Habs trade rumours...fun,but baseless

wright · Veteran Member

Habs trade rumours...fun,but baseless

Jay1982 · Guru

I'd also like to point out that Gainey never makes his intentions known, which I like. The only way to find out what Gainey wants is to go after the other teams leakers.
I heard about a rumor from NJ, had Ralfalski going to MTL for a 3rd rounder, and an undisclosed player. It never came to fruitation, however the fact that it was not mentioned anywhere actually gave me some sort of assurance that it was indeed true.

AB Habman · Guru

wright wrote:

Since the off season began, the Habs have allegedly been in serious discussions for the following players:Marleau,Briere,Gagner,Bertuzzi,Lang,Bergeron,Gomez,Malkin, to name but a few allstar caliber players. In each of these trades it seems that all it would take to complete the deal would be a some sort of combination of Riberio,Abeischer,Souray,Ryder. Some times the trade rumour would be a little more creative and someone like Perezhogein and a first round draft pick would be thrown in. Credible sources like "the code", "Eklund" or blog sources like rumoursNHL would be quoted like it was fact. No question it is fun to speculate on potential deals, but lets be honest, if any of these so called deals were legitimate, Gainey would have pulled the trigger. In each of these cases the player the Habs would have acquired would have addresed the teams most pressing need: an allstar center, or a quality goal scoring winger, and all it would cost the Habs is a second teir player on the last year of his contract.

Since Gainey became gm, most of his major moves: the acquisition of Kovalev, the trade of Theodore, the firing of Julien, the ufa signing of Samsanov were all out of the blue. Gainey does not telegraph his moves. The last rumour of the Habs trading Komisarek is probably as accurate as all the former so called deals that were going to happen, they did not, so although it is nice to speculate on a Malkin deal, it's only valid in fantasy land.

I don't think the Samsonov signing was out of the blue. Gainey stated he would go after an UFA and when he failed to sign the guys higher on his list of needs, he went after who was left available. Also, the Julien firing, many here on this board seen it coming. When Gainey failed to improve his team through trade when they were struggling, he had to pull the trigger on his coach...that's what GMs do when they are losing with the risk of not making the playoffs. I agree with you though that the Kovy trade was not expected. Gainey took advantage of the Rangers fire sale...good move on his part. Theo..I said it then and I'll say it again...he was very lucky to unload that big salery!

If he unloads Bonk, that'll be lucky also but he'll have to sweeten the pot. That Bonk and Komi thing may not be too far off but I can't see Isles parting with three young potential NHLers like that.

barry33 · Guru

The fact is that, believe it or not, there IS alot more truth to many of these rumours than you would think. Because Gainey is "tight lipped" does not mean that the people who approach him, or that he approaches., are. Many GM's see it as a benefit to leak out discussions as they feel it will enhance their bargaining stance, especially when dealing with the wild fans and media in Montreal. Just because many of these rumours do not come to fruition does not mean that many do not have some sense of substance. But on the other hand, yes..many ar ejust ridiculous.