Gainey Waiting

The Montreal Gazette recently published a story about how the various UFA and RFA contract talks are coming along for Bob Gainey.

The answer is that Gainey is waiting... Should we be surprised? The guy is patient, we have to give him that. He's not going to rush into anything. But how much is too much?

Gainey has yet to buy out Samsonov. But that's not a big deal to me. Instead of spending the money, affecting the available cap space and getting nothing in return, Gainey is instead exploring all trade possibilities. Even if we get some pucks in return, that's better than a buyout. My guess is the trade will be for a conditional draft pick (1st round if Samsonov does well and 2nd if he doesn't).

Markov hasn't been resigned yet, but then again, that's just posturing by his agent. Add to the situation that Markov is busy at the World Championships, and maybe this makes sense too.

Souray had surgery (as stated in an earlier post), so Gainey is waiting on the results. That's a good thing because it may mean that we can sign Souray for less money. It's a bad thing because July 1st is coming pretty fast and apparently no results will be know for a month.

Do you remember how well Andrei Kostitsyn did when he finally got a chance to play for the big club this season? Well, his little brother Sergei is just as good. And he hasn't been signed yet. If he is not signed by July 1st, then he is eligible to go back into the draft. And we lose another potential star.

Stop waiting around and do something! How 'bout using this opportunity to sign Ryder and Higgins?