What's Next For Les Canadiens?

Lyle 'Spector's Hockey' Richardson offers his usual informed and unvarnished view today, along with his breakdown of the situation and the possibilities for the future:

A Long Off-Season for Les Canadiens.

Written by Lyle Richardson

Thursday, 23 April 2009 08:52

The once-promising centenary season of the Montreal Canadiens has ground to its disappointing conclusion, with the final nail in the coffin provided by the arch-rival Boston Bruins in a four-game first round sweep. I’ll leave the post-mortems to other pundits and bloggers as there’s sure to be lots of speculation over what happened to Les Canadiens since the All-Star Break which plunged them from one of the top teams in the league into a mediocre one that backed into the playoffs on the basis of an overtime loss. Some theories will be well-thought-out and could prove accurate whilst most will be the product of sensationalism. My focus instead is the upcoming off-season and where the Canadiens go from here. Ownership. Team owner George Gillett seeks a junior partner to buy into his sports business empire. He’d prefer prefer not to sell the Canadiens and their arena but if he cannot find that junior partner his other franchise interests could leave him no choice. If Gillett sells the team he won’t lack for potential buyers, all apparently with ties to the province of Quebec which should satisfy the pure laines in the Montreal media. Management. If Gillett still owns the majority share of the Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey won’t be fired, but a new owner could give Gainey his walking papers. That would be a big mistake in my opinion. Granted this season turned into a nightmare but as I’ve noted in a previous article Gainey inherited a mess six years ago and turned the Canadiens into a promising club stocked with budding young talent. For a season and a half Gainey was getting nothing but praise so it doesn’t make sense to fire him because of a bad half-season. Yes, he’s made mistakes, every GM has, but overall the Canadiens are a better team than the one he inherited. He deserves at least another season to try to improve the club. This season’s disappointing finish doesn’t merit over-reacting. I don’t buy into the theory that Gainey might step down due to frustration over this season or for family matters. Gainey’s no quitter, and surely if he were to retire for family reasons it would’ve been two seasons ago, when the Habs missed the playoffs and he lost a daughter to a tragic accident at sea. The Canadiens head into this summer with just over $23.5 million committed to next season’s payroll, giving them roughly $30 million in cap space to both re-sign key players and bid competitively for top free agent talent. It would make sense, particularly if the sale of the Canadiens doesn’t take effect until June, to keep Gainey on the job given his experience. Coaching. Canadiens president Pierre Boivin has already stated the club would hire a bilingual coach, which in my opinion is putting linguistics above experience to appease their critics, especially in the French media. It significantly narrows the field as to who they can hire. Bob Hartley won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001 but his hard-nosed coaching style didn’t subsequently work as well with the Atlanta Thrashers. Marc Crawford is bilingual, also won a Cup with the Avs as well as coached them in their final season as the Quebec Nordiques. He’s English though which won’t sit well with some of the Habs critics and the true knock on his coaching style is he apparently doesn’t put enough emphasis on defense. Some claim former Senators coach and current Panthers GM Jacques Martin could be a candidate but as Sportsnet analyst Bill Watters recently observed if Martin could coach a winner in Ottawa or the Panthers into the playoffs why would the Habs want to hire him? Other than his bilingual abilities, what’s he done to convince anyone he’ll coach the Canadiens to the promised land? Beyond that there really isn’t much they can hire. Whoever they hire has to be able to do a better job of communicating with the players, or apparently that was the knock against former coach Guy Carbonneau, although that problem didn’t appear to go away when Gainey took over behind the bench. Players. Ten of them – Saku Koivu, Mike Komisarek, Alex Tanguay, Robert Lang, Alex Kovalev, Mathieu Schneider, Tom Kostopoulos, Francis Bouillon, Mathieu Dandenault and Patrice Brisebois – are unrestricted free agents this summer. Five – Christopher Higgins, Tomas Plekanec, Guillaume Latendresse, Kyle Chipchura and Matt D’Agostini – are restricted free agents. As noted earlier the Habs will have nearly $30 million in available cap space to re-sign key players and bid competitively for the top unrestricted free agents. Of the UFAs it’s safe to assume Brisebois, Dandenault and Bouillon probably won’t be back. Schneider might return if he agrees to a significant pay cut as well as reduced ice time, likely the third pairing and the power-play as he’s not capable of big minutes anymore, but if management opts to look elsewhere he too could be gone. Kostopoulos would be an affordable re-signing but there’s been some suggestion he could be replaced by a younger player or another affordable free agent. One has to guess this is likely Kovalev’s final season. As talented as he is his inconsistency hurt the Habs this past season. Lang might be a good re-signing if he accepts a shorter deal for less than the $4 million he made this season. Tanguay posted up good numbers in an injury-shortened season but it remains to be seen if he wants to return and if he’d accept less than the $5.25 million per season he made on his last contract. Komisarek is the Habs best physical defenseman but wasn’t the same after his early season shoulder injury and I wouldn’t be surprised if he needs more work on that shoulder in the off-season. It’s been rumored his agent could seek up to $6 million per season, which could prove too rich for the Canadiens blood, unless they offer up a heavily front-loaded long-term contract to lessen the cap hit of retaining him. If the Habs lose him to free agency it’s a huge hole that’ll have to be addressed via trade or free agency. Then there’s Koivu, who’s been a good leader and given his all to the Habs since 1995, battling back through cancer, eye, knee and shoulder injuries as well as the slings and arrows of some local ingrates over his linguistic and leadership abilities. But Koivu’s approaching his mid-thirties and the toll of carrying the Habs for all these years has worn him down. His chances to win a Stanley Cup are fading now so who could blame him if he gets an offer from a Cup contender to move on? As for the RFAs, Higgins, Plekanec and Latendresse certainly didn’t do enough to merit doubling their salaries, and of course there’s talk one or more could be shopped in the off-season, perhaps to land a certain tall French-Canadien captain in Tampa Bay. D’Agostini showed promise this season and he’ll be an easy re-signing unless he too were to be part of a trade package for that elusive French-Canadien superstar the Habs have lacked for so long. As for unrestricted free agent targets, the best available defenseman in the UFA market could be Jay Bouwmeester but there’s no guarantee he’ll want to come to a hothouse environment like Montreal. The best forwards would be the Sedin Twins if the Canucks are dumb enough to let them walk this summer. Signing them would likely cost between $13-$15 million per season as they’re a package deal but they would probably be the best options to address the Habs offensive needs, particularly for a first line center. In this case, they’d get two-thirds of a first line, provided of course they’d be willing to sign with the Canadiens. Barring free agency the next option is trades. The Canadiens have plenty of young talent to shop and lots of cap space to take on one or two big contracts, but the question is what’s available? Vincent Lecavalier has been oft-rumored on the trade block and destined for Montreal but that’s by no means a certainty. Given his huge contract and recent injury history he could prove to be an expensive gamble. Otherwise there really doesn’t seem to be much available at this time, although 99 percent of the trades which occur are never foreseen in the rumor mill by the so-called insiders. Even if the Canadiens had had a terrific performance this season they’d be facing tough roster choices this summer. The fact their centennial season ended with a whimper could have a substantial impact upon those choices. It’s going to be an interesting summer in Montreal. The only guarantee is the Canadiens will look significantly different next season from the club that staggered to an ignominious finish this year.

First order of business. Clean up the Ownership and Management situation.

Second - Get rid of Kovalev and Lang.

Third - Re-sign Koivu and Komisarek

4th - Decide who else of the FA's you want back then start filling out the roster.

All jokes about how I feel about the Habs aside, I am genuinely curious to see what the team looks like in October... I expect a SEA of new faces to be donning the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge...

Could be VERY interesting to say the least.

On a side note, I say Komisarek is gone to the highest bidder (and after this series, I am not overly impressed with his level of 'class' if you will).

Cronie wrote:All jokes about how I feel about the Habs aside, I am genuinely curious to see what the team looks like in October... I expect a SEA of new faces to be donning the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge...

Could be VERY interesting to say the least.

On a side note, I say Komisarek is gone to the highest bidder (and after this series, I am not overly impressed with his level of 'class' if you will).

I think Komisarek will be wearing Blue and Orange and be the defensive anchor to the JT led Islanders next season.

Their 101st Season.

SeawaySensFan wrote:Their 101st Season.

Such great insight. Did you qoute someone or is that an original SSF thought? j/k LOL :^^^:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:Their 101st Season.

Such great insight. Did you qoute someone or is that an original SSF thought? j/k LOL :^^^:

I have a bag full of that stuff. See ->

RobbyJ wrote:

Cronie wrote:All jokes about how I feel about the Habs aside, I am genuinely curious to see what the team looks like in October... I expect a SEA of new faces to be donning the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge...

Could be VERY interesting to say the least.

On a side note, I say Komisarek is gone to the highest bidder (and after this series, I am not overly impressed with his level of 'class' if you will).

I think Komisarek will be wearing Blue and Orange and be the defensive anchor to the JT led Islanders next season.

Now THAT is a very interesting scenario...

davetherave wrote:

RobbyJ wrote:

Cronie wrote:All jokes about how I feel about the Habs aside, I am genuinely curious to see what the team looks like in October... I expect a SEA of new faces to be donning the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge...

Could be VERY interesting to say the least.

On a side note, I say Komisarek is gone to the highest bidder (and after this series, I am not overly impressed with his level of 'class' if you will).

I think Komisarek will be wearing Blue and Orange and be the defensive anchor to the JT led Islanders next season.

Now THAT is a very interesting scenario...

I think it's a pretty obvious scenario since Komisarek is a Long Island native. I'd let him walk, quite frankly.

Gainey's five-year Habs plan in tatters

"With centennial season ending in a nightmare, where does he stand?"

By RED FISHER, The Gazette April 23, 2009 8:49 AM


It is over. Done. The Canadiens gone in four after last night's embarrassing 4-1 loss to a very good Boston Bruins team. So now, the sniping and the guessing and the second-guessing begin - as they always do.

Everybody knows that Bob Gainey won't be back as the head coach, but does he return as the general manager? Now that the Canadiens' 100th anniversary has ended in a nightmare, where does he stand if there's a new owner in the box?

It's the nature of the beast. Lose and you're gone - a team that went into the season heavily favoured at least to reach the Stanley Cup finals - has lost with barely winning a period in four games.

You can be sure the Canadiens won only one period last night - the first - and folded in the last two.

There was a flutter of hope among most of the 21,273 faithful when Andrei Kostitsyn opened the scoring 39 seconds into the game.

If a team on the brink of elimination can't be motivated by a goal so early into a game, nothing can.

Happily, this one, the game's first shot, lit a fire under the Canadiens, hot and high enough for them to outshoot the Bruins 14-4 in the first 11:40.

A fire hot enough for the Canadiens to leave the period with a 16-7 margin in shots, except in Carey Price's place of business because in hardly no time at all, the Bruins struck for goals from Michael Ryder (the first of his two in the game) and David Krejci with fewer than three minutes remaining in the period.

And this game and the series was over when the Bruins got goals from Phil Kessel and Ryder in less than a minute, starting shortly beyond the midway point of the second period.

How bad were the Canadiens in the last two periods? Trailing by three goals, it was as if they had borrowed the white towels from the spectators and waved them.

What else is there to be said about a team which has 16 shots in the first period of a must-win game, and only four in the second period and seven in the third?

Canadiens owner George N. Gillett Jr. probably said it best when I asked him for his reaction to what he had witnessed on this night.

"Sad," he said.

Sixteen years, including the lockout year, have passed since the Canadiens won it all in 1993. Gainey had joined the organization as an executive vice-president and general manager in 2003. It was a year in which the Canadiens had failed to make the playoffs for the fifth time since they had won their 24th Cup in 1993 - with the promise of a five-year rebuilding plan.

At the time, he had said: "I can't separate myself from my history. I was with some great teams in Montreal in the '70s and the '80s. Those of you with better memories will remember I was with some not so good teams in the '80s. But this is new. The city has changed since I left Montreal. The team has changed. I've changed. We're gonna have to get to know each other again.

"We're going to take the younger players and we're going to improve them and we're going to make them better. We're going to push the players to do the things that need to be done to be a good team. It's about tomorrow," he said. "It's not about the 1970s ... the 1980s or the 1950s!"

Gainey's 'tomorrow' has come and gone. The dream is in tatters.

The younger players he had "hoped to improve ... to make better" haven't improved. They haven't become better. Last year, they took one step forward.

This season: two steps back.

The same can be said about several of the veterans, soon to become part of a substantial package of unrestricted free agents. Common sense dictates at least some of them will be playing elsewhere in 2009-10.

There's no question that injuries to key veteran players late in the season led to this sweep. Robert Lang. Andrei Markov. Alex Tanguay. Mathieu Schneider. You try to win with the players you've got, but there's no reason to believe that even a healthy Canadiens team would come within a rink-length of beating the Bruins.

We're talking about a team which, since winning the Cup in '93, has failed to make the playoffs six times in 15 seasons. A promised five-year rebuilding program now has ballooned into a 15-year rebuilding monster, and all they have to show for it is a team in dire straits.

There was every sign of it during last night's season-ender. I mean ... you're holding a 1-0 lead in the first period ... dominating - and you're scored upon twice on consecutive shots.

How does a team to react to that? How does it overcome that? Dig deeper? Find something, somewhere to turn get back in the game?

Not the Canadiens. Not last night or any night in this sweep.
rfisher@thegazette.canwest.com

I would like Higgins please. Release him from your evil clutches. :fighting:

Red Fisher has funny glasses.

So New owner? New GM? New Coach. New Scouting staff? This will take another "5 year" re-building plan and who knows if it works this time.

504Heater wrote:I would like Higgins please. Release him from your evil clutches. :fighting:

I echo that sentiment :fight:

504Heater wrote:I would like Higgins please. Release him from your evil clutches. :fighting:

Why?

He's had 'promise' ever since he came into the league...hasn't fulfilled it.