The Official "I Will Miss" Bob Gainey Thread...hijacked.

[ToanVu]

Seems like you want us to make moves for the sake of making moves. Otherwise you'll get bored.

[Krustchev]

Gotta give him a chance. What other choice do I have?

[CH1]

What change?

Gauthier stays on as head scout. He had a hand in most of Bob's previous moves. Nothing happened today. Heck, Gainey will still be around to tell Gauthier not to make any ballsy moves.

[hablov]

I get the same impression too.

[GrandWazoo]

Exactly, there was no change made today. Except that we're proportionally more staffed with ex-Sens than before.

[Sal_Butera]

I'm starting to believe Gauthier's been the defacto GM all season long, he & JM are best of buddies - so he was instrumental in bring him over. In fact late last season with a game in Philly, RDS caught Gauthier & JM quietly chatting in the pressbox, the announcers were speculating about a possible Bouwmeester trade, when I believe Gauthier was greasing the skids for JM to resign in Florida & come over to the Habs. Today's presser was a fait accompli probably dating back to last summer. Thus, I hypothesize it was all scripted, Gauthier actually pulled off the Gomez deal & Gionta/Cammy signings, Gainey was the figurehead, knowing fullwell he was leaving.

[DonKay]

I agree, its not much of a change but better than nothing

[Cpt. Koivu]

That'd be a bloody brilliant scheme by Gauthier. He gets two shots at rebuilding the team. Rebuild with Bob as the face of the team, if that fails than fix your own mistake by jettisoning the face.

Having looked over the team that was built, I can say with some conviction that the man who theoretically put together such a coup has nothing in common with the man who built this team, if only we were so lucky.

[XPOFAN]

I'm sure there would be...but don't worry your pretty little head. I'm not going anywhere.

[TheLeftCoast]

No, it's not better than nothing. It's change for the sake of change. Reap the whirlwind of shit that you asked for, Donnie! Welcome back to the 90's.

[GGpX]

This "change" sort of reminds me of that summer '08 when Cliff Fletcher was interim GM of the Leafs and said he was going to change the structure of the team around. He proceeded to sign Jeff Finger at crazy money, trade Bryan McCabe AND a pick for a guy who played 40 games for them before [probably] having his career end prematurely to injuries, gave a 5th round pick to New York for some bum that didn't even finish the year with the team, gave up a two good picks to move up in the draft & get an extremely overrated defenseman who has very limited offensive potential, and so on and so forth.

Then at the end of the day he essentially said Voila! I've changed the whole team!. But the thing is, the team was no better off than it was the year before as all the moves were sideways movements. Change just for the sake of change.

I fully expect this team to plunge back in the shithole it was in before Gainey came here because it's become obvious that this team is more interested in making money than having on-ice sucess. BG had a long list of screw ups, and even I, one of his most devoted fans, was starting to think it was time for him to go. But he brought this team back to a respectable level, even if it's been mediocre on the ice.

[TheLeftCoast]

I expect a big trade to go down before the March deadline. Gauthier will want to put "his stamp" on the team and try to ingratiate himself with the fans. It will probably be something that looks good on the surface - probably trading picks and young players for a vet - that will end up crippling us in the long term.

[habs25th]

Say what you will about Bob, but at the very least I don't feel the need to wear a paper bag with my Habs jersey like in the 6-7 years prior to his hiring.

What was our biggest UFA acquisiton prior to Kovalev? Czerkawski?

I think all the way to the 07-08 campaign there were signs of improvement, our youth was coming along nicely, we thought we'd be contenders for years to come. Suddenly last year we hit a brick wall, but can we really blame it on Gainey? On paper we were a better team last season than the year prior, Tanguay and Lang brought a lot of depth up front, and Laraque was the top heavyweight in the game for a team everyone thought lacked toughness. The only major loss being Streit. It didn't turn out as anyone expected, but the pieces to be a contender were there as proven by the 07-08 campaign. The GMs job is to get the right guys, after that the blame goes to the players and coaching, and let's not forget we had some key injuries last year, notably Lang and later on Tanguay and Markov.

[TheLeftCoast]

No, he was a trade. We gave up Asham for the Polish Prince. Asham is still in the league 10 years later and averages about 80 PIMs and 20-25 points per season. Now what possible use could we have for a player like that?

As for your question, I'll venture it was probably Andy Moog in '97.

[habs25th]

Makes sense, I bet even Czerkawski would have laughed and hung up if we called him on july first.

37 years old Andy Moog? I guess it makes my point pretty well.

With Gainey we've had Kovalev, Cammalleri and Gionta as somewhat big to big catches on UFA day. Maybe unspectacular, but much better than with Savard or Houle.

[TheLeftCoast]

There will be those who would argue that Kovalev and Gionta weren't sought after free agents and we over paid for them, but Cammalleri could've signed with a dozen different teams and his play has proven that he was a really good signing.

[habs25th]

Gionta I might agree but Kovalev at 4 millions wasn't a major overpayment if one at all. I remember the Pens were hard on his case, and they even had the Crosby card to play but he still decided to come/stay here.