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Sheldon Souray: The Last Stand

  • Recent buzz indicates Bob Gainey is making one last final push to re-sign Sheldon Souray.

    Souray Bloody Souray

    Wishful thinking?

    Souray has long been considered by the media and fans to be fleeing Montreal.

    This late in the game is there any chance Sheldon Souray will stay? Or is this just last minute pandering for the media and fans?

    Time for speculation is over, as there is less than one week before Sheldon Souray potentially hits the free agent market and signs elsewhere — with nothing in return.

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67 Comments
  1. #1 MadManPaddy says:
    June 30, 2007 at 8:37 am

    habs4ever…..a little out of hand???? If I didn’t know better I would call you Sean Avery!! Come on….a little out of hand???

    Oh, and by the way…..my wife says I’m complicated thank-you!!! LOL

    Tommorrows the day folks!!! I’m sure we will all be at our keyboards ready to make our opinion known…….what a great country we live in!!!

    GO BOB GO!!!

  2. #2 MadManPaddy says:
    June 30, 2007 at 8:39 am

    Xhabsfan…..yes, my Friday night was alright! I stayed sober!! LOL

  3. #3 Xhabsfan says:
    June 30, 2007 at 11:13 am

    Ah,it’s the retarded RACIST, habs”racist “4ever,WHO STATES “I’ll stick to my tough english canadians rather then you french visor wearing pansies” You are the worst form of racist idiot,one who is to fucked up to know he’s one.Your parents did a **** job boy bringing you up weardo and If I were you, brain freeze, I WOULD STAY IN FOR CANADA DAY ,YOU MIGHT NOT MAKE IT WITH YOUR FRONT TEETH IN A MULTICULTURAL CELABRATION,**********!!!!

  4. #4 habs4ever says:
    June 30, 2007 at 3:23 pm

    xhabsfan the internet warrior. Bravo my son. Internet tough guy’s gotta love them. Is Don Cherry a racist? Moron, your the one who thinks the habs need a French star. I think we’ll do just fine without one. hahaha. Go suck wood you loser and grab an English dictionary well your at it.

  5. #5 MadManPaddy says:
    June 30, 2007 at 5:42 pm

    Xhabsfan,habs4ever……are we the only ones left here???? Where did everyone else go?????

    Oh and boys….stop the bickering would you please….I’m starting to feel a tad like a referee here!! We all get it…..Xhabsfan is a tough guy and habs4ever is a racist and I am a pacifist….but we’re all still huge HABS fans till the end!!!(which by the way, might be this year the ways things have went so far)…….LOL!!!

    Here is my prediction men……..Briere up-front and Hannan in the back-end. Those are the 2 that BOB signs. Say Adios to Souray and his league worst plus/minus!!!

    And a footnote signing may be Ouelette from Pittsburgh!!

    Talk to ya boys tomato!!!

  6. #6 Avatar37 says:
    June 30, 2007 at 6:14 pm

    I’m gone for 2 weeks for back surgery and I see … nothing changes. I keep praying the Habs won’t sign Briere but it looks fairly certain that they will. He’ll get nearly double the money Samsonov did and won’t put up double the points. I wonder if fans we’ll get on his case as much as they did Samsonov. Personally, I wish they were alot more interested in Smyth. There’s a reason he’s got 10 teams wanting to sign him. He might actually be worth the $6 or $7 million a year he’ll wind up getting paid. Personally, I’d love to see them sign Smyth even if it means Kovalev gets traded to make the room. We all knew Souray wasn’t coming back so it’s going to be no great surprise when he goes out west. This team needs more toughness, the Senator’s figured that out, Anaheim figured that out, my only complaint about Gainey is that he seems to be a pacifist and *hasn’t* figured that out. Otherwise, he’s a brilliant GM. Glad they drafted that defenseman first, we’ll see if he turns out to be as good as Hainsey or Komisarek. Go Habs!

  7. #7 Xhabfan says:
    June 30, 2007 at 7:48 pm

    Avatar37,good luck with your surgery and don’t worry about it man,things have gotten real good in the surgery dept,you’ll be good a s new.Happy Canada day to you all.We live in the greatest country in the world,don’t believe me,watch the news tonight!!!

  8. #8 Borg9 says:
    June 30, 2007 at 8:49 pm

    I can’t see paying Souray 5.5 mil a year – let’s face it, he put up the numbers in the last year of his contract and has had a long history of injuries. He’s going to get good money after one great season, good for him. We should’ve traded him at the deadline.

    I like the guy and love the toughness he brings, but remember we’ve got a gamer in Komisarek who needs to up his minutes too. The Habs can make the playoffs without Souray if they add a good center tomorrow. We are okay on D right now, what we need is offence.

    Although it was a HUGE mistake not dealing his *** at the deadline.

    Anybody hear rumours of Michael Nylander (NYR) as a UFA possibility? I read this on the Gazette site as a good fit for Montreal. If the idea is also to get Kovalev going to up his trade value, this might be a good move – as long as we don’t overspend for a 34 yr old center. He had 83 points last year, which is pretty good. Don’t know a lot about him though, he’s not flashy but a good passer according to stuff I’ve read.

    I want to see Kovalev gone, but the only way we can get rid of him is to get some value back. We can’t just buy guys out like the Islanders do, that is insanity. Thought this would be impossible until Chicago lost their minds and thought they could be the team to get Samsonov going. Good luck with that.

    Did anyone else forget the Blackhawks were still in the NHL, or was that just me?

    Rotowire is saying the Rangers are going to make a press for Briere or Drury or Gomez, and if they can’t land any of those three, they’ll try to re-sign Nylander.

    I don’t know about Nylander – but I do know that I’ll be shaking my head in disgust if Count Chokula (Yashin) is putting on a Habs jersey next week. Somebody please, please make that frightening image disappear from my head.

  9. #9 Avatar37 says:
    June 30, 2007 at 9:27 pm

    Thank you, Xhabfan, although I had to come to the US to get the surgery done… our canadian health care system didn’t want to even send me for an MRI, I had to pay to have it done myself… turned out I had a herniated L4/L5 and a bulging L5/S1 … So I had the surgery done in Chicago and am expecting a $30k bill for it… Thank you Liberals for killing our healthcare system.

    I also heard a rumour that Yashin was interested in playing in Montreal… that would be a disaster. Yashin and Kovalev on the same line… I have nightmares already. Smyth, Drury, Gomez would all be good targets for free agents, so why do I have a bad feeling we’ll wind up with Briere and Yashin… *sigh*

  10. #10 Jack Tornton says:
    June 30, 2007 at 10:16 pm

    You guys are forgetting about PK SUBBAN.

    This guy wants to play here. He wants to crack thelineup. He stated it. He will be the next Habs’ captain.

    I want this kid to join the organization next year. He will be extremely physical and born leader. He will bring passion for hockey in the locker room. Trust me. You guys should’ve seen him at the second day of the draft picks. He is seriously passioned by the Canadiens’ organization .

    I want this kid in our lineup next year.

    HAPPY CANADA DAY

  11. #11 Xhabsfan says:
    July 1, 2007 at 2:01 am

    If we get Briere”ANOTHER SMALL GUY “we are going to need some of these guys Bob. Zack Parise,James Wisniewski,Jim Vandermeer,josh Gratton,Brad WINCHESTER , Cris Simon AND OR gREG dE VRIES.

  12. #12 Avatar37 says:
    July 1, 2007 at 10:05 am

    I’ve always liked Simon, personally, I was upset last year when Brashear offered to join the Habs for the price of a contract and was turned down by Gainey… While at least Lapierre and Latendresse and Begin are physical players, I always thought we needed an enforcer… We need someone to stick up for our “smaller, skilled” players…

  13. #13 MadManPaddy says:
    July 1, 2007 at 10:41 am

    Avatar37/Xhabsfan…….Brashear?…are you kidding me??? After what that guy did in the LNAH during the lockout?? Brashear is a f-u-c-k-i-n-g animal. He is not a hockey player. There is absolutely no room for that guy anywhere near the NHL!!

    Boys…the days of the enforcer are done…PERIOD!!! It is all about skill now!

    You can be big and tough but you had better damn well have some skill or you won’t make it in the NHL.

    Chris Simon???? Is there anybody older that you could suggest??? Come on boys!!
    Get real!!!

    With guys like Garth Murray, Steve begin and Bouillon(he’s small but he’s tough!) Montreal is fine….lets worry about getting some goal scorers and a solid “D” man.

    I read on all the sports sites that it is a foregone conclusion that Briere will be a HAB!! I like his skill but I too worry about his size. He is rather small but he did put up 95 pts. last year…that’s more that any HAB did!!

    Let’s just hope that BOB and CARBO don’t try to turn him into a defensive specialist like every other “offensive-minded” player thay have brought in.

    Again, I say Briere and Hannan are HABS by end of today and Souray will be feasting on DUCK!

  14. #14 Xhabfan says:
    July 1, 2007 at 10:56 am

    Canada,140 years old today
    Inventor of the greatest team sport ever ,”BROOM BALL!”LOL…….HOCKEY .And on this great day for Canadians lets hope its also a great day for Canadiens eh!Come out of your shell Bob Gainey and show us some of your magic some fans profese you have. GETHERDONE .

  15. #15 Avatar37 says:
    July 1, 2007 at 1:36 pm

    Brashear is the top enforcer in the league, followed by Laraque. No, he’s not going to score 20 goals, but that’s not his job. His job is to make sure that people aren’t crosschecking and slashing and trying to fight Koivu or Ryder or Higgins or Kovalev or any of the other non-fighters on the team. The day of the fighter is done? Tell that to Neil or McGratton on the Senators. Seems to me that Anaheim had some tough characters on their team as well, including Pronger.

    Don’t think the Habs need an enforcer? We haven’t had a bonafide enforcer since Ewen (my personal favourite) left. The Sens figured out that they weren’t going anywhere without one, let’s hope the Habs figure that out sooner than later.

  16. #16 Stuart-SB77 says:
    July 3, 2007 at 1:49 pm

    I thick the habs will be okay, but if I see them miss the playoffs again I will become a bum. lol

  17. #17 theswede says:
    July 11, 2007 at 6:57 pm

    the habs have to many freeloaders and are just looking for a paycheck.
    they will be golfing early again next year

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  • Avatar37 : pressure playing in Montreal, since he has problems with the expectations in Washington and Montreal isn't any easier. Then again, the media were very easy on Kovalev, so maybe it's a Russian thing? No idea. Anyway, yeah, it would have to be an established star that gives us an immediate drastic upgrade at forward, that's the only way I'd trade PK, because we'd be giving up a potential QB on our blueline for the next decade.
  • Avatar37 : Goalie - Sure, the only player I'd say who is untradeable (meaning I wouldn't trade no matter what) is Carey Price. You build a winning team from the net out, and I don't think there's a better goalie for his age in the NHL than Price, so I wouldn't trade him. Otherwise, every player would be open for offers, but for PK Subban, it would take (for me) an already established star, like Carter or Crosby or Ovechkin. As much as I like Ovechkin, I'm not sure he could handle all the media pre
  • goalie : I'm not suggesting at all that we judst dump or get rid of PK. I do however believe that he is a very valued commodity in the NHL adn that the Habs will receive offers for his services. If someone ffers us young, strong, puck handling forwards who can score, I think the Habs have to look at that possible trade.
  • Avatar37 : Agreed. It would be a big mistake to trade PK just to move up 2 spots in the draft. PK, Emelin, and Gorges are the bright future of our defense.
  • Senet1 : I am with you Avatar, Subban stays, it is not often that you get a stud defenceman who can play 25+ minutes. The mistakes he makes are for the most part not that serious and people forget he is only 23 and been in the league 2 years. He has come a long way in those two years. He has offense, defence and he hits. You cannot bet much better than that. Two more years experience and he has a shot at the Norris. If Markov does anything I hope he teaches PK how to work the PP.
  • Avatar37 : «link»
  • Avatar37 : go.
  • Avatar37 : round exit. Heck, even the year they won the cup we almost took them out in round 1. I believe in the corps of this team, I really think we just need a few tweaks. Adding Larry Robinson to run the defense would be a BIG help, keep Cunneyworth as offensive coach, and get a head coach who can get these guys back on the right path. We need to establish an identity again, a team that won't let itself be pushed around like it was under Martin. A few scrappers on this team and we'll be good to
  • Avatar37 : Yeah, the only way I'd trade PK is if we were getting an established star in return, like Carter or Crosby. I don't think we're miles away from competing deep into the playoffs, the NHL has become so competitive because of the salary cap that really there aren't huge differences between the teams. Add into the equation the stupid scoring system (some games worth 2 points, some 3) that the standings don't truly reflect where teams should really be. Look at Boston, cup winners to first rou
  • Senet1 : It would have to be something pretty special before I would trade PK. To me he is the #1 building block of our defence. I would trade any other defenceman we have before I would trade PK.
  • Senet1 : An improvement in our offense and strengthening our defence. Personally, I do not think we are that far off, five players at best could get us there. One thing that has always been true about the playoffs, Defence wins and you need a strong 3rd and 4th line.
  • goalie : I'm more optimistic now about the Habs than I have been for the past three dreadfully long seasons!
  • goalie : 2: I think GM Bergevin will make somewhat of a 'blockbuster't rade either before or on the day of the draft adn I believe PK Subban will be in that package. WE have t rememebr we have to give away some talent to get back other talent. No one wants players like Moen to move up in the draft etc.
  • goalie : Some thoughts:The more I see the playoffs it becomes even more obvious that we're miles away from being able to 'compete' dep into the playoffs
  • Avatar37 : «link»
  • Senet1 : Young Subban might also be an option if the Russian goalie is not available. However, to me I would wait another year and attempt to use my draft 2nd round draft picks to improve out forward situation.
  • Senet1 : Although Rinne contact is another example of long term at the wrong time. He is 29 years old. A case could be made with Price that double his money now with bonuses if we win the cup, I think that is still allowed in contracts?
  • Senet1 : Problem is he is going to want Pekka Rinne money and term. That is closer to 7M. On the other hand, the contract could have step up clauses in it over the 7 years.
  • Avatar37 : With Price, I wouldn't blink twice about offering him a 7 year contract now, especially if he'd be willing to give up dollar value for length. 7 years at $5.5 million a year would be just fine in my book.
  • Avatar37 : I think the goaltending void in our current system would push me to draft Vasilevski with our second pick, if he was available. He's young and has lots of potential, but is at least 5-6 years away from starting to be ready to play on an NHL roster.
  • Senet1 : Long tern contracts are a risk, but if you have a super star not as much. Luongo's contract was long term but signed too late in his career.
  • Avatar37 : Senet - Yes, you were clear in your post, my question was directed at goalie. I'm with you in that I'd be willing to sign him to a 7 year contract. I'd be nervous about anything longer, because every single long term goalie contract I can think of turned out to be a disaster for the team signing it.
  • Senet1 : I think that Budaj is a better goalie than many give him credit for, is he a Price no but with a tight defence he could be a good goalie. Many teams have average goalies but have great defence and still win. Look at Detroit, for years they have had average goaltending, but won cups. Goalies can get on a roll in the playoffs, look at Huet as an example, he was not really a good goalie but played great in the playoffs, next year he was a wash. Defence makes the goalie a winner, just ask Price.
  • Senet1 : Having a young equivalent goalie in the system right now is not important, three years from now it will be, so we have three years to make that kind of move in the draft. I think we have more pressing needs aat the moment.
  • Senet1 : Personally, I do not see this as a negative because of Price's age, you wait to draft a goalie of a Patrick Roy or Brodeur some teams wait a life time. To me we have on so why would we want to not play that out for as long as we can. Bottom line is this, regardless, right now you have a stud goalie, you are either going to pay him the money he deserves for not sign him and lose him. There is no middle of the road here.
  • goalie : Avatar made a great point. We don't have an NHL or up adn coming NHL goalies in our system. Another great move by Gauthier. Price is sitting very pretty.
  • goalie : WEll Price has us by the nads. I guess I'd have to go as far as a 7 year contract due to his play adn his age.
  • Senet1 : Luongo is now 33, he has been a good goaltender for a number of years. I would sign Price for 7 years and at age 31 then we deal with UFA at that time. Hopefully, we could provide him with another 5 years at that time. That is my opinion anyway, I would never risk losing him as a UFA at this point in his career to me that would be a very poor management decision. Even a 10 year contract would put him only at 34 years old. If you are going to sign him to long term now is the time.
  • Senet1 : If you have a young stud you have to gamble a little and give him a contract that is worthy of his abilities and his potential. It can have escalation clauses or reducing clauses like Kovalchuk's contract.
  • Senet1 : Avatar, I thought I was clear Yes I would sign him long term. My previous post said. The problem is if you have a out in the contract after 5 years then the player also has an out after 5 years. So no self respected lawyer would accept a contract that did not have equal escape clauses. So no I would not sign only for 5 years, if Price was 28 years old yes but not a 24. Seven years still only makes him 31 when the contract is over. If you have a young stud you have to gamble a little and give him
  • Avatar37 : Cammalleri trade. Given the fact that we have no NHL starting quality goaltenders in the system currently, aren't we held hostage to having to sign Price?
  • Avatar37 : There are many bad goalie contracts, just look at Huet. However, your post didn't answer my question as to what you'd do with Price. He's an RFA now, but for argument sake, if he were a UFA, what would you do? If he wanted a 7+ year contract, you know some other team would give him one. Would you risk losing him for nothing because you didn't want to sign a contract over 5 years? And if we lose Price, our goalies are Budaj and Robert Mayer, as we sent Karri Ramo to the Flames in the Cam
  • goalie : .. a 5 years contract again based upon the experience he has had AND he likes Bobby Lou!
  • goalie : Ditto for Philly, Ther goaltender 'situations' have both become the number 1 story line for both teams, and in Vancouver one could see the exaspiration on Gillis' adn to some extent Vigneault's faces when continously being bombarded by the loooong term contract that the Canucks are stuct with. (Gillis even said last February or so, thank goodness it looks like more than few other teams will be looking for a starting goaltender for 2012-13. He said he would never again do more than a 5 year c
  • goalie : I've spent the past four winters in BC thus I am very aware of the Canucks situations. I'd first say I give Gillis adn Vigneault 100% credit for being VERY supportive of Roberto L. even when Corey Schenider has vastly out played him. (I too like Bobby Lou but facts are facts).

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