2009 Off-Season Thread: Habs Edition

[sh00n]

Edited to make it into the off-season thread! Discuss the 2009 Habs off-season in here!

-Snayr

Well, with the ways things are right now, we may be looking at an early off-season. If we played hard for a full 60 minutes I'd have faith but we haven't so far in this series. I can only hope. . .

Anyways, I posted this already in the General Hockey Forum, so I'll copy paste it here:

- Gainey moves back up to GM, Pat Quinn hired as head coach. Patrick Roy hired as an assistant/goaltender coach for Price and Halak.

- Re-sign Kovalev, Koivu, Tanguay, and Schneider for (hopefully) hometown discounts. Kovalev has gone on the record to say that Montreal is the happiest he's ever been in his hockey career and that playing in Canada is so much better than the US. Tanguay waved his NTC to come here, so he wants to be here. Schneider won a Cup here, he wanted to come back. Let Bouillon & Breezyby walk. Hopefully bring back Kosto to a small deal.

- Re-sign Komisarek, package him with our 1st, a prospect and the Kostitsyns for Vinny. Move Hamrlik with a future draft pick and attempt to bring back Souray.

- Bring up PK Subban.

- Throw all the cash you possibly can at Bouwmeester & Cammalleri; make offers to Sykora, Recchi, Hatcher and Weight and see who bites.

- Finally sign Shanahan. He's only been begging Gainey for a few years now to bring him to Montreal. Would have been here already if not for that cluster**** with his passport a few years back.

Tanguay, Lecavalier, Kovalev
Higgins, Koivu, Latendresse
Cammalleri, Lapierre, Recchi
Shanahan, Plekanec, Kostopoulos

Subs: Laraque, Metro, Stewart, D'Agostini, Pacioretty.

Markov, Souray
Bouwmeester, Schneider
Gorges, PK

Subs: O'Byrne, Weber.

Price
Halak

[Snayr]

Sooooo... shocking article today on tsn...

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=280075

Basically saying that the Habs have offered Kovalev a 1 year deal, and the captaincy of the club. Also mentions that Captain K will most likely not be returning to the Habs next season. Sad ending to Koivu's reign as 2nd longest serving captain

[vinsanity09]

yeah but it's from a russian newspaper, like a lot of the posters said on TSN, I think it's bull

[sh00n]

Sooooo... shocking article today on tsn...

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=280075

Basically saying that the Habs have offered Kovalev a 1 year deal, and the captaincy of the club. Also mentions that Captain K will most likely not be returning to the Habs next season. Sad ending to Koivu's reign as 2nd longest serving captain

It is sad, but if he wants to go to Minnesota, maybe we could somehow swing a re-signed Koivu for a re-signed Gaborik deal. I love how clutch he has been for us over the years but he also isn't the superstar we need. If the money is going to be spent, we need guys who can take over a game when given the chance. Kovalev is the start to that - and I pray that rumor is true. I also heard it's a 2 year deal that was offered to him, so 3 mill a year. That's a big time hometown discount if true, and it truly shows he wants to be here.

Komo can truly **** off if he thinks we're going to give him 6 million a year. He played himself out of that contract this year. Edmonton is rumored to want to trade Souray - send Hammer and a draft pick and bring him back.

Gainey also has huge interest in Bouwmeester, reportedly, and if it ends up Jay Bo does want to play for us, he's going to send a pick to the Panthers for his rights and sign him right out - which will be the domino effect of Markov and Pleks going out for Vinny.

Lots of options this summer; and it's exciting as **** too. And honestly, if we lose Koivu, Markov, Komo this summer and in exchange can potentially bring in Vinny, Bouwmeester, Gaborik AND bring back Kovalev, Tanguay, Higgins and Schneider, I'd be all for it.

Also, St. Patrick has turned down the Avs offer to coach them. PLEASE COME BACK PATRICK.

[Snayr]

Yeah, and I want to see Lang back in a Habbies jersey as well for atleast one more year. Say what you want about him, and needing to develop the young kids, but man was he ever a positive influence on the team last year.

As for Komi... you said it man. If he thinks he's getting 6 mill/season from us he can screw off... and if you're serious about it being 6-7.5/2 years = wow :O! Thats way better than I initially thought! And I truly think Kovalev will be a better captain than people imagine. He'll actually play full out for more than the last 20 games of the season.

[Snayr]

Btw, sorry for being MIA there for about a month. I was having a hard time getting over the disappointment of the season lol.

[sh00n]

Yeah, and I want to see Lang back in a Habbies jersey as well for atleast one more year. Say what you want about him, and needing to develop the young kids, but man was he ever a positive influence on the team last year.

As for Komi... you said it man. If he thinks he's getting 6 mill/season from us he can screw off... and if you're serious about it being 6-7.5/2 years = wow :O! Thats way better than I initially thought! And I truly think Kovalev will be a better captain than people imagine. He'll actually play full out for more than the last 20 games of the season.

People can say whatever they want about Kovalev, but he wants to play in Montreal, and it's rare that you find someone with his amount of talent that will say that. He loves the city and the city loves him. I'd love to bring Lang back too - if he can actually still skate.

Also, looks like the Leafs are now in the Komo sweepstakes. Come on Burke, give him 6 mill per.

[Snayr]

I'd love to see the Leafs give him 6 mill/year and see us pick up J-Bo. I mean, who in their right mind would sign Komi over J-Bo? Just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. J-Bo has OFFENSE, something Komi knows nothing about, and he also has defense as well! He probably wont block as many shots as Komi does, but he'd still play well defensively for us.

[sh00n]

Not to mention he's almost always on the ice. And he's the best skater in the league out of all the defensemen.

[Snayr]

Yep, he is a freakin' beast and I would not hesitate in the least to let Komi go so we could pick up J-Bo in his place. O'Byrne will be a Komi clone in a couple years, he's just going through the struggles that Komi did initially as well. So essentially we're not losing Komisarek at all, and with the way he played the 2nd half of the season last year, you wouldnt know the difference between O'Byrne and Komi... aside from the fact that O'Byrne doesn't continuously get his shot blocked at the point.

Shameless plug sh00n you should check out my website button on the left there New site my bro and I started, along with another one you can find on my fb info page lol.

[sh00n]

Nice, I'll check it out haha.

By the way, looks like Tanguay may not be coming back. Looks like he might be going back to Colorado or he'll go to Jersey. I hope, HOPE we bring him back though.

[Snayr]

Lol, good stuff Let me know what you think! Feel free to use it for your countless projects too if you want, or suggest it to people. Trying to get it rolling and popularish... /plug haha

As for Tanguay not coming back... that son of a biznatch better be coming back! I Bought his freakin' T-Shirt! He better not make me waste 35 bucks for 1 game! Grr lol. In all seriousness, losing Tanguay would be a HUGE blow... I really hope he re-signs.

[sh00n]

I have a feeling he does want to come back, but it's Gainey whose being stubborn - he always ****ing does that. We'll have players who want to come back, and will take a pay cut to do so, and if he doesn't want them he doesn't even bother. Happened with Shanahan, could be happening with Koivu and now Tanguay. He just better bring back Kovalev and make this team better defensively, and he better bring in star power.

[Musashi]

I hope he brings back everyone, just so we have assets...I don't want to loose any player for nothing...

And I am not a Kovalev fan...And I think he will have a hard time with Martin as a coach. It seems Kovalev has trouble with every coach so...Plus Martin asks for discipline and Kovalev is as undisciplined as you can be. He will be trouble again if he comes back...

[Snayr]

The thing I dislike about Gainey is the way he seems to let every player walk for nothing, rather than trade them at the deadline because you know he won't be coming back... Imagine what we could have gotten in return for Souray? And if Komi walks, we could have gotten a pretty penny for him as well. If there's one thing that REALLY bugs me about Gainey, it's that.

[Musashi]

The thing I dislike about Gainey is the way he seems to let every player walk for nothing, rather than trade them at the deadline because you know he won't be coming back... Imagine what we could have gotten in return for Souray? And if Komi walks, we could have gotten a pretty penny for him as well. If there's one thing that REALLY bugs me about Gainey, it's that.

I agree 100%...I am not sure why Gainey does that...Its not like we are contending! And we are talking about core players here, not 4th liners or reseve d-men. I considered Streit one of our core players, and we didn't even make him a contract offer!!!! Maybe theres pressure on Bob from ownership to at least make 1 round in the playoffs for financial reasons?

And I can imagine quite well what we would have gotten for Souray/Streit/Ryder/Tanguay(?)/Koivu(?)/Komisarek(?) etc. etc.: I just think of Rivet for Gorges/Pacioretty and I start dreaming

[sh00n]

I agree 100%...I am not sure why Gainey does that...Its not like we are contending! And we are talking about core players here, not 4th liners or reseve d-men. I considered Streit one of our core players, and we didn't even make him a contract offer!!!! Maybe theres pressure on Bob from ownership to at least make 1 round in the playoffs for financial reasons?

And I can imagine quite well what we would have gotten for Souray/Streit/Ryder/Tanguay(?)/Koivu(?)/Komisarek(?) etc. etc.: I just think of Rivet for Gorges/Pacioretty and I start dreaming

Gainey did offer Streit a contract of 2 mill/per. He lowballed him and that, coupled with the fact that Streit didn't like Carbo for playing him as a forward, led to him leaving. Carbo burnt a lot of bridges in his time here; I'm just hoping Gainey can build back a few of them.

[Musashi]

Alex Yemelin jus resigned with his KHL team, Kazan AK Bars. That is quite disappointing as I had hoped he would be in Montreal...A Kasparaitis clone would have been great on our soft team! Especially since it looks like Komisarek will not resign

[sh00n]

Also, looks like the coaching staff will be finalized, new ownership and possibly a few FA's signed in the next 6 days. Gainey himself gave the deadline and looks to be following through.

The return of St Patrick? I sure as hell hope so.

[Musashi]

Also, looks like the coaching staff will be finalized, new ownership and possibly a few FA's signed in the next 6 days. Gainey himself gave the deadline and looks to be following through.

The return of St Patrick? I sure as hell hope so.

Roy as goalie coach? That would be great but why would he accept such a job? Seems Pierre Groulx might have the inside track on that job: http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/276196.html

Should be fun to see who Gainey decides to go after before july 1st...Im guessing all the UFA?