Begin, Downey and Murray Signed

The Montreal Canadiens made their first signings of the off season inking Steve Begin, Garth Murray and Aaron Downey to new deals.

Great news for the Canadiens. Bob Gainey identified and signed his role players that will make up a core part of the Canadiens next season.
Begin had one of his best seasons last year and newcomers Garth Murray and Aaron Downey fit in quite well.

All of these guys have similar rough and physical styles of play and aren’t afraid of dropping the gloves. Gainey’s assuring early that the Canadiens won’t lack a physical element like they have in so many recent years.

All of these guys have been borderline NHLers and the vote of confidence the Canadiens have just given them should make for an interesting season.

Related Bookmarks Tags

There are currently no tags for this post.

Leave a Comment

8 Comments

#1 BJ says:
June 6, 2006 at 10:42 am

This was a great move by the habs. Now we need to worry about Huet and get a Defenceman and a 2nd Line Center. Get rid of Ribs!!!!!!!!

#2 Habs#1 says:
June 6, 2006 at 6:44 pm

The Habs needed to keep their grit togehter and they did that yesterday. Great move by Gainey. The Oilers proved this year that grit will get you far in the playoffs before what I call the curse of ’93 hit them.

(The curse is that no Canadian team has won the cup final since the Habs in ’93 and no canadian team will win it till the Habs do in what I believe to be the next 1 to 2 years)

Get rid of Ribeiro and Zednik immediately, Bonk they won’t be able to get rid of because of his massive contract and he showed at the end of the year to be a good #4 centre.

Keep the defence intact because they were the fidth highest scoring unit in the NHL, they were very good defensively at the end of the season and now I think Souray’s gotten used to the new NHL they will be even better next season.

Kovalev needs a real centreman to play with (i.e. Lang,Arnott. These are the only viable options folks because they’re not getting Richards obviously and unless Gainey is willing to trade Higgins, Ryder, and Komisarek which Tampa would reportedly be asking for, Vinny Lecavelier will not be wearing the CH any time soon, and Savard would want to much and would not want to play second fiddle to Koivu.)

As well as either getting someone like Mark Parrish or Jamie Langenbrunner to play the second line wing or moving Perezhogin up there and having Kostitzyn play on the third line with Plecanek and Murray, both of which I like a lot. Elias would be far to expensive to also go with the more pressing need at second line centre.

By the way, everyone saying that Latendresse will come and play for the big team next season. GET REAL!!!!! He had a good preseason sure but after that he had a very average season in the QMJHL, he apparently has terrible work ethic and attitude( i.e. Ribeiro) and he did absolutly JACK ALL in the world juniors so Gainey will make him go the hard way through the QMJHL one more season, hopefully have a better showing at the ‘Juniors’ and then at least the 3 manditory seasons on his AHL contract.

#3 PACTUM SERVA says:
June 6, 2006 at 7:12 pm

I could’nt say it better myself habs#1 great post

#4 Habs#1 says:
June 6, 2006 at 10:35 pm

There are three rumored people to be in the running for asst. head coach. All are ex. Habs I believe, and all are good buddies with Carbonneau and I think played with him.

They are Larry Robinson, Mario Tremblay(I really don’t think we want to go down that road again), and Kirk Muller.

Robinson retired because he couldn’t take the pressure in NEW JERSEY! so how would he deal with it in Montreal? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if he’s just an assistent. I never liked Mario Tramblay and the dark days of the Habs/Molson family marriage started with him and got really bad with Vingealt(not his fault that he didn’t have any good players though) and Kirk Muller’s never had a proffesional coaching job before.

There’s risks to which ever one you take. I would like to see Muller. Who do the rest of you loyal Habs fans think would be the better fit?

#5 fan3 says:
June 6, 2006 at 11:48 pm

Definitely NOT Tremblay!!! ANYONE else!!! Nothing good could come by bringing him back into the picture…it’s taken us like a decade to fix his errors. As for the other two, I don’t really care. Like you said, Robinson couldn’t handle the pressure (and Montreal fans provide plenty of that) and Muller has no coaching experience. I’m sure that Gainey will make the best decision in the end (if it’s even up to him).
As for the trades: all for Begin and Murray but I’m indifferent to Downey. Downey hasn’t done anything wrong but he also hasn’t earned his keep; then again he didn’t get that much of a chance to.

#6 SaskHab says:
June 7, 2006 at 1:42 am

As far as the coach goes, I love the possibility of Robinson coming back. He’s been an assistant with us before and did very well. So well in fact that he got plucked from our staff to become a head coach in the show. As an assistant he would shoulder virtually none of the pressure and due to his unwillingness to be a head coach again it would be pretty safe to say he’d be in it for the long haul at that position. Obviously my second choice would be Muller for lack of a better option in Tremblay. To be fair, because one sucks at the head coach position does not mean they can’t be an effective assistant. They are two completely separate and differing roles, therefore I would even be willing to bring Tremblay into the fold. Now let’s sign Huet and find a decent scoring forward.

#7 Don't Know says:
June 10, 2006 at 7:17 pm

Downey sucks. Habs should get Charra, or Redden , or Spezza , or another big name player like Havlat

#8 Don't Know says:
June 10, 2006 at 7:22 pm

i dont think the habs will do good next yr if they dont sign some good free agents this yr

Leave a Comment

ShoutBox

Last Message 12 hours, 38 minutes ago

1 guest is online. Google is crawling the site.

muller93 : Very true Senet, you do need luck and we haven't had any luck it seems since the habs moved to the Bell Center. We had an incredible run in 2010 with some crazy goal tending from Halak. With Galchenyuk-Tinor di-Gallagher all in 1 year--not too bad, even with an early exit in the playoffs.
Senet1 : Muller I guess we all have our own ideas, but there has never been too many times that were successful when they traded their draft picks away. We have a chance to build this team so we have a shot at winning the cup over the next 10 years. Even as good as Pittsburgh has been they have only won the cup once since Crosby and Malkin have been with the team. That is because you not only need great players but you need luck to win, but one thing about Pittsburgh they have a chance every year. The
muller93 : Good point on Torres, he might be a liability. Torres has to tone it down a bit, but that's his game-very aggressive.
goalie : Though I don't condone what Raffi Torres did - thos shows you how repeat offenders or near offenders are going to be treated. His hit was NOT illegal BUT what the rap sheet adn reputation Torres has he got severly punished. Lesson to be learned by OTHER players because Torres dopesn't learn fromk his mistakes.
muller93 : Senet normally I would agree with you on not trading draft picks but we are not in a rebuilding stage. Sometimes draft picks can be a roll of the dice and it can take up to 3 years to be NHL ready. We have a good team and I agree with Stuo players like Clowe-Torres-Ott -Scott will make a big difference. Somebody has to protect Gallagher, he can't keep getting hit the way does--we need a tough forward so they think twice before going after Gallagher.
Senet1 : Really a heathly Habs team would probably win more games against the Pens that we did against the Sens. Reason they Pens would not play as physical against us as against the Sens. If we get good goaltending we win at least two games.
zpezada4ok : hello all «link»
stuo11 : hes a tougher big guy too! Just a minor adjustment but will help a bit
stuo11 : hes better than markov, and hes french who was in mention for defenceman of the year
goalie : Markov for Beauchemin - an injury prone d-man for an ;old timer'd-man. Beauchemin is NOT what the Habs need in my opinion. He is a HUGE defensive liability.
goalie : Stuo 11 I'd make that trade with Oilers fast BUT I doubt the Oilers will make that. Two marginal d-men at the best for a switch of first round picks - not a chance .
stuo11 : markov for beachemin?
stuo11 : let moen go
stuo11 : maybe try and get steve begin back
stuo11 : we wouldve kicked out all other teams but pens, sens,
stuo11 : pens have alot of forwaRDS same with us but we have better goaltending
stuo11 : theres styles of play goalie. Sens played us good, but lost games to southeast teams florida and tampa and get crushed by leafs EVERYTIME. sens and leafsd cant beat bruins but we do frequently
stuo11 : Diaz weber and our 1st for their first edm
goalie : SEns beat us 4 games to 1. Pens had last night's game under their control. What does that mean if we were up vs the Pens in a series. I think the Habs have a way to go before we're competing for Lord Stanley's Cup!
Senet1 : If he could score goals like Lucic and we could sign him to a four year contract then I would consider it too. However, NOT if we only have him for one to two years.
Senet1 : So we went from 27th pick to 21st pick.
goalie : Normally I would not trade draft picks BUT if we could get a consistently, solid player (especially forward) who is BIG I'd trade one of our picks.
Senet1 : The good part of this is with both Detroit and Boston moving on to the 2nd round it makes our draft position better, we move up the list by two.
Senet1 : Bruins beat leafs in OT. It was hard but I was hoping the Leafs beat the Bruins. They had a4-1 lead in the third and two goal lead with less than 4 minutes and lost. Sound familiar.
Senet1 : The thing is just because you get those guys does not guarantee that you will even make the playoffs or get out of the first round. Look at Detroit they built a strong team and organization and have been at the top for years. Yet they only have had a chance to win it two or three times. No matter how good you are you still need the breaks. So putting yourself in position to win is the most important thing to do year after year.
stuo11 : i think rightnow we came 2nd in east, a few tough players and we could win it all. why wait? id rather win the cup and not make playoffs the next year!
stuo11 : and save 4 mill
stuo11 : ryan clowe or raffi torres! and then a big defencemen! trade markov and gionta for Cammalleri. crap for crap but at least hes canadian and good in playoffs lol
stuo11 : goalie and muller, we outplayed the sens, real bad luck, major injuries! i still find were the better team. If the nhl wasnt so dumb about zibinejads goal itd be totally different!
Senet1 : Don't TRADE DRAFT PICKS for one to three year wonders.
Senet1 : Sorry guys but I would not trade our draft picks. We have 1 in the first round, 2 early second rounds + our own 2nd round pick and a good third round pick. We have finally got a chance to build this team like Detroit did and be able to stay up in the upper group of teams for a long time. If we blow this draft we blow our long term success. There are some players we can trade away and hopefully get some rugged players in return and or more draft picks. We have shown other players that we have
goalie : I agree with Muller. I'm not sure how many high / mid draft choices we have but I'd be looking to make some moves (even trade draft choices) for a couple of proven, rugged, players who can help us immediately.
muller93 : Well MB is a finalist for the GM of the year and I for one will say he did a great job with the Habs. We are just a few players away from having a real contender for years to come. But I really don't want to bank on this years draft--We need some NHL ready players. Hab fans have waited long enough and we have a good foundation. Lets trade some players along with some draft picks and get some big players in here. This is the only problem I see.
Senet1 : The leafs were intimidated early not from size but just not believing they could beat Boston and they did not get good goaltending early. Now they believe that they can beat the bruins and I would not be surprised if they do because they have faster than boston. They are beating boston to the puck similar to the way we beat them to the puck. They are exploiting their defence with their speed. So as long as Reimer gives them goaltending they have a chance.
goalie : Senet has it right. Other teams have drafted skill, size and dedication. Those players are out there.