitions)...

Try to bring the two Russian towers in North America so they can learn the language and the different culture of hockey. I'm sure at least one of the two can become a regular Top-4 NHLer.

With the good young north-americans already playing (as well as Maxwell & White in the WHL), some being seen as potential leaders, the Habs could create a great and well-balanced mixture of nationalities for years to come...

I say bring Tretiak instead of Jarvis to assist Carbo and we're in business! ;-)

p.s. Sign Timonen this off-season if Sheldon wants to make a McCabe out of himself...

By: leafhater

leafhater — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:50:52 +0000

Bury him ship him to Hamilton and forget about him.

By: TheStryker

TheStryker — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:39:23 +0000

The Habs are already in the process of rebuilding. Gainey has made some mistakes, but what G.M. hasen't ? I think that most fans were fooled this year when the Habs were doing good early in the season. Right now if this team doesn't get very good goaltending, they are average at best. We have seen that with a bit more work Halak can be a very good back-up. So this off-season Gainey doesen't have to worry about goaltending. I think our defence is very suspect. Komisarek who is 2nd in the league in hits,
Is already a very good player at 25. Markov who we have to re-sign is a great PP quarterback. Mark Streit is a very underrated player, he has a great shot and very smart in his own end. Dandenault and Bouillion are a good 5 & 6 pairing. I don't think we should re-sign Souray too much money for a one dimensional player. So we need to sign a d-man or finaly sign Alexei Emelin and give him a shot. Our forwards are an enigma. At times they look great, but most of the time they don't cut it. Samsonov will be bought out in the off-season. Kovalev & Koivu will still be here. I feel that Ryder should be moved. We have to make a decision on Perezoghin and Kostisyn. We can't have both of them, as they are the same type of player.
Latendresse will be a good player I think he just got tired as it is his first season. I think he will be a consistant 20-25 goal scorer. I think Gainey should re-sign Johnson, he quietly does his job. Pleckanec will be our 3rd line center. I like Begin and Lapierre on the 4th line.

So what do we need ?

- A center with size (Zubrus,Handzus,Stumpel,Lang,Datsyuk,Gomez)
- A scoring right winger (Guerin,Selanne,Kozlov,Smyth,Blake)
- A grinding left winger (Hartnell, Fedoruk, Pyatt, Holmstrom,Gelinas)
- A steady defenceman (Stuart,Hannan,Sopel,Timonen,Vishnevski)

I think Gainey should use Perezoghin and Ryder To improve his order in the draft

Ryder, Perezoghin, 1st pick

to Chicago or Columbus for

1st and 3rd pick

This is the lineup I want to see next year

Higgins-Koivu-Selanne
Latendresse-Gomez-Kovalev
Holmstrom-Pleckanec-Johnson
Fedoruk-Lapierre-Begin

Komisarek-Markov
Hannan-Streit
Bouillion-Dandenault

Huet
Halak

By: habsoverserver

habsoverserver — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:54:13 +0000

"Honestly I believe that so far Gainey has been improvising on the job with the Canadiens." quote from Denis Casavant broadcaster at the Team 990 montreal sports radio. this sums up everything i have been saying for two years.

given that no free agents want to come to montreal and gainey has yet to trade for anyone of value, the draft pretty much is the only way for this team to improve. implicit in this, is of course that Gainey has done little but shuffle around a bunch of chairs since he became GM. the irony is that Gainey's strategy in Dallas was to sign free agents and trade for veterans. he only drafted four of the players who were on the team that won the Cup in Dallas seven years after he became GM.

The rebuild through the draft strategy seems much more suitable to Andre Savard than to Gainey. Compare the top five players drafted in the three years prior to Gainey: Hainsey, Komisarek, Perezhogin, Plekanec and Higgins to those drafted by Gainey: Kostitsyn, Lapierre, Chipchura, Price and Latendresse. Look what Savard has done in Pittsburgh (with better draft position obviously).
Bob Gainey signs more albatross contracts than any GM in the NHL. The Theodore, Samsonv, Koivu, Kovalev and Bonk deals were all ridiculous relative to how the players performed in Montreal. Gainey supports players like Theodore, Ribeiro and Brisebois in the press then dumps them.

And yet, the bottom line is that Gainey has the second most secure GM job in the NHL after Lamoriello. Why? Because Montreal fans are more than happy to fill an arena to see mediocre hockey.

By: bleedingblu

bleedingblu — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:42:34 +0000

Makes sense!
Samsanov is a really classy guy eh? Telling the media he REGRETS the day he signed with Montreal.