Cornwall Ontario – After the draft and free agent frenzy day it appears that Montreal Canadiens fans are in for another very long season.
They deserve better.
Montreal has had a very clear need. A number one Centre. They also need to rebuild their D after GM Marc Bergevin decimated it last season.
It’s a boggling mess as the team has now two over 30 big dollar contracts in goalie Carey Price and D man Shea Weber.
It makes no sense to keep these players if the team is rebuilding. None, especially in a cap age. Likewise, Max Pacioretty is still with the team after Bergy failed to trade him during the two heightened trade period opportunities.
If the team wanted a #1 Centre Ryan O’Reilly was available. The alleged asking price of a 1 and 2 round pick plus some flotsam was an easy do and again shows that it’s not impossible to land a centre unless you’re the Habs GM. Montreal was shut out of even bidding for John Tavares in spite of his agent being a boyhood friend of our erstwhile GM. Toronto landed him with a home town discount.
The ingredients for a rebuild were there before the draft. Excess draft picks, a few vets to trade, and lots of cap space to make magic happen. Instead they team gave up stud Centre Alex Galchenyuk who will have a monster season in the desert for another enigma.
Montreal did bring back Tomas Plekanec, and did draft a hopeful young centre for the future, but this season is looking bleak and filled with hopes of another good draft pick and that’s simply not how a franchise like Montreal should be playing the game.
The hypocrisy of having their younguns wear silly t shirts at D camp is an utter farce. Winning is all that counts in professional sports. Glory and Cash are the pinnacles. Good attitudes? Really? The team needs players that can win and win in the playoffs. This current teams best players, or at least highest paid, don’t have that track record.
T Shirts can’t stop pucks or put them in the net, and you win this game by scoring one more than the other guys.
The blame for this falls squarely on owner Geoff Molson. You can’t even blame Bergy any longer.
What do you think hab fans? You can post your comments below.
Hard to get anything done in the NHL when teams hand out obscene contracts that eat up salary cap. It may appear good for the team and player(s) involved but it then limits what can be done for other players. And it stops the team from progressing to the next level.