Do you get the feeling that perhaps Montreal General Manager Bob Gainey traded away his team’s best chance at winning the Stanley Cup for a measly 2nd round draft pick? That is what probably happened when he decided to trade away ex-Canadiens goalie Cristobal Huet to Washington for a 2nd round pick.
One can only ask why? Was the acquisition of a 2nd rounder that important? Did he have that much confidence in a 20 year old kid to get the job done in 4 rounds of pressure packed hockey? Gainey is supposed to have a keen mind for the game, but this move looks amateurish and makes no sense.
Besides, what if Carey Price got hurt, then what? Was he really going to count on
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I have been ranting about this a bit already and a few other bloggers have been questioning the move as well. Now that the Flyers have taken a 3-1 lead in the series and starting goalie Carey Price has been benched in favor of back-up Halak, more and more people will be wondering why the Montreal GM chose to make his number one seeded team weaker at the trade deadline, when most other playoff bound teams were making trades to strengthen their clubs.
Oh well, if worse comes to worse and he gets fired, the Maple Leafs will be happy to take him.
Speaking of General Managers and the Leafs, one of the things that Peter Karmanos mentioned in yesterday’s article was that no one from Toronto had even asked for permission to talk with Jim Rutherford yet. Perhaps much of the Toronto media’s speculation about JR being near the top of a short hiring list was a bit premature?
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3 months ago
hi! good read,
I think the thing is that Gainey did not have any insurance into Huet's contract. he is looking at two things behing this trade: PRice's performance (then I completely agree with u that if the kid gets hurt, it will get worse that it already is), but also the future and the off season.
it was came down to Huet being an UFA this summer, if he signs: it will be 3 million for a second goalie, if he does not, they will get nothing back.
I think they got haunted by what happened with Souray: he was visibly the best on the special units, everyone kept believing he was to sign again, and then gainey lost one key player for nothing to the Oilers.
great article! :)
3 months ago
Good read.
Trading Huet for a 2nd rounder was a mistake. Could have gotten more, but they were also in the Marian Hossa sweepstakes that day. But Gainey was fully confident Price could do it and Halak was the best goalie in the AHL for the least two years, so he could be a solid back-up.
Huet has never been to the second round. He's not a goalie who can carry a team on his back. He may have helped Washington get into the post-season, but look at who he had in front of him: Ovechkin, Semin, Green, Fedorov, et al. In Price's first post-season, he has already faced the highs and lows of a seven game series and has made it to the second round. More than Huet can say about his post-season career.
But good read...I'm sure lots of Habs fans are wondering: what if Huet were still here?
3 months ago
Love your article. Huet is an unrestricted free agent this summer. A few questions comes to mind. If the Habs do get eliminated on saturday will they try to resign Huet? If they do,how much is it going to cost? Do they bring him back as the number one or a back up goalie? And most importantly does Huet want to come back to Montreal?
3 months ago
Ive followed a lot of Gainey's career as a GM and i have to admit ive never seen a decision he made come back to bite him. If one did though, this could be it. Great Article.
3 months ago
I admit that it's easy to be critical in retrospect. Gainey has 2 very good, and possibly great future goalies in Halak and Price. I'm sure there was and is no intent to re-sign Huet, so he probably figured that he would get whatever he could get for him at the time. But I don't think that there is any denying that the team was weaker once he was traded. Would Huet have been able to make a difference? We'll never know.
Thanks for the comments
3 months ago
Your missing the point. Gainey grabbed what he could before the deadline. Huet was a free agent this summer and he already claimed that he was going to test the waters. Gainey did what was best for the team. At least he got something.
3 months ago
I didn't miss the point. I realize that he would have been a free agent. But the move still made the team weaker at that moment, and for the playoffs. Most teams in the playoff hunt make trades to improve themselves at the deadline for the playoffs. How did acquiring a 2nd rounder help the Habs this year?
Can you give me other examples of how number 1 seeded teams traded away upcoming free agents for draft picks?
Gainey made a move for the future. If people think that Huet wouldn't have helped out at all, then that's fine. I disagree.
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