MONTREAL, QC — On the walls of the media hallway at the Complexe Sportif Bell are large individually framed posters of each Canadiens’ player on the roster. Two of the spots, formerly belonging to Jaroslav Halak and Sergei Kostitsyn, contain a simple Canadiens’ logo now.
Changes are underway as General Manager Pierre Gauthier shapes the Habs to his liking.
But with the first heatwave to hit Montreal in about ten years, perhaps it was time for Gauthier to hit the beach. On Tuesday, he convened the media to announce that the majority of the off-season moves were complete.
Trading Halak and the younger Kostitsyn were the two most discussed off-season transactions, but not the only ones. So how did he do? Get out your scorecards!
It’s fair to say that Gauthier wouldn’t find himself on many short lists of NHL teams searching for a general manager. He has a spotty record as a GM and led the Canadiens pro-scouting department, considered by many to be the weak link in the Habs organization. Gauthier is known for micro-managing and being iron-fisted.
Gauthier is the kind of boss that is nicknamed “The Heavy.” (You knew that there would be a reference to the song title somewhere in the article. I didn’t want to disappoint you.)
In February, when Gauthier was handed the reins of the Canadiens, President Pierre Boivin said, “you do your homework, make sure you turn over every rock, and you go with the best person.”
The only rock turned over was the paperweight on Pierre Boivin’s desk. Under it was Bob Gainey’s coerced letter of resignation with a yellow Post-It attached from Gauthier saying ‘I’ll take the job!’
A few days after his appointment was announced, Gauthier gave up a second round draft choice in 2001 to get Dominic Moore. While Moore was a key player down the stretch and in the playoffs, he turned out to be an expensive rental.
In early March, Gauthier acquired Aaron Palushaj from the St. Louis Blues for Matt D’Agostini. D’Agostini had worn out his welcome in Montreal. Palushaj is a former second round choice who is a solid player who isn’t afraid to retrieve the puck along the boards.
Georges Laraque’s contract was bought out for $500,000 for each of the next two seasons. This was an easy decision for Gauthier as Laraque refused to do the one thing he was brought to Montreal for: to protect his teammates.
On Tuesday, Gauthier announced that the Habs would not be pursuing unrestricted free agents, Moore, Glen Metropolit, Paul Mara, and Marc-Andre Bergeron.
There should be no surprise about Mara and Bergeron. Mara competed with Maxim Lapierre for the worst plus-minus rating on the Canadiens during the regular season. Mara had not played since January 22 when his season ended with a shoulder injury.
Bergeron was intended as a short-term fill-in for the power-play while Andrei Markov was sidelined with injury. His presence was helpful early on but had only two goals in the final four months of the season. In addition to not scoring, Bergeron was a defensive liability with a league-worst minus-12 rating in the playoffs.
Glen Metropolit was respected for his warrior-like mentality. Citing his perseverance, Lyse, a regular All Habs reader wrote, “I’m still not over the fact he was overlooked for the Masterton [trophy nomination].” We certainly agree, but looking forward, there are many younger players in the organization who can fill Metropolit’s role.
Gauthier may regret not trying to sign Moore. He is a smart player who performs well under pressure. Word is that it would have been difficult to sign him under the cap but there were some questionable decisions made where salary dollars could have been saved.
Signing Mathieu Darche was one of those curious moves. While I have considerable respect for Darche’s character and work ethic, his footspeed is painfully slow on a quick team. Towards the end of last season Darche faded showing that he didn’t have talent to be effective when the games became meaningful. He will occupy a roster spot that would be better filled by a younger player like Max Pacioretty, Ben Maxwell, or Ryan White.
While I am fully supportive of Gauthier resigning Benoit Pouliot, it does seem odd that he was given a substantial raise while only tallying two points in the final 12 games of the season. Pouliot was signed for one-year at $1.35 million which is a generous bump above his salary of $800,000 last season.
Just prior to the draft, Gauthier decided to part ways with amateur scouts Pelle Eklund, Dave Mayville, Denis Morel, Antonin Routa, and Nikolai Vakoura and pro scout Gordie Roberts. Gauthier promised a restructuring of the scouting departments.
During the 2010 NHL amateur draft, Gauthier and Trevor Timmins selected Jarred Tinordi after trading up to get the player they wanted. Moving up five places in the draft came at a steep price with the Habs sacrificing their second round draft pick in exchange for Phoenix’s fourth round pick. Will Tinordi be a dominant shutdown defenseman or would the Canadiens have been been off with Tyler Pitlick or Brock Nelson and a player taken with their second round pick.
The Canadiens announced that David Fischer, their first round pick in 2006 would be released. Gauthier said, “We’ve advised his representative that we probably won’t make him an offer and he’ll become an unrestricted free agent on August 15.” The Habs will receive a second round choice in 2011.
Essentially, that means that the rental of Moore cost the Canadiens their prospect Fischer.
Gauthier signed potential unrestricted free agent Tomas Plekanec to a six-year, $30 million contract. It was a rare occasion that the Habs got a home-town discount with Plekanec set to fetch $5.5 to $6 million if hie services were peddled on the free agent market.
It was a crucial signing for Gauthier and the Canadiens. Plekanec was the team’s MVP during the regular season and did an excellent job completely shutting down Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin in the playoffs.
Alex Auld will spell Carey Price in the Habs’ net this season. Auld fits the bill perfectly. He is a true back-up to avoid another season filled with a silly goalie controversy. He signed for one-year at a cap-friendly salary.
Dan Ellis may be the better goaltender but wanted more dollars, and a two-year term. Ellis also had his eyes on a No. 1 position and was drawn by the combination of Guy Boucher and Steve Yzerman.
Now, let’s look at the two moves that were the most controversial to Habs’ fans.
Gauthier sent fan-favorite Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues for forwards Lars Eller and Ian Schultz. The two prospects, particularly Eller, represent excellent trade value for Halak. Eller is a former first-round choice, taken 13th overall by the Blues in 2007. He is a skilled-center with good size and known primarily as a playmaker.
Halak signed a four-year, $15 million deal with St. Louis this week. It only confirmed what had been written many times that agent Alan Walsh’s salary arbitration demands would not have fit under the Canadiens’ cap restrictions.
The Canadiens acquired the rights to Dustin Boyd and Dan Ellis in a deal that sent Sergei Kostitsyn to the Nashville Predators. Boyd and Ellis became unrestricted free agents on July 1. Boyd signed with the Canadiens while Ellis joined Tampa Bay.
Hence Gauthier’s deal amounted to little more than first dibs on a phone call to Boyd for his services. Some bitter fans would say that’s all Kostityn was worth citing an attitude problem. But as I pointed out when guesting on The Team 990’s The Franchise show, Kostitsyn was a thoroughbread who was chained to a post with a short leash and poked with a stick all season.
(If you missed the Team 990 segment be sure to visit The Franchise or listen to it using the player in the Podcast tab.)
It’s not a surprise that Kostitsyn exhibited bad behaviour at the end of the season. He is a talented playmaker who could have fetched a higher price if his trade value hadn’t been destroyed by coach Jacques Martin.
Let’s end the review by including a non-move. Gauthier could have filled the vacant assistant GM position with his buddy Martin. Instead, he waved goodbye to promising coach Guy Boucher who was sought after by a number of teams but joined Steve Yzerman in Tampa Bay. The Canadiens lose a talented coach and retain the man behind the bench who will continue to be a poor match to his players.
So, tally your scores, and submit a grade for GM Gauthier in his first few months at the helm of the Canadiens.
All Habs rating for Gauthier is a solid B-minus. At this point, we haven’t quite made up our minds about him. It’s not so much that we quibble with the moves he made but are worried about the ones he has not.
Gauthier can be credited for making some bold decisions, but some expensive ones, and some questionable ones. Despite the moves, he has failed to upgrade the Canadiens’ two greatest weaknesses: coaching and scoring.
Unfortunately Habs’ fans, we may be in store for another roller-coaster season.
(photo credit: Reuters)
I do believe Pouliot's raise is a CBA thing. It's complicated…
The decision to not sign Moore is tough to understand though, especially considering he's one of those players that always scored on us. However I figured like with his tenure in Toronto, it was a salary thing. (Boyd becomes a cheaper Moore in a sense). Then again, for what he brings it would have probably been more useful to use the money they decided to give Darche to resign him. It's weird. It feels like Darche was given his new deal solely for being a local… Considering the talking heads on RDS were against Moore until they found out he's able to speak French (reminiscent of Kostopoulos who was first ridiculed by various media types) such a "conspiracy" in't much of a stretch in this town. I don't know, that's about the only thing that smells bad for me.
Other than that, I'm kind of impressed with Gauthier. Of course that could change. Of course his reluctance to actually help the team by finding a proper coach is like a lingering smell that I fear will hurt the team (that bollocks statement of "how can you make a change after what the Habs went through" people keep throwing around is moot, just ask the Oilers). Of course I might change my mind sooner rather than later once we hear who he thinks should run Hamilton's bench.
Great breakdown of Gauthier's tenure so far…
I really hate seeing Metro and Moore go. I understand that they do need to give some young guys an opportunity to jump up.
As happy as I am for Darche, because I think he'll always work hard… I would have tried to sign Moore if I was choosing between Metro,Moore and Darche.
They all played well but I think Moore would have been a valuable asset to keep judging from his performances in the playoffs.
I have been pleasantly surprised by Gauthier's wheeling and dealing. He gets a gold star from me for each of his moves.
I will miss Metro and Moore, as they could have both been useful, stable players for the Habs next season. But retaining both would have cost somewhere around 2.3 million. Their replacements will do the job for half that amount, not insignificant with the cap situation as tight as it is.
I would prefer my GM to be bold in going after what he wants instead of pontificating endlessly until all that is left is the scraps.
What's funny to me is that as much as I approve of his moves, I don't know if this will translate to a better team. We'll see, but for now I give Gauthier a solid B grade for his moves. Removing Martin would have boosted him to an 'A'
Aaron who?
Also, when are we going to going to start developing first-round offensive draft picks? Wait, I'm reminded that in 7 drafts, we have MaxPac and underling Leblanc.
I'd peg Gauthier as a C+/B- — average at best. Yes, the team made it to the conference finals for the first time in 17 years, but I still struggle with seeing how any of that had much to do with Gauthier's moves.
Meanwhile, on paper, his moves seem to be pretty reasonable, yet the air of uncertainty about all of the intangibles seems to be 'meh.' During the cleanout of last year, there was a point we all thought, "this is pretty huge news and with a new team, new players, we have a shot at this coming to be a solid unit." I think coaching problems hit this unit harder than have the roster changes. Not much about this screams to me that we're better off — average changes at best.
Thanks for your comments.
It seems that we are all in the same ballpark regarding Gauthier's assessment and grade. Overall his moves were sensible and his grade falls to average because he hasn't addressed key issues.
@Number31 – Let's hope that Darche was not signed to pacify the RDS crowd. A number of players at the development camp this week could easily do a better job than Darche, and there are a few more in Hamilton as well.
@Yves – Letting Moore go may be a mistake unless his salary expectations were completely unreasonable. Eric Belanger is a better faceoff guy and may be another player of interest if the dollars were available.
@kyleroussel – I think that's what bothers me most with Gauthier's moves too. I wonder if Eller, Boyd and a re-engaged Pouliot can make a big difference.
@smalrus – The Habs have a terrible record of developing assets. THN reported that the Has are near the top of the league in number of drafted players presently in the NHL. However, they are in the middle of the pack when it comes to drafted players staying with the organization.
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