Best signing of the offseason. Glad to see that this great historic franchise will have Bob Gainey in charge for the next four years. Well done Habs!

where do you get that from, habsfan?

btw, good to have Gainey around for next few years.

Habsfans dream trade:)Gainey will try to market his goaltender first.Remember
Brierre is 5 mil a year. Just doesn’t make sence.All players are signed with Montreal…last thing you want to do is screw chemeistry of what is a very GOOD team.

Jan Bulis is now a Vancouver Canuck. His agent say ‘Janny’ chose Vancouver because he wanted to get a starring role and to put up some bigger numbers as a purely offence player. Will the Habs miss this guy? Wasn’t he in Gainey’s dog house for part of last season and a healthy scratch on a couple of occasions?
More imporantly who will replace his 20 or so goals and play that two way game for us now that he is an official Canucklehead now?

M Square

niiiiice habsfan. I always thought it would be better to get Abby outta here quick, until you put it that way. Let em lose a couple 10-0 games and soon they will be offering their left nuts for Abeischer!

This kinda sucks because i used to be hopêful that Abby could bring someone good to montreal VIA trade. But now i get the feeling that he’s the last option on the list for teams who seek a goalie. After all, Legace is still out there (why won’t anyone sign this guy?!?!?) , and theres Toskala and Biron who want out. So i have a feeling Abby might be playing some games in Mtl until teams get more interested in him.

The next headline on this site should read:

Canadiens trade Ribeiro and Perezhogin for Briere.

ffdd, montreal would need to trade some people with a higher salary in order to afford briere

a possible trade could be:
Riberio + Ryder + Aebesher to Buffalo
Briere + 1st round draft pick in 2007 to Montreal

How about this:
Ribeiro and Bonk for Briere. Trading Ribeiro and Bonk would clear over 4 million from our roll. We already have 1.5 million left before the cap. So we sign Briere for 5 million, and with the remaining 700K or so offer Yanic Perrault a deal (could even be a 2 year deal for 2 million, with 700k first season 1.3 next). With that we would be trading two centers and get 2 centers and still make the cap. It would be a decent upgrade overall and we wouldnt need to move Ryder or Aebisscher yet. Ryder is doing fine in the second line and Abby is definitely useful either on the team or as part of a future trade.

And theres no way buffalo wants aebeischer, they have miller and biron… They are sitting pretty right now. Aebeischer wants a starting role and hes not going to find it in buffalo.

Where do you guys think Aebeischer will end up? I was hoping the wings but theres just too many good goalies for teams to choose from who need homes.

Aebeischer will be given a good chance to show his stuff.If he preforms as well as I think he can…he is the ace in hole that Gainey has.Part way through the season (if Heut plays well enough)Other teams will be clamering for a good starter and will trade to Montreal and the Habs will look to fill some deficiencies in their lineup.

Bringing Marleau would be great, it’s San Jose who would never make the deal.

so ryder/ribeiro/hayward for briere/hawerchuk is out of the question?

How about bringing in Samantha Fox as a motivator? The first star of each game gets a blowjob from her.

LMFAO! C’mon, a blogsite will NEVER be a reliable trade source. If you follow Habs and have any brains you’d know Gainey doesn’t slip info to the media. GIVE IT UP! You make me embarrased to be a Habs fan. Again why do you imagine teams are wanting players we don’t want anymore.

Actually. I am calm - think about it!

I’ve seen the same stupid BS here as Leafs fans show there. I’ve followed the team since 71 and never seen BS like this blog. I thought there would be a little more knowledge here but I’m way wrong. I’m as enlightened as I need to be, but you guys think because you’re in a blog, you’re suddenly the Habs media outlet to the world…and you talk about me getting too serious. Look at your self first. Half of you can’t even spell let alone think for yourselves.

So the forwards line up could look like this:

Samsonov - Ribeiro - Kovalev
Higgins - Koivu - Ryder
Plekanec - Bonk - Johnson
Murray - Begin - Downey

With another few players like Perezhogin, Chipchura, Grabovsky and Kostitsyn hoping to get a spot as well. Every line looks decent enough. The obvious biggest improvement would be to get a better first line center.

That lineup looks like what we’ll be seeing alot of come October. Downey, Bonk, and Carbo’s first doghouse victim will pull straws to rotate the press box seats, making room for Perezhigin and whichever rookie grabs that last roster spot. One player right off the radar to make the team is D Alexei Yemelin. I’ve seen and heard a ton of good about this Rusky. He plays a very composed style, not unlike a young Markov when he first joined the team. He was taken 84th in 04 and Gainey and Trevor Timmins are real big on the guy. He is yet to be signed and they are tendering him a deal should he attend camp. they believe him to be very close. He is the candidate to eventually push Streit, Dandenault or River elsewhere.

Rob, you are not wrong on either count, but there is some confusion. I often use the NHL Official Guide and Record Book as a source. In the 05-06 Edition, they have him listed as Yemelin (ye-Muh-lihn), but I’ve seen it as Emelin also in many places. I’m not 100% sure on this, but I think I’m leaning towards the former perhaps because I’ve seen it on his jersey, either at the WJC or an under 18 tourney. As far as contract matters go, you are correct again, but again there is another confusing issue. The international Ice Hockey Federation has an agreement with the NHL on contracts. It is similar in Canada with junior hockey where teams are reimbursed when players are drafted and signed. The compensation has always been a sticking point with the Russian based clubs, in short they feel they are cheated monitarily, The current IIHF deal involves all the Euro based teams in Finland, Slovakia, Sweden, etc. but none of the Russian ones. The last I heard is that a deal has yet to be worked out for the coming season for Russian based teams. It is still being negotiated and there should be news on that soon. As far as the players contracts go, they are not prevented from trying out or signing with NHL teams. As I stated, these clubs get paid when they lose players. It is not the same for North American players. Here, if a player remains unsigned two years after the entry draft, he can re-enter the draft. Nick Boyton, now of Phoenix, is the most common exammple I can think of. When teams draft players under the IIHF deal they retain the rights for a much longer period of time. For example, the Habs drafted a guy named Kim Staal ( no relation to the you-know-who brothers..I wish!) 92nd overall in 1996 and still own his NHL playing rights. Certain players however still feel a certain amount of loyalty and honour the deals, others don’t. In the case of Emelin/Yemelin, we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out. The fact that his team has tripled his salary attests to some point how good he is. thats good news for us Habs fans! BTW, do you have a link to where you recieved your info on him? I could use some catching up. Thanks.

so must for a possibly trading Aebeischer to detroit, the wings just signed hasek to a one year deal so they are taking a chance on him. NOBODY WANTS ABBY! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I don’t remember Bonk ever being in the doghouse after Gainey took over as coach (was he?). Plus, I think Charbo likes him and his responsible game.

Hi Guys, I don`t want to catch a beating for posting this but here goes.

According to a Montreal radio station called the Team 990 and also reported by rumoursnhl.blogspot.com the San Jose Sharks and Montreal Canadiens may complete a deal soon for Marleu

I know PACTUM SERVA at what you are going to say that Bob Gainey would never let this slip out and I totally agree with you that the man is FORT KNOX…but if the guys from team 990 are reporting it, then there might be a glimmer of hope and truth to this, and its all in good fun.

I was planning on calling the radio station tomorrow and find out where they got there info from.

will keep you guys posted.

hahahahhahaa, thats hilarious…. ya dude totally call the radio station up so we can see where this rumour came from

Reality Check:

Although one has to wonder if there is any cap room left, I too think that there is a small possibility that Emelin might sign with the Canadiens next year. Malkin, for example, has also signed a contract with a Russian Superleague club next year, but has clearly indicated that he wants to play with Pittsburgh in the NHL next fall so I suspect that these young Russian guys are feeling a lot of pressure to sign with their Russian teams before they are being allowed to explore their options in the NHL. Hopefully, the politics/money (that you have alluded to) will get sorted out before next season. I understand that Tretiak is actually one of of the key figures in trying to sort out this problem which is fitting since Tretiak was deprived of his chance to play for the Montreal Canadiens (the team that he wanted to play in the NHL for and who owned his rights) by politics in the 1970s.

I don’t really understand why Emelin would want to stay in the Russian Superleague next year if he was given the chance to leave. In the quarterfinals last season, he was accused of perpetrating the “worst incident” to ever take “place in the history of the Russian Superleague.” He was accused of dislocating a vertebrae and giving a concussion to the Magnitogorsk Metallurg captain, Evgeni Varlamov, when he pushed him. He was suspended and became infamous throughout Russia for the incident (kind of like Russia’s own, Todd Bertuzzi.) The only difference was that the Captain’s injuries seem to have been an overstated fraud, and Varlamov (unlike Steve Moore) was playing the following week while Emelin was suspended.

Emelin will give the Habs another hard-nosed, stay at home defenceman, and appears to have a bright career ahead of him. I think Jancevski (D) is going to be good too… In a year or two, these will be the names that we are talking about, and Souray (staying or going) will be meaningless.

PS. Most of the press from Russia that I have seen calls him Alexei Emelin although I too have seen it spelt both ways.

Thanks for the into and the spell checks guy, it’s appreciated. I didn’t know that Emelin had done such a thing. Now I’m really anxious to see him play.

None, March, and maybe. Injuries is when you learn about your depth. Bouillon and Streit, who are both having injury troubles are the sixth and seventh D on the team. No cause for panic.

LOL…and I agree with post 54. The first five words could be blog motto - “Stop confusing needs with wants”. I’d steal it for mine if i didn’t already have one!

One thing I can add to your thoughs of making room for players who are pushing up in the depth chart is that it is a great way to keep cap room and a team salary structure intact. I have complete faith in Gainey’s way of aiming for the Cup. We will get there.

Here is a little food for thought for those of you who like to play GM of the Habs. Discussing with a friend of mine who put himself in Flyers GM Clarke’s shoes regarding the not yet signed RFA Simon Gagne, we pondered possible scenarios. He asked if the Habs would be interested in Gagne, and I said they absolutely would, providing he came at the right price. I asked him who the Flyers would want in return and he said Clarke would take Markov even up. I thought “Hmmmm!”, that’s something to think about!

I am definitly NOT TRYING TO START A RUMOUR here. LOL. I was curious to know what you guys would do with such a proposal. Clarke would definitely not accept the players Gainey would prefer to shop. He’d look to fill his void for good puck rushing D’s who can quarterback a power play well.

Would you pull the trigger on this deal, try to change it, or hang up the phone? I know what I’d do, but I’ll save that thought for now. Tell me what you think!

Who would QB the PP?

Interesting idea. I don’t think he’s ever done it though.

Gagne wouldn’t have Forberg to make him a 47 goal scorer in Montreal. With the pressure that would be on him as a Quebecer, I’ll stick with Markov. He’s harder to replace.