MONTREAL, QC.– In Habsland, the natives are restless. And that was before waiting all day for Pierre Gauthier to engineer a blockbuster move to right the listing ship. With only a minor trade to address an injury to a key player in Hamilton, merchants would be well-advised to board up their storefronts.
But believe me, it could have been much worse.
Keep in mind, Gauthier was the architect of Pavol Demitra for Christer Olsson, regarded as one of the top ten worst trades in NHL history. So when your pilot has a checkered past sometimes it’s better when the aircraft doesn’t leave the gate.
It’s not as if Gauthier was the only one sitting at home without a date to the dance. The prom, in the form of the NHL trade deadline, was a dud. TSN and Sportsnet were fully geared up to provide the entertainment but the dance floor was empty.
For the most part, we were left with subplots for amusement. Edmonton forward Dustin Penner was one of the big fish of the deadline. The greatest excitement of the day came when a message on Twitter appeared indicating that Penner had being traded to Montreal.
The Twitterverse exploded in activity.
The information was bogus but was given life by the mainstream media including ESPN’s Pierre Lebrun, Michael Russo from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Sam Carchidi from Philly.com. Could they all be wrong? Sadly, yes.
When the dust cleared, Penner had been traded to Los Angeles for a king’s ransom, a 2011 first-round draft pick, a 2012 conditional second-round pick, and bluechip prospect Colton Teubert. Ironically, the fake deal to Montreal was probably in the ballpark of what it would have taken for Gauthier to land him. It included prospect Jarred Tinordi and a first round draft choice.
The Canadiens could simply not afford to give up scarce assets from their system for a player who would not fill a need and who is often criticized for a lack of effort.
Surprisingly, many Habs supporters would have given their seal of approval for such a trade. Ever since the 8-6 loss on February 9, described as the Boston massacre, the media has been fanning the flames of a size-at-all-cost philosophy and fans have blindly followed.
Problem is, that while Penner has size (6’4″, 245 lbs) he does not play a physical game. Penner has 63 hits in 62 games — Andrei Kostitsyn has 112. In the recent game against Edmonton, Yannick Weber (5’11”, 190) effectively manhandled Penner clearing him from the front of the Canadiens net.
In a further comparison to Kostitsyn, Penner has a slight edge in points 39 to 33; and has taken fewer shots 137 to 153. While his former teammate Ales Hemsky is plus-3, Penner is minus-12. Kostitsyn is a much better two-way player with a plus-4 rating.
Despite being third amongst forwards in both goals and points, and leading the team in hits, Kostitsyn is the Canadiens player many wanted shipped out of Montreal at any price. The mainstream folks on the French side started beating the drum for J.P. Dumont of the Nashville Predators. RDS analyst Normand Flynn went so far as to make the ridiculous suggestion of trading Kostitsyn for Dumont.
Habs fans unimpressed with the play of Scott Gomez would be even less thrilled with Dumont who has slightly more than half of the points of the struggling Canadiens center. Dumont is also a month away from his 33rd birthday, barely earning fourth-line duty and is collecting $4 million a season.
In hindsight, perhaps fans will be able to add Penner and Dumont to the list of best moves never made. Recall Marian Hossa, Alexander Frolov, Vincent Lecavalier…
And let’s be fair. It’s not as if Gauthier sat on his hands. James Wisniewski, Paul Mara, and Brent Sopel were added to bolster a beat-up defensive corps. The moves were required with season-ending injuries to Andrei Markov and Josh Gorges.
But Gauthier was also master of his own fate making a poor choice in signing Alexandre Picard and a dreadful trade sending Ryan O’Byrne to Colorado for a marginal prospect. O’Byrne physicality and shot-blocking ability have been sorely missed and have forced Gauthier to pursue more expensive band-aid solutions.
It appears that the Canadiens will also be without the services of Jaroslav Spacek. The Habs defenseman has missed the past six games with what multiple media agencies are reporting is a season-ending injury. Official news should come on Tuesday.
The Canadiens organization has carefully protected the Spacek news to avoid appearing too desperate to potential suitors. Spacek hasn’t played since February 12 yet his MRI was scheduled for trade deadline day. That might be speeding health care service for you and I, but it’s an eternity for those in professional sports.
Spacek’s evaluation being scheduled today was not a coincidence.
If Spacek’s season is truly over, one wonders why Gauthier wouldn’t have been willing to spend available long-term injury relief funds to address current needs? In his press conference, the Canadiens GM waxed poetically today about preparing for a great vacation but being unable to go as a leaky roof drained his wallet. That may be partly accurate but clearly the Habs didn’t want to part with the assets required to make a big splash on trade deadline day.
Over the long term, the Canadiens may be better for it.
Perhaps the spotlight should shift from the impact of individual player additions as there is a significant amount of talent on the roster that is presently being suffocated. The Habs are in desperate need of a coach who has the ability to motivate and get the best out of the players who are already part of the team. They would benefit from a bench boss who could install an puck pressure system that is better suited to the current complement of players and the post-lockout NHL.
It’s also important to remember that the trade deadline is not the best mechanism for making significant improvements to an NHL team. For that we can look forward to the amateur draft and free agency.
(photo by Getty)
Great article, Rick. While I am not a huge Gauthier fan, I find it hard to blame him for the inability to offload underperformers and acquire major talent. As in all trades, it takes two willing dance partners, and he just doesn’t have a Loy to bring to the table , especially with the salaries associated to some of those players.
The only really interesting player on the table was Penner, and I agree that te cost to acquire him would have been far too high.
With the sandbagging he had to do at the blue line, there just isn’t much else to be done.
This might mean a short playoff run this year, but I’m in it for the long haul, so I don’t want to see top prospects and top picks vanish for rental players.
Good work as always!
It’s easy to hate on Gauthier for not doing anything of substance yesterday. He’s not a likeable guy and so people have their knives out looking for blood.
Fans need to take a step back and realize that as dull as he is, Gauthier is acting with prudence right now.
Keeping up with the Bruins and Flyers’ moves is not a smart play at this time. Whether it was Konopka or Neil, neither one of those players would have answered the Canadiens woes.
In a year from now if the team is relatively healthy and sitting pretty in the standings, I’ll be pushing for Gauthier to be bold and make a big move or two. But I won’t advocate any sacrificial moves that would merely help the Habs limp in to the playoffs. When Gauthier makes a bold move, I hope it’s for the last piece(s) of the puzzle that sends the signal that the Habs are “in it to win it”.
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