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?

Support for Gainey & Carbo

According to a recent poll, 83% of Canadiens fans support Bob Gainey. Further to that, 63% believe that he is one of the 10-best GMs in the NHL. I, for one, have to agree. This is the man that built the Dallas Stars. If there is any knock on him, it that sometimes, he's too patient...

As an example, over the course of the last off-season, Gainey could have signed Shanahan. Shanahan himself said he wanted to be a Hab and that he was "this close" to signing with them. Admittedly, there were other factors that prevented this, but had Gainey acted a bit quicker... Well, who knows?

So while Gainey meticulously scoured the UFA market for talent to help his team, those that were available were being snapped up. So that left Gainey to make some rash decisions. Niinimaa and Samsonov were huge, expensive busts. Maybe that's an argument to remain patient, but there has to be some kind of middle ground.

As for head coach Guy Carbonneau, he also has the support of fans. 90% per cent of those polled want to see him back behind the bench coaching the team for the 2007-08 season. I'm on the fence here. I have yet to be convinced by Carbo. I like him and I think he is a fantastic assistant coach. But as a coach, I just haven't seen it yet.