All Habs Headlines: Friday May 29, 2015 |
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On this day in hockey history… 1973 – Los Angeles Kings obtained defenseman Bob Murdoch and forward Randy Rota in trade from Montreal, in exchange for a future first round draft choice (which the Canadiens used to select Mario Tremblay.) 1992 – Pat Burns resigned as coach of the Montreal Canadiens, and later that same day was named the new head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. 2001 – Patrick Roy became the first goaltender in NHL history to start in 100 straight playoff games for one team. His Colorado Avalanche lost 2-1 against the New Jersey Devils, in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals. |
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► Reway situation clarified
- With many media outlets reporting that there was a fast-approaching deadline for the Canadiens to sign Martin Reway, it appears that there is no urgency at all.
- Peter Kadlecek, one of the agents in the firm that represents Reway told La Presse, “From what I understand of the new collective agreement and the new agreement with the International Federation, is that if Martin had played last season with the Gatineau Olympiques, it would absolutely sign a contract by 1 of June, But since he left to play with Sparta, there is no urgency for the Canadian to make him sign a contract. Under the new agreement, he has two more years.”
- Reway turned down an offer last year in order to play for Sparta and receive a salary to provide for his family.
- Kadlecek told La Presse that Reway intends to honour the final year of his contract with Sparta and will not attend the Canadiens development camp in July.
► New logo for IceCaps
- The St. John’s IceCaps, the Canadiens AHL affiliate, have unveiled a new look logo, adjusting it to look a little more Habs oriented.
- Gone is the double blue colour scheme of the Winnipeg Jets replaced by the familiar blue, red and white.
- As part of a realignment of the American Hockey League, the Canadiens relocated their AHL affiliate to St. John’s while the Jets have brought their farm team to Manitoba.
- The Hamilton Bulldogs name will live on now as an OHL franchise, home to the relocated Belleville Bulls.
- The Belleville Bulls, of course, are the team that drafted and developed all three Subban brothers. The Belleville Bulls leaving is probably the biggest disappointment of this past junior year, they were an organization with so much class and have produced some very good hockey players such as Al Iafrate, Dan Cleary, Darren Mcarthy, Jonathan Cheechoo, Matt Beleskey and P.K. Subban.
- The Bulldogs became affiliated with the Canadiens in 1996 after being the farm team of the Edmonton Oilers the year before. In their first year associated with the Habs, the Bulldogs had just 69 points to narrowly sneak into the playoffs. They still managed to make it all the way to the finals eventually losing to the Washington Capitals farm team, the Hersey Bears.
- The one and only time Bulldogs players got to lift the Calder Cup was the notorious 2006-07 team that was led by Carey Price who had a 2.06 goals against average and a .936 save percentage.
- It is widely speculated that the move to St. John’s is a temporary one until the arena in Laval is ready.
► Beast are Habs new ECHL affiliate
- The Canadiens have a new ECHL affiliate as well. The Canadiens have cut ties with the Wheeling Nailers (shared with the Pittsburgh Penguins) to establish an agreement with the Brampton Beast as their sole ECHL affiliate.
- The Beast were founded in 2013 after the departure of Brampton’s OHL team, the Brampton Battalion, to North Bay. The Battalion program is where, most notably, Avalanche centre Matt Duchene played his junior hockey.
- Before playing their first year in the ECHL the Beast played one year in the Central Hockey League where the team picked up 33 wins in 66 games and lost in the quarter finals to the Allen Americans.
- The Beast played the entire first year of their existence in the ECHL without being associated with any NHL franchise. They are the only Canadian team currently playing in the East Coast Hockey League. They didn’t make the playoffs in their inaugural season.
- Last season, Canadiens prospect Dalton Thrower was assigned to the Beast as part of his return from injury.
► Grégoire is generous
- Canadiens prospect Jeremy Grégoire has won the Guy Lafleur Award of Excellence for the second straight year. This award is handed out to the QMJHL player who has a high level of success on on the ice as well as in the classroom. Grégoire finished this past school year with an 87 per cent average and a CEGEP diploma.
- In an act of generosity Grégoire gave the $5,000 award money to runner up Dominic Talbot-Tassi. The Moncton Wildcats defenceman will use the money to enroll at McGill University.
- Grégoire had 20 goals and 21 assists in an injury riddled 2014-15 campaign that only saw him play 32 games. The captain of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar had an outstanding playoffs getting 21 points, 10 of which were goals, in 12 games. His Drakkar were in eliminated in 7 games by the Val-D’or Foreurs in the Quarter-Finals.
► Stock dropping on Fucale
- Some fans see Habs prospect Zachary Fucale as the best hope for the return of a Quebec-born goaltender to the nets of the Canadiens. However, a more realistic view is that the jury is still out on whether Fucale will even develop into a NHL player.
- Sportsnet columnist Gare Joyce offered a more blunt appraisal writing that the Quebec Remparts have suffered from Fucale’s poor showing at the Memorial Cup, following a rather lackluster season and shaky performance at the World Juniors. Fucale had an .877 save percentage in 17 games with the Remparts this season.
- Joyce adds that this is also a concern to the Canadiens writing “Fact is, though, Montreal GM Marc Bergevin has been shopping Fucale this year dating back to the trade deadline and let’s just say that Fucale’s stock is taking a severe hit.”
- It makes sense that Fucale is dispensable with Carey Price’s relative youth for a goaltender and the Rosmère native’s mediocre play. Between now and the apocalyptic day that Carey Price is no longer stepping on the ice wearing the Bleu, Blanc, Rouge, chances are that another young goaltending prospect will join the organization.
- Joyce speculates that Toronto, Buffalo and Edmonton are teams who could be in the market for a goaltending prospect adding “Either way (Marc) Bergevin is holding on to a rapidly depreciating asset.”
► Coaching carousel
- Two teams have found their coaches for this upcoming season and beyond. Dan Bylsma and Peter DeBoer have signed with Buffalo and San Jose respectively.
- Bylsma, who won a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh after taking over for Michel Therrien in 2009, received a five year contract with the Sabres which will pay him just under three million a year, according to Darren Dreger. Bylsma coached a very talented Penguins team to a 252-117-32 record in his six years in the organization.
- The 2011 Jack Adams award winner’s team failed to get it done in the playoffs in the last couple years of his tenure as head coach. The Penguins will receive a 2016 3rd round pick from the Sabres in exchange for Bylsma’s services.
- Pete DeBoer has reached an agreement to coach a San Jose Sharks team who is, seemingly, a very good team on paper who has never been able to get it done. DeBoer has a career 205-183-70 record as a head coach and took the New Jersey Devils to the Stanley Cup final in 2012 unfortunately for DeBoer, they lost to the Cinderella Los Angeles Kings team.
- According to NHL.com, Sharks GM Doug Wilson had interest in DeBoer last time the Sharks had a coaching vacancy in 2008 but opted to go with current Edmonton Oilers head coach, Todd McLellan. DeBoer moved on to the Florida Panthers before going to become the head coach of the Devils. The Devils are currently the only team in the league without a head coach.
► What to do with Tomas?
- J.D. Larange looks at what the future might hold for Tomas Plekanec, and the Canadiens’ dilemma.
► Making Alex Galchenyuk
- Andrew Giesbrecht goes into deep detail into the Canadiens development of Alex Galchenyuk and his performance when playing with first line talent.
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