Habster:
I have never understood why Bob Gainey has a policy in place which limits his ability to sign his core players. Why in the world would you limit your time frame for negotiating with your UFA players to approximately 45-60 days when you could have 365 days to deal with it.
There are very few NHL general managers who follow this negotiation practice. I would guess you could count them on one hand or maybe even one finger!!! Needless to say, it’s not a practice that is widely followed by most NHL teams which speaks volumes about Gainey’s approach.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Bob Gainey (especially his scouting staff) have done a wonderful job of cultivating player development and bringing a new winning attitude to the organization which has been missing for the last two decades. With that being said, it’s time to re-think how the organization deals with player contracts.
In my humble opinion, Gainey should have at the least locked up a solid young player like Mike Komisarek to a long term deal before the season started to avoid any future difficulties.
This belief that signing certain players in the off-season will cause dissension, jealousy and distractions in the lockeroom is an “old” GM’s way of thinking. Besides, it is becoming sadly apparent that the reverse has happened with the Canadiens. With a disproportionate number of UFAs on the roster, there appears to be a “me first” attitude with some of the players wanting to stack their stats, a “me, myself and I” philosophy!!
There are some who, rightfully or wrongfully, believe Guy Carbonneau doesn’t have a system of play in place or that he has “lost” the locker room, but I truly believe Gainey has helped in losing the locker room for his coaching staff with his archaic approach to contract negotiation. There are too many players (Kovalev is the biggest offender) who are tuning out the coaches and their coaching strategies with individual play.
Do I believe it’s the only reason for the Habs’ inconsistent play this season? Not a chance, but I believe it’s an underlying factor which shouldn’t be ignored by team management in the future when looking at their approach to contract negotiations.
The bottom line: you reward the players who leave it all on the ice and play within a team system on a daily basis (ie- Mike Komisarek). That means signing them to long term deals regardless what time of the season it happens to be!!