Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Gainey: "Atlanta Wanted 4 Elements"

Bob Gainey's press conference is currently ran live on RDS moments ago, and he stated that Atlanta was looking for 4 elements from Montreal in return for Hossa, 3 of which will be in the lineup tonight vs. the Thrashers.

He also said that the decision was unanimous amongst the group of directors that the deal would in fact hurt the Habs more than it would favor them, therefore the deal fell through.

On Huet: He felt that the quality of young goalies in Price and Halak made the impending UFA Huet expendable at ANY cost, and also stated that the decision was made last night that whatever the highest offer would be for Huet, the deal would be made, stating that even a (5th or 6th round draft pick offer" would have been accepted. He believes that Halak has earned a spot on the team as his save % is tops in the AHL for two years running now, and that the healthy competition between the youngster will benefit each other, and hopes that one day they can develop to their potential in the same way that AK 46 and Tomas Plekanec have this year.

On Ryder: Gainey admits that the year hasn't been easy for Ryder, but he is a good player, drafted and molded by the Habs, and they have confidence in him. He compared him to an 8 cylinder engine currently running on 6 cylinders.

Gainey also went on to state that he is satisfied with the makeup of his 3rd and 4th lines, and of his 5th, 6th and 7th defensemen. They all know their roles, and are more than capable of achieving their goals.

On Pittsburgh's offer for Hossa: When asked if he felt his offer was better than that of Pittsburgh's: "Well, we always feel that our own offers are better than others, of course, but the decision was made by Don Waddell and Atlanta that the better cogs were in place on Pittsburgh's behalf." He also confirmed that he had no priorities in talking with Hossa's agent Rich Winter prior to acquiring him.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would have been happy with a minor deal being made after the huet trade, maybe using that draft pick to get fedorov or something like that. I may be one of the few that is happy the habs didn't get hossa (don't get me wrong the guy is incredible) because the price is way too high at this point. If it was ryder, lapierre, grabovski and a pick it would be worth it but higgins is just too solid to give up for a rental. Even though pittsburgh also got dupuis, who is pretty underated, they still had to give up a lot. As for the goalie duo of halak/price, they're no slouches in net and should be able to do the job (if the habs don't make the playoffs or have an early exit, it probably won't be their fault). Maybe this big trade deadline festival makes everyone want a huge deal to be made but the habs have been doing alright as they are up to now haven't they...

Max Power said...

Agreed that they've been doing fine, but EVERY team has improvements to be made, and this is the time to do them. Our needed improvement is goalscoirng, and a real opportunity to patch it - be it temporarily or permanently - passed us by today. It is to be believed that the offer was in fact for Ryder, Lapierre and Grabovski plus a Def prospect/pick since it was McKenzie who reported it, but of course we'll never know now.

Dupuis, I agree, is under-rated, but his value dropped this season because his stats are horrendous (62 GP, 10G, 5A, -4), and 14:44 Avg Ice time a game for someone who was once deemed a very solid 2nd line winger...but all he may need is a change of scenery, as many do at some point in their careers, and not many changes are better than Pittsburgh.

I'm actually excited to see Halak back where he belongs. I feel badly for him the way he was treated in his time here, and now it's becoming more and more clear that the Habs were fully intent on dealing Huet, and that is why they rode him during that stretch where Halak was recalled and Price was demoted. Halak and Price will offer eachother some beneficial healthy competition, and let's not forget (as i've stated so many times before), Halak is the GUY who put us in that last game scenario vs. the Leafs last season, in which we (carbo) opted to go with Huet in the 6-5 defeat.

Anonymous said...

no offence to gainey but he literally gave huet away for a shaved monkey and a bucket of pucks. i say he got too little i know the guy ain't no ken dryden,martin brodure or andy moog (just to name a few legends) but i think we could have got a solid faceoff man or a decent goal scorer.

Anonymous said...

WOOOOOOOOOOOOWWW... i couldn't believe what I was seeing when I heard Huet for 2nd round pick in 2009... but then I remembered all the talks we had in the beginning of the season of Huet becoming a free agent and that we wanted to make Price our 1st goalie and the talks of Halak wanting out of Montreal if he doesn't play... sooo it started to make sense... Huet will be a UFA next year and we wouldn't want to sign him because of the young prospects... so we would have to give him up for nothing... better off getting 2nd round pick... which might not be so bad... theirs sooo many propects coming up in the next few years... we might get a Malkin... As for Hossa.. it would have been nice getting him here but if you think about it.. the guy has had 2 good seasons.. this year not being 1 of them... and if you look at his record in the playoffs.. not so good... so i'm glad we didn't get him.. it would have messed up the teams chemistry and people would have been really pissed and complained that Gainey's a idiot... Look at how much the Pens had to give up for Hossa... now imagine he doesn't deliver...If you think outside of the box... this is a nice wake up call to the Habs... lots of players were worried of loosing their spot but he gave them a 2nd chance... look at tonights game... HIGGINS gets 4 points... Price is going to be the next Patrick Roy... we might win it this year ;) Oooorrr not..