What’s the hold up for Canadiens?
“The team needs a GM in place, with the draft and contract decisions coming up fast.”
&&&& around and around and around it goes, and where it stops, no one knows.
abeginning, it was thought that there were four or five serious candidates: Julien Brisebois, Pierre Mcguire, Marc Bergevin, Claude Loiselle and Pat Brisson.
Since then, Brisson has understandably let it be known he will stick with the very lucrative business of representing some of the league’s most high-priced talent. Less pressure, more money.
But new names have been added (and then subtracted) to the list. Like Detroit’s assistant GM Jim Nill, who told a reporter that he spoke twice with the Canadiens, but bowed out for family reasons.
That raised eyebrows, because while Nill is superbly qualified, he’s a unilingual anglo – and Serge Savard, who is conducting the search with club president Geoff Molson, is on record as saying that’s a non-starter.
Then there was Luc Robitaille. The Habs reportedly asked the Los Angeles Kings for permission to speak with Robitaille and, of all people, Ron Hextall. Robitaille said he’s happy where he is.
Hextall, so far as we can determine, hasn’t said anything one way or another, but he’s as hated around here as Mike Milbury.
Then again, Hextall (unlike Milbury) does possess a measurable IQ.
But let’s rule out Hextall. The Canadiens also asked for permission to talk to Blair Mackasey, who would be an excellent choice. That leaves Mackasey, Bergevin, Loiselle, Mcguire and Brisebois.
\Mcguire and Brisebois have both reportedly gone through two interviews with the Canadiens and Bergevin had an interview that lasted a reported three to four hours – so what’s the holdup?
Even Savard admits that, sooner or later, the Canadiens have to make a decision.
He told Yvon Pedneault last week that the club needs a GM in place, with the draft and contract decisions coming up fast.
It may have nothing to do with the deliberations between Savard and Molson, but too many others in this province are asking the wrong question: Can McGuire work with Patrick Roy as coach? Can Brisebois? Can Bergevin? Can Mackasey?
First of all, the GM has to be allowed to hire his coach. No GM in his right mind should accept the job if it comes with Roy attached.
Roy is going to want a whole lot of power from the get-go – and if he has been hired directly by Molson, that is only going to make it worse. Roy is going to be difficult to handle in the best of situations.
At the very least, the new GM has to be allowed to make that choice for himself, whether it’s Roy or anyone else who will be behind the bench.
First the GM. Then the coach. And, if possible, both should be in place before the snow flies. When long-term is terminal: To all players who think a fat, long-term contract is the best thing that can happen to you: Be careful. You might get what you want.
There is a pretty good argument that the long-term deals are bad for everyone except the agents. Bad for the teams and bad for the players.
Roberto Luongo is the best possible example of the pitfalls. After losing his starting job to cory schneider, luongo asked to be traded. Normally, teams would be lining up for a shot at one of the league’s star goaltenders, a goalie who took his team to the brink of a Stanley Cup last season.
But Luongo’s contract is the albatross: the goalie has just concluded the second season of a 12-year, $64-million deal that expires 10 years from now, in 2022, when Luongo will be 43. The team that takes on his contract will be on the hook for $6,714,000 each of the next six seasons, followed by four seasons at a salary scale that decreases to $1 million for each of the last two years.
It’s not the money that’s outrageous by current NHL standards, not for a premier goaltender. But the annual cap hit for Luongo’s deal is $5.33 million, right through the 2021-2022 season.
Even for a team with desperate problems in goal (the Tampa Bay Lightning, for instance, or the Toronto Maple Leafs) or with an obvious slot for him (New Jersey, if Martin Brodeur retires) that’s a huge burden.
And Luongo’s isn’t the worst of the marathon contracts.
The Lightning are weighed down with Vincent Lecavalier’s 11-year, $85-million contract, with an annual salary of $10 million for the next four seasons and a cap hit of $7,727,273 extending through the 2019-2020 season.
Lecavalier, Alexander Ovechkin – these deals don’t seem to work for anyone. Ilya Kovalchuk is playing well enough in New Jersey, but now he and Ovechkin are both stuck in long-term deals with teams playing stifling defensive systems.
Of course, the mother of all back-breakers is the 15-year, $67.5-million contract the New York Islanders handed Rick Dipietro back in 2006. That one doesn’t expire until 2021, and Dipietro isn’t worth a fraction of the money even when he’s healthy – which is never.
If I’m Gary Bettman, it’s the first item on my list when serious negotiations begin with Donald Fehr: Limit the length of the deals to five years, max. Lies, rumours &&&& vicious innuendo: I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that Joel Ward was the target of racist tweets from Boston fans after his overtime goal for Washington knocked the Bruins out of the playoffs. Boston has a long and inglorious history of racism. But to see that sort of ugliness a dozen years into the 21st century makes you sick to your stomach. ….
Chipper Jones is doing his farewell tour. Endy Chavez (Endy Chavez!) is still playing, in left field for the Baltimore Orioles. And Vladimir Guerrero is still looking for a job. It isn’t right. At the very least, Guerrero could produce more than Albert Pujols did in April. …
Not only are the Impact playing very well for an expansion team in MLS, they’re also WAY better than Toronto. And Sinisa Ubiparipovic, who scored against Portland Saturday with teammate Bernardo Corradi, is now an official member of the Fennis Dembo Hall of Name. …
Yes, the Predators lost the opener of their second-round series against Phoenix in OT – but Hal Gill and Francis Bouillon were both a plus-2 in the game, and Andrei Kostitsyn scored for Nashville, showing that at least Pierre Gauthier helped to build some team. Heroes: Martin Brodeur, Max Pacioretty, Kyle Chipchura, Ryan Mcdonagh, Claude Giroux, Mike Smith, Jonathan Quick, Ray Whitney, Francis Bouillon, Hal Gill, Andrei Kostitsyn, Moose Skowron, Milos Raonic, Bernardo Corradi, Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Vladimir Guerrero, Stephen Strasburg &&&& last but not least, Joel Ward. Zeros: Raffi Torres, Roger Clemens, Jeffrey Loria, David Samson, Claude Brochu, John Terry, the Wildrose Party, Ron Artest (AKA Metta World Peace), Billy Hunter, Alan Eagleson, Pierre “One Cookie” Gauthier, Tim Thomas &&&& last but not least, the ugly racists who hit Twitter after the Bruins lost. May every last one of them be exposed.