Sergei Samsonov signs with Montreal

Bob Gainey saved the best for last on the most eventful swapping and signing day in Canadiens recent history.

Gainey signed speedster Sergei Samsonov to a 2 year deal. Financial terms haven’t been disclosed yet.

Gainey had been heavily criticized after not signing any rumored big names when the free agent market opened for business. After being snubbed by various players not wanting to play in Montreal, Gainey has now secured a ‘name’ player.

Samsonov is a familiar foe from his years with Boston who posseses incredible speed and skill. In the new NHL those are the ingredients of a potential superstar.

The Canadiens roster adding another Russian who should fit in well with Kovalev and Markov.

Maybe Valeri Bure and Oleg Petrov are looking to make a comeback in Montreal.

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64 Comments

#1 Kamilsky says:
July 19, 2006 at 8:10 pm

The last touch would be to trade Ribeiro and maybe throw in Perezhogin for Robert Lang. Then we would truly have a first line.

#2 Habs says:
July 20, 2006 at 4:19 pm

In my opinion, I think that Simon Gagne from the Philly Flyers would be a great UFA to sign since the time limit is over. He is fast, canadian, young, he has heart, he has a sniper shot, and he could get an easy 30 goals in a season with the habs.

Imagine a line of Alexei Kovalev, Sergei Samsonov, and Gagne. WOW thats a goal scoring line for sure !!

#3 Habs says:
July 20, 2006 at 5:04 pm

i think edmonton is going to suck next season…no pronger…no spacek..no samsonov..no laroque…no Peca…and Hemsky is a FA now…wow

#4 Kamilsky says:
July 20, 2006 at 5:59 pm

Gagne plays left-wing, not center.

#5 Habs#1 says:
July 20, 2006 at 7:43 pm

Habs you don’t seem to understand. Gagne and Hemsky are not UFA’s. They are RFA’s until a certain age. The only way they could have become UFA’s is if they weren’t extended qualifying offers or if the teams decide not to pay what the Arbitrator deems worthy.

If they don’t accept they’re qualifying offers it dosen’t meen jack all accept that they don’t have a contract yet. They’re still the property of their respective until the age of UFA status.

#6 Brian says:
July 20, 2006 at 8:10 pm

so who do you guys think the habs are going to try and get or trade for ?

#7 stevejur says:
July 20, 2006 at 8:39 pm

Gainey has already said on rds.ca he will not go after Gagne. He thinks it’s a dirty way to do business. Meaning he and Clarke are buddy, buddy’s.
We should try to get Lang and maybe give Allison a shot. Gomez might be to expensive,
however the cup sure would look a lot closer with Gomez in the line up.

We should pay more attention to defense, plenty of offense is coming up through the system.
Let’s sign UFA’s like Markov and Desjardins. Desjardins would be a great roll model for some of the youth.

#8 PACTUM SERVA says:
July 20, 2006 at 9:02 pm

Ok i think what you see is what you get for now.This will be the team that starts the season.Gainey will make adjustments from there.We have two new players added and some rookies who may have a shot at making this team this year.Two many changes all at once may not be a good thing.We are a better team now then we were in the playoffs imo.Having said all that we still need a second line center and a solid d-man and i think gainey knows that to but when he fixes the problem god only knows

#9 dyed in the wool fan says:
July 20, 2006 at 10:30 pm

We can’t go into the season without another center. He are too thin at that position. What happens if Koivu gets injured? We all know how injury prone he is. I do believe he will go and get Perreault or Ruzinsky. They are the most logical choices, and because of their ages, fairly cheap.

#10 kazmojo says:
July 21, 2006 at 5:06 pm

One possible solution to the 2nd line centre dilemma is to place Higgins back there. It’s where he started. That leaves a left wing position open, but maybe Perezhogin is ready to step up. Or Kostitsyn or even Latendresse.

Another more likely scenario is to bump up the centres from each line: Plekanec between Kovalev and Samsonov and Bonk between Johnson and Perezhogin. And then Begin moves between Murray and Downey. Plekanec showed some real offensive instincts in the playoffs and in the Olympics, and he’s certainly better than Ribeiro.

#11 Habs#1 says:
July 23, 2006 at 4:28 pm

TSN.ca is reporting that Micheal Ryder has re-signed with the Habs and it’s a one year, 2.2 million dollar deal. Ryder would have been ripped apart in Arbitration by Gainey since his defensive play and on ice vision leave something to be desired.

That being said he is their best goal scorer and it’s great news that he’s back under contract and he did deserve that raise.

By the way Bob, there’s no way the Sabres can afford that 5 million Briere was awarded by the Arbitrator so jump all over that will ya. Ribeiro and a good prospect will pry him out of their( Plekanec, Latendresse, Emelin) and maybe and denfenceman.

#12 habsfan says:
July 26, 2006 at 11:09 am

habs #1: or just sign briere as a ufa…he is from quebec so i assume he would want to come play for the habs

he might also take less money doing that

only time will tell

#13 habsfan says:
July 26, 2006 at 11:09 am

GAINEY: DON’T GIVE UP ANY PROSPECTS!!

#14 dude says:
February 7, 2007 at 12:18 am

Trade Samsonov for Havlat

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Last Message 2 minutes ago

goalie : In all fairness to AK...he has played more aggressively and has been more involved the last 5 games or so. Amazing what UFA does to a player. If we could get 25+ goals plus a consistent effort I would want him on my team. His biggest downside is his inconsistency to be involved in the play.
Senet1 : Also the addition of Blunden and even Leblanc is not shy to throwing body checks. Also PK has been more aggressive lately
Senet1 : That is partly because of the change in coaching styles and the addition of Bourque.
Senet1 : If we kept Plekanec and Bourgue then we need a shooter on that line. So to me from a forward standpoint we need to add a goal scorer, but one who goes to the net and is not knocked around. To me based on our offence this year that is the most needed position to fill on our forward lines. When you consider that we got ride of Cammy, and if we trade Gionta and Gomez disappears we are no longer a small team. The team has more grit now than at the first of the year.
Senet1 : So we have to add some muscle as well as skill to our second & third lines and upgrade our fourth line as well. I could see Leblanc moving in as the centre on the second line if we got something good Plekanecs, otherwise, he could play the wing on either the second or third line. Blunden seemed to score faily well in the AHL not sure if he has it in him but would like to seem him on a line with Eller and maybe Leblanc next year all three players like to use their bodies and therefore should be
Senet1 : Not counting Markov if he plays. If we trade or let go of our UFA defenceman then we will need at least three D-men, I would like a good look at Nash to see if he can play at this level. If not he is gone, I do not think any of our other defensive prospects are ready quite yet. Our junior and college players should be coming on stream for Hamilton next year so we will get to see how much they have developed and whether any are ready for the big time.
Senet1 : While I agree we have quite a few players that could be made available, I do not see a need to make wholesale changes only the necessary one. obviously Gomez, Gionta, AK46(if he will not sign) I keep our top line of Cole, Pacman and David. I keep Eller and Leblanc, Blunden, Bourque, probably Plecanec unless we can really improve on his positin. I keep PK, Emelin, Gorges, Diaz and Naturally Price. Probably Budaj. That basically gives us two functional line and two sets of defence, not counting
goalie : Great to see Pacs gets su=ome success after the devestating dirty check last season that could have paralyzed him for life.
goalie : Given ho the team has played this season one thing in our favor is that we pretty much need to clean house. Other than about 6-7 guys everyone else would be available in my mind.
goalie : After how the tes]am has
Avatar37 : Apparently only one offer for Carter on the low side so far, I think Montreal would be foolish not to investigate the possibility of a trade for him, and if there is low interest, the deal might be able to include moving Gomez. Gomez/Darche/Cam poli and a third round pick? Maybe not, but I'd be in serious talks with Columbus right about now.
Avatar37 : «link»
Avatar37 : for him had we held on to him until now and created a bidding war. There are more buyers than sellers currently on the market and it would have been the perfect time to have traded him.
Avatar37 : Goalie - I'm not sure how we could have obtained more for Halak. We showcased him, everyone knew he was available for trade, and in the end, we took the best offer. Any asset is only worth what a purchaser will pay for it. The Halak trade wasn't like the Cammalleri trade where you had GMs afterwards saying they didn't even know he was on the market. The Halak trade was done properly, the Cammelleri trade was a knee-jerk panic move, and while my opinion is that we could have received more
Avatar37 : I saw the game, the Islanders first goal came from a shot that was clearly above the height of the crossbar. How is it possible for a play to go to review where they have the advantage of mulitple camera angles and the ability to pause and they STILL get the call wrong?
goalie : I agree don't get dilusional over our three game winning streak. Changes MUST be made. I am however, glad to see the effort being put forth by the players.
Mats Naslund : I just went to capgeek to see who the Avalanche might be dealing for a rental - and I see they have only 6 players signed for next season!!! There are a couple young D men on that squad who are RFAs who would do very nicely next season.
Mats Naslund : One thing I know - the 3 game winning streak had better not get PG thinking about holding onto guys for a PO run. Trade them, build the value and move on to next year.
Mats Naslund : How about Max Pac though.. 21 goals and on pace for 65 points this year. That is absolutely monster for a guy at his age/experience and especially coming after a horrific injury. Huge cornerstone moving forward. On pace for 33 goals.. could he get 35?
Mats Naslund : Didn't get to see it either - and while I don't really care about the win, I am very glad that Gomez scored so we don't have to endure all of the negativity in the media about him for the rest of the year. He still su@ks, but at least it won't be a topic every shift he takes.
goalie : Didn't get to see the game at all but it's great to see Pacs get a hat trick and fpor Cole to be + 3. When was the last time this team won three games in a row? Great victory -looks like they're giving 100% effort!
Senet1 : 4-2 win habs
Senet1 : Gomez scores, Yea!!!
goalie : As I said yesterday it will be interesting to see what our lame ass GM gets for players he ships out. Bourque is good and he'll help us but I still think we could have gotten more for him and for Halak when he was traded.
Avatar37 : round those picks occur (probably 3rd).
Avatar37 : An interesting article. If we slip to the 5th or 7th draft pick, a very interesting case could be made for drafting Galchenyuk. If we wind up with the second or third pick, I'm not sure who I'd draft, because clearly Yakupov is going to be drafted first overall. Our second round pick also becomes interesting, I know I'd take Vasilevski if he were still available. It will also be interesting to see if we can turn some of our veteran players (Moen, Gill, Campoli) into draft picks, and what
Avatar37 : «link»
Avatar37 : That is why PG should have waited on trading Cammalleri. Right now, there is a high demand for a top 6 forward, we could have gotten much more than Bourque in return. That isn't a knock against Bourque, but a knock against a knee-jerk reaction trade that didn't maximize our return on a top asset.
Avatar37 : «link»
Avatar37 : chips fall where they may. After all, the only difference between finishing 17th and 29th is how good a pick you get in the draft.
Avatar37 : We currently sit in 26th place in the league. We are 15 points ahead of Columbus, it's safe to bet at this point they will place last. We are, however, only 4 points ahead of Edmonton so it's still wide open as to who is going to finish second last. I still think that it's time to sit the veterans, play the youth, let them get experience, and regroup for next year. I'm not suggesting deliberately tanking like the Penguins, but give all our young players lots of playing time and let the c
Avatar37 : goalie - If it were not for the play of Cammalleri, we would never have made it out of round 1. Cammalleri played as big a part, if not bigger, than Halak did. Sure, Halak played well, but remember the team collapsed in front of him, making his job much easier. We had lots of blocked shots and the ones that got through were typically from the outside.
Senet1 : Goalie you are absolutely right, of course the one thing we had the two previous years that won the games that we are losing this year was our power play. If you look at say 10 games that we should have won had we had a similar power play, again we would not be having these conversations. When your PP goes from first to last in the league that is a lot of goals.How many games have we lost this year by one goal. Again poor management who did not prepare for Markov's possible absence.
goalie : I'll put it another way.... we need more players who are willing to get their noses dirty.
goalie : Two years ago when our goaltending stole series adn our players suddenly scored the coaches / GM believed that that was our true team . Well time has proven that was not. Though I was very glad to see the Habs knock off some very good teams we were very fortunate. And fortunate that spring was spelled HALAK!