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!!
Habster,
You make some good points and for the most part, I agree with most of them (especially Gainey waiting until the off-season to sign his UFAs!!)
I believe what ails the Habs is a stronger work ethic throughout their game preparation……higher tempo practices which simulate game action.
Presently, they are wrestling or just plain fooling around at times. This is fine if your team is playing great hockey but unacceptable when your team is playing as poorly as the Canadiens
Thanks for a great Habs site, I really appreciate the work the 3 or 4 (?) of you do on All Habs.
Hey CH,
First off, I want to thank you for the compliment. Rocket, Big Brother and I enjoy keeping Canadiens fans well informed and we greatly appreciate your readership!!
I agree with your comment concerning Carbo allowing the practices to get a little lax, something he will have to clamp down on if he expects a higher level on preparation for games.
I just hope he hasn’t lost the ability to “right the ship” before it gets too out of hand.
Hey Habster! You are you doing? Mind if I jump in and burst your bubble?
I absolutely love Gainey’s way of doing things. It is untrue that he doesn’t have contract talks during the season. He avoids signing most players during the season but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t talk. For instance, he signed Markov shortly after the season ended (two years ago) to a very decent salary considering Markov’s talent and contribution to the team. I’m pretty sure the talks started quite some time before. He also said he talked with Mark Streit but he was asking for something the Habs couldn’t give, garanteed defencemen ice time.
Gainey said multiple times he acts on a case by case basis. And we all know how much he loves to keep things secret. Even if he talk with a player, we won’t know about it. For all we know, he IS talking with Mike Komisarek already.
Also, as far as I remember, there is a rule about contract extension that can only be done during the final year of the contract.
Oh and please can we remember that Carbonneau, while some may not like his coaching style, isn’t a total dumbass. The guy was coached by Jacques Lemaire and Pat Burns and was Michel Therrien and Bob Gainey’s assistant coach. He has a game plan. We may not like it, we may not understand it and it may not work but at the very least you’d think guys like Jarvis and Gainey wouldn’t let him coach a season without a gameplan…
Oh, I forgot to mention Ken Hitchcock. And I will agree on one thing, it is quite possible that contract negotiations could be a problem with the Habs. Gainey MAY have took the bet that players who want a new contract may be more productive. Or maybe he just signed players to contract lenghts that made sense to him at that time. In any case, it could be a problem.
THE player I want resigned is Saku. I really hope to see him retire as a Hab. He deserve recognition for the many years he gave everything he had on a team that had nothing but him (thanks to the Houle era)
Hey Big Brother,
Hope all is well? There is no problem with bursting my bubble as long as you have a good “point(s)” on your needle and not a feather to break it…….LOL!!!!
First off, Gainey only signed Markov on March 28th, 2007, a full 7 weeks after the conclusion of the 2006-07 regular season (April 7th), so I’m pretty certain that Gainey did not engage in any contract negotiations during the season.
As far as Streit is concerned, Gainey only talked to him after the season finished and I’m still glad he didn’t commit a huge contract to Streit.
I’m not sure of your point with either of these players when it pertains to Gainey not talking to his UFAs during the season as both discussions occurred after the season.
I would be shocked if he didn’t re-sign Komisarek, Tanguay and Koivu in the off-season.
BB, where did I say that Carbo was a “dumbass” or didn’t have a “game plan” in this part of my article:
“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”
Maybe your statement was aimed at Rocket and not me…..I’m not sure ;)
In some ways, Gainey has left himself a messy with 10 UFAs to re-sign, but let’s be realistic here, Gainey will only set his sights on the big four: Komisarek, Koivu, Tanguay and Kostopoulos. I wouldn’t hold my breath on the others being signed or offered a contract at season’s end.
I believe Kovalev will be offered a lower contract if his poor season continues, if he is offered a contract at all by Gainey.
One good thing about having so many plumber type of players as UFAs (Begin, Dandenault, Brisebois, Lang, Bouillon), Gainey will have some roster room to allow some of the talented prospects to move up plus sign a couple of UFAs from other teams…..time will tell, BB….time will tell!!!
My bad about Markov, I thought it was done earlier than that.
Your bad about Streit, Gainey confirmed on two different occasions that he talked with him during the season. I know RDS had a video of that during training camp as the media was asking about UFAs and why he refused to negociate during the season. I don`t have the exact quote but it sounded something like “This is not set in stone. We evaluate each situation seperately. For instance, we tried to sign Mark Streit during the course of the season but he wasn’t interested.”
Sorry about the outburst in Carbo’s case. It’s true, your mention wasn’t as bad as some other comments I’ve seen but my point is the same. He has a game plan. It may be a bad one, but there is one.
Lang is gone or take a huge pay cut, Begin, Dandenault and Bouillon are most probably gone. I won’t put Breezer in there because I thought he was gone after last season and came back. I think it’s his last season but for a low price he is a veteran who rarely panick and that can be an advantage in some situations. Besides, I’d rather have him as 7th defencemen than a young player who need ice time to develop.
I can’t believe your big four include Kostopoulos but not Pleky. Regardless of being a top four or not, I agree that this is one player I’d keep. In my opinion he replace Begin as the “never quit” player on the Habs.
Wait, just realized Plek and Higgins are RFA. They can also go to arbitration. I don’t think Higgins will be hard to resign but I’m not as sure about Plek.
I’m glad you corrected yourself on the Pleky thing as Gainey will re-sign him and Higgy as RFAs.
I would be shocked to see Gainey sign Brisebois after this season. I wasn’t totally shocked this season when Gainey re-signed Briser, just disappointed….LOL!!
Gainey has too many good young defensemen coming up next season plus he might want to add/sign a solid #4 d-man via the UFA market…..that’s why he won’t re-sign Briser or Bouillon after the season.
I think TK is a good re-signing if he is willing to make the same type of money.
“Gainey has too many good young defensemen coming up next season plus he might want to add/sign a solid #4 d-man via the UFA market…..that’s why he won’t re-sign Briser or Bouillon after the season.”
That’s exactly what I said… 4 months ago… that’s why I refuse to take position about Breezer’s next season or not. I might jinx the Habs into not getting the D they want and having to re-sign Brisebois…
I mean, I don’t think he’s as bad as Rocket think but I don’t think he should be here instead of… oh I don’t know… let’s say Emelin!
Exactly, well said BB…….I also think Gainey will pursue a defenseman like Francois Beauchemin who is an UFA at season’s end.
Drop O’Byrne to the third pairing with Gorges (where he belongs at his age/development) and you have a solid defensive core of:
Komisarek-Markov
Hamrlik-Beauchemin (or Emelin)
Gorges-O’Byrne
7th: Weber or Carle or Subban or Valentenko???…..etc
Well, there’s game plans and then there’s game plans. I don’t doubt that Carbonneau has some general sketch in his head, but he coaches from the gut.
Does Carbonneau carefully tailor game strategy to each opponent? We can safely say no. Is Carbonneau a master tactican? Definitely not. Are we worried that Carbo is losing sleep due to diligent preparation? Remember the golf games during the playoffs last Spring?
From the undisciplined and unfocused practices to the lack of adjustments (in-game or pre-game)to poor communication with the players, I think we can say that Carbonneau has done a pretty good job on his own losing this team. When morale is low, and a lack of respect is prevalent, then peripheral issues such as UFA status take on greater importance than they should. And as you correctly say Habster, jealousy and dissension can occur.
Contract negotiations probably wouldn’t be a big deal in a harmonious locker room but in the current environment filled with tension, it can be toxic.
Simply put, I guess the UFA situation wouldn’t even be an issue if the team was playing solid hockey.
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