And If Hossa Could Be Had?

Transcribed from Bertrand Raymond's column in today's Le Journal De Montreal

Pete Mahovlich is employed as a professional scout with the Atlanta Thrashers and he has taken in the last three Canadiens games, including last Sunday's accompanied by coach and GM Don Waddell.

When bringing up Atlanta, we are talking about Marian Hossa, plain and simple. He is the player most sought after as the trade deadline approaches if the Thrashers cannot manage to get his signature on the dotted line.

As a lark, I asked Mahovlich if he could bring Hossa to see when the Thrashers play here next.

"Why do you ask?", he said.

"Because we'd like to talk to him", I answered.

"So would we!", Mahovlich replied, half seriously.



















Mahovlich plied his trade in a day when contract talks weren't at the heart of every discussion revolving around players. He's not, however, the type of person that envies today's professionals or complain that he was born too soon to profit from it.

Still, he finds today's contract demands a bit exaggerated. Atlanta has offered Hossa a multi year deal at above seven million dollars per season and he didn't flinch. Regardless of the next offer Hossa receives, inside he knows he'll be lured with more come July. The current system favors a player in h is situation.

Hossa wants to win a Stanley Cup. He doesn't see the day when the Thrashers can compete for it. If he's not traded before February 26, he'll choose his destination come summertime.

The Canadiens did everything imaginable to get Daniel Briere, offering him a little more than the 52 million he is being paid by the Flyers.

After proving that the Canadiens can make the big home run pitch, how would Bob Gainey react if Hossa were among the eligible free agents in July.

"At this time we know exactly what we have to spend and what we have to offer in a trade", Gainey says. "We also possess many good elements that are not yet with the team. On top of that, we have an owner who would approve 100% any decision that improves the team."

When the opportunity comes to make such a decision, Gainey insists on the fact that it has to be the right decision for the team, because the consequences, should it not be, are heavy.

"The right choice would make a big difference, but the wrong choice could spell disaster", he puts it.
























Gainey, evidently, is not the sole decision maker in such a process.

In the case of an impact player such as Hossa, who's averaged 40 goals over the last 4 seasons, he'd need the green light from Goerge Gillett and Pierre Boivin because the financial implications would be considerable.

Boivin confirms that the team has the elements that allow the organization such flexibility when considering these kinds of moves. Thanks to a very credible scouting staff, he sees no know reason why the pipeline of young talent heading to Montreal in the coming years would suddenly run dry.

No two ways about it, Boivin affirms, the Canadiens will be in the hunt for such a player.

"We are actually one of the better positioned teams in the league now", he makes a point to say.

"A top rate player is all we are missing. We have the means and the depth for such transactions, and we also have a very attractive team for these players to consider when they look for teams where the future is bright."

And that, is the major element such players look for. These athletes all want to win.

Consequently, when the Canadiens were less hopeful, players looked away.

"We have total confidence in our hockey people", adds the president. "They benefit from the owner's support and mine."
















Boivin understands fully that if the player is not aquired before the deadline, he can always be brought in during the summer months.

"We were among the finalists in the Shanahan and Briere sweepstakes over the last two summers. Sooner than not, we'll score one."

Can we expect Bob gainey to pull off a trade in the next 17 days?

Gainey hesitates some before answering.

"Today, I would say that it is unlikely that it happens. If got nothing brewing that could be called a major transaction. There are so many teams still in the playoff hunt who believe that they can win the Cup that few teams are willing to sacrifice important elements."

Gainey maintains that he's keeping his eyes open for all scenarios.

"Making a major trade isn't the only method to improving a team. Sometimes a minor change can have the same effect."

Would Gainey be hesitant to break up the chemistry of a team that is doing fairly well so far by puling the trigger on a big time deal?

Gainey tiptoes around the question.

"We've been patient to far", he points out. "We have established the direction in which we wanted to proceed. The coaching staff also have their ideas themselves. They know what they need and want and they let me know it. Put it this way, the communication between us is clear."

Now if you read between the lines, you get the sense that Gainey is in line with the thinking of those running the team at ice level as far as what the team requires.

He wouldn't hesitate to make the right deal should the opportunity present itself.

Souray Flashback July 2006

Here's is an interesting article by the Gazette's Dave Stubbs, going back a little over one ago to July 17, 2006. At the time, Souray was heavily rumoured to be on the move, having asked for a trade. As rumours usually go, this one also proved false. It is, however, very curious to look at how things evolved from one year to the next, after Souray enjoyed a career year.

Reading over Souray's quotes, one gets the sense that he has felt at home in Montreal, despite all the challenges his time here has shown him.

Dave Stubbs, Montreal Gazette, July 17, 2006

Hockey season must be near: the rumour mill recycled the idea last week that Canadiens defenceman Sheldon Souray wants to be traded.

"These 'confirmed' reports about me asking for a trade?" Souray said yesterday. "I've never seen (Canadiens general manager) Bob Gainey confirm them, and I've not been called, nor has my agent, to confirm them.

"So I guess they're being confirmed by the people at the water cooler, and that's unfortunate. You have a lot of people who are influenced by what they read in the papers, which is a downside of playing in Montreal.

"Over the years, I think I've proven I can play here. It's not an easy place to play. Look at some of the free agents who have turned down the opportunity this summer to play here, for some of the reasons that everybody knows - the media hiding behind bushes, starting rumours. You're going to wear yourself very thin if you try to defend every single thing being said about you, so it comes with the territory.

"But do I like it here? Absolutely. I like the guys, and in hockey years, I've been here a long time, going into my seventh season (counting the 2004-05 lockout). The organization has had faith in me and believed in me, through my injuries and other issues (the distraction of a highly publicized separation).

"I'm under contract this year, and whatever the Canadiens' plan is for this year and beyond, I guess only Bob and his management team are privy to that."

"I'm just a player. My job is to take care of what's on the ice," said Souray, who is entering the final year of a three-year contract with the Canadiens that will pay him $2.432 million U.S. in 2006-07.

He'll be an unrestricted free agent at season's end, and it's no secret that his 3-year-old daughter, Valentina, living with his estranged wife in Los Angeles, is the centre of his life.

But yesterday at noon, sweating through a charity ball-hockey game outside the Rivieres des Prairies pizzeria he co-owns with New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur and restaurateur Andrea Dell'Orefice, Souray said he has one goal in mind:

"What's important is that I get off to a good start. For some reason, some people maybe have lost some faith in me, with all these rumours I want to be traded. I feel like I have something to prove again this year, the same way I did when I came back from my injury," when he lost the entire 2002-03 season with a career-threatening wrist injury.

"The last thing on my mind is my contract. My focus is having a great start and making sure we have a little more success than we had last year."

Souray struggled out of the gate last season, slowly finding his game in the new rules of the post-lockout NHL, his life complicated by domestic problems in late October. But he would score 12 goals and add a personal-best 27 assists in a career-high 75 regular-season games, then added three goals and two assists in six first-round playoff games against the Stanley Cup-bound Carolina Hurricanes.

He'll begin skating next week after a summer in the gym and expects to pick up the pace in August, power-skating with Canadiens strength and conditioning co-ordinator Scott Livingston, with whom he's been working this offseason.

"When camp opens, I want to be prepared for the season," he said. "We've had one year with the new NHL. It's been an adjustment, and hopefully you step in and you're ready to take your game to a different level."

Souray says he doesn't care if his agent, Paul Theofanous, talks contract with Gainey before September's training camp or during the season.

"That's why you have an agent," he said. "One way or another, the good Lord willing, I don't think I'll be without an NHL job next season. I feel great mentally and physically, and I have a lot of things in my mind that I want to achieve. When you take care of that, the contract takes care of itself.

"It's simply not a worry. Bob, the Gillett family and all the management have been good to me. If I'm in their plans for the future, that's great."

Read on.

Senators Video Lacks Respect Towards Gainey Family

It was an unbelievable lack of respect from the Senators organization. Then again, they've never had much class to begin with!

In the moments during the pregame buildup between the Senators and Habs, a scene on the video screen above the ice sent a rage throughout the Canadiens organization.

In an inconsiderate display of brash idiotic arrogance, heartless timing, and ill will, a cartoon featuring the Senators mascot Spartacat teases a Habs fan in a boat, inviting him to jump in the lake, so to speak. Senators owner Eugene Melnyk steers the ship, while the mascot taunts and pokes at the fan, before finally throwing him overboard.

Have the Senators organization no knowledge of the recent tragedy that involved Bob Gainey's daughter Laura, who perished at sea in December, after being swept off a boat during a storm?

I am sure that there wasn't one Canadiens representative, be it a staff member or a player on the ice or on the bench at that moment, that didn't squirm upon seeing such a tasteless sight.

In the RDS broadcast booth, it was said that they had debated whether to make mention of the incident live on air. Hall Of Fame journalist and color commentator Yvon Pedneault spoke of the Canadiens brass in attendance being simply horrified. He said that what he was about to speak of, is outside the bounds of the game, but needed to be addressed nonetheless.

Pedneault stated that the Canadiens members who witnessed the scene were practically out of their heads with disgust.

Apparently this video clip plays before each game, only the sweater of the particular opponant of the night changes. It plays to pumping up the fans at the puck drop.

Would there not be a single person in the Ottawa brass with enough foresight to clue into this disgrace waiting to happen? Are the Senators really so anal as to not take certain precautions prior to this fiasco happening.
You cannot say that there would not be anyone who didn't make the allusion to the Gainey tragedy when seeing this clip play before Senators games leading up to this moment.

It was a disgusting sight! It was reprehensible and irresponsible. There is absolutely no excuse for it.

Upon gauging the reactions of the Canadiens, Senators president Roy Mlakar immediatly offered his apology to Pierre Boivin, the Canadiens president.

I'd assume he was promptly told to go straight to hell!

Mlakar then phoned owner George Gillett Jr. and his son Foster, to offer an apology.

Renaud Lavoie of the RDS team stated the Ottawa brass would be drafting an official letter of apology to the Canadiens.

They should be told right where to stick it.

The person or people in charge of these pre-game video montages ought to get the axe. I hope he is named. I imagine there is hardly any form of apology that could remove the bitter taste this has left with the Canadiens.

The whole indiscretion is quite simply unforgivable.