Bob Gainey and Corruption

Bob Gainey trying his Superman impression, which is anything but super.

We all know that the Montreal Canadians are the most storied franchise in NHL history. Heck, they are probably one of the most storied franchises in all of professional sports. However, over the past several years or so, they have become one of the most unclassy, laughable, and pathetic franchises in the NHL, despite remaining to be one of the most valuable teams in the NHL. The management deserves to be called out, so the NHL-EF will do just that. By the end of this article, one should understand how corrupt this franchise truly is, thanks to one man, Bob Gainey.

Ever since winning the Stanley Cup in 1993, the team has been in a downward spiral. However, because no one wants to read a novel about the Canadians about the last 15 years, we will just focus on the last season or two. Bob Gainey, the current General Manager of the Habs, deserves most of the blame for tarnishing this franchise. We will start with his moves for the goaltender position.

Gainey surprised many people when he chose a young goaltender, by the name of Carey Price, 5^th overall in 2005, a draft best known for the welcoming of Sidney Crosby to the NHL. Gainey’s pick at the time looked foolish, considering he had a Heart and Vezinia Trophy winner on his squad, Jose Theodore, and an up and coming French net minder, named Cristobal Huet. However, as time moved on, Theodore began to show his true colours and become an average goalie at best, which lead the way for Huet to tender the Habs goal. Gainey traded Theodore for nothing to Colorado, and it seemed like Huet would be the number 1 tender and Price would earn some valuable NHL experience as the back-up. However, this was way too simple for Gainey, he just had to show that his pick of Price back in 2005 was better than picking Sidney Crosby and that Price is indeed Patrick Roy and Ken Dryden combined. He quickly shipped an unsuspecting Huet to Washington for nothing, and gave Price the number 1 job at the tender age of 20. Price has been suffering ever since because of this rush move. He has performed well sometimes, but more often than not he shows his age and exhibits poor outings, particularly in the playoffs. Not only did Gainey ship two number one (at the time) goalies away for nothing, but also tremendously slowed the development of their “next” franchise goaltender.

Gainey's self-portrait in his office in the Bell Centre.

So that’s the goaltending situation Gainey gave the Canadians. Let’s move onto the blue line. The Canadians do draft well and are able to find some diamonds in the rough at times. This is true with their blue line. The Canadians developed Sheldon Souray, Mark Streit, and Mike Komisarek into top notch defensemen. However, with Gainey’s philosophy that no player should be paid over $2 million, he lost all three to free agency and got nothing in return and replaced them with guys like Ryan O’byrne, Josh Gorges, and Patrice Brisebois. Not the greatest replacements if you ask me. It is true that the three ex-Canadians are being paid too much for what they bring to the table on their new teams, but all three are one hundred times better than any of the replacements that Gainey “found.” Their power play has never been the same since Souray and Streit left, which is somewhat important for victories in today’s NHL.

Moving on to the most pathetic aspect of the present day Canadians, forwards, Gainey truly shows his colours. First of all, Gainey does not believe in having a true superstar. He insists on having a team loaded with 2^nd and 3^rd liners, who he can pay 1-3 million dollars each. It could be argued that he is reversing this trend this offseason with the acquisitions of Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri, and Brian Gionta, but they are hardly “superstars,” just good players getting paid way too much. The reason for these pick-ups is because Mr. Gainey pretty much let his entire team go for nothing, which is another genius move by the goof. Bring in a bunch of random players that have never played together, that will improve your team. Even with these new and expensive pick-ups, the Canadians still lack a true number 1 centre, and are still averaging about 5’1 up front, which is not really scary for opposing players, such as Zdano Chara.

Gainey responding to a reporter telling him he has something on his chin. (That is your eye Bob)

Let’s see who he let go for nothing (we will stick to the three players that I want to discuss) Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu, and Alex Tanguay. Firstly, he gave up on French Canadian, Tanguay after a season where he was injured for a large majority of the games. Tanguay could have been re-signed for a reasonable 2-3 million dollar contract for a few years, and could have become a bargain, because he has the potential of being a 40-50 goal scorer if he is given a chance in the right situation. Moving on to Alex Kovalev, Gainey let him go for nothing, (a move I back up) despite a rally in Montreal for the guy. You would think you would try to please your fans if they are rallying for a player, right? Lastly, Gainey chose not to approach Saku Koivu about a new contract. Koivu is the longest serving captain in Habs history, is involved actively in the city, especially on the cancer scene, and is a solid 2^nd line centre. It is absurd that Gainey would not let Koivu finish his career in a Habs uniform. It is also sad that Habs fans didn’t rally for this guy, I guess he has to beat cancer a second time to get some respect in Montreal. This shows how ridiculously unclassy and unprofessional this man and organization is. It is also foolish to let all three of these players go for nothing, because now the team really doesn't have a candidate for a new captian, an extremely important role on any hockey team. Tanguay, Kovalev, and Koivu are all great candidates for a team captian, but they are gone for good, not a smart move. Can you honestly see Gomez, Markov, or Lapierre leading this joke of a franchise for years to come?

Gainey observing a hot female, who is actually not that hot, in the crowd, rather than focusing on the game at hand.

So that’s Bob Gainey in a nutshell, oh, wait, he also fired Guy Carbonneau out of the blue, when the team was struggling, and put himself behind the bench and lost even more games than Carbonneau would have lost. When asked how surprised he was when he was fired, on a scale of 1-10, Carbonneau replied with 12. This truly shows how unruly Gainey is. He is probably one of the worst General Managers in NHL history, right behind John “Everyone gets No Trade Clauses!!!” Ferguson. NHLEF OUT!