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Rebuilding


Bacchus

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Also, I think Gillette stopped the bleeding. Molson was doing a serious fire sale at that point (just one more reason I'll never drink Molson again).

Let me raise a glass of anything-except-Molson-product to that boycott. Never again for me too.

In hindsight, the way Molson treated the team is just unbelievable. We're the only show in town for 7 million people and we can't afford to sign Mark Recchi? I really didn't realize how cheap and Harold Ballard-like Molson was being till Gillette came in and put a proper organization into place. Couldn't bring myself to see the truth, I guess.

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Great post alexstream! A few notes of interests: I would have traded Theo too, but their would have been a severe backlash if we traded the second coming of Quebec's very own christ if we had traded him before is disintegration. Also, history would have proved us wrong seeing as he got vertigo and retired within 1 year of his trade. We would have kept Garon I suppose, and never gotten Huet.

Savard tried desperately to acquire Atlanta's first overall pick in 2001 since he knew Kovalchuk would be dynamite. TSN, Sportsnet, RDS and the ilk reported he offered Garon, Andrei Markov and the Canadiens first for the 1st overall pick (Ilya Kovalchuk).

The Thrashers wanted Theodore instead of Garon to close the deal, but Savard couldn't stomach the prospect of making that trade. Meanwhile Kovalchuk flew to Atlanta, met with the team and they were impressed by him. The trade fell apart, but wow would the team have been different in the years following if that trade was made.

Let me raise a glass of anything-except-Molson-product to that boycott. Never again for me too.

In hindsight, the way Molson treated the team is just unbelievable. We're the only show in town for 7 million people and we can't afford to sign Mark Recchi? I really didn't realize how cheap and Harold Ballard-like Molson was being till Gillette came in and put a proper organization into place. Couldn't bring myself to see the truth, I guess.

I still remember Houle on Satellite Hotstove when he was being grilled about the Recchi trade and he kept insisting it wasn't a salary dump, since Zubrus had 18pts at the time (near the deadline) and plenty of players on Montreal had less than 18pts, what a sorry state of affairs.

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One of the problems with the percieved slow rebuilding is that we had two promising drafts that have been less fruitful for the team than expected. Those were the Houle drafts of 1998 and 2000. 1998 is still a resounding success with Markov and Ryder (even with the Chouinard over Gagne fiasco), but losing Ribs and Beauchemin for virtually nothing (Niinimaa) stings. And we didn't get anything from the 2000 draft except for Garth Murray and Kovalev, despite being promised good things from the top 3 picks (Hainsey, Hossa, and Balej).

Our 2001 Draft could be a coup if Perezhogin and Plekanec work out long term as top 9 forwards, and Milroy establishes himself as a NHLer. 2002 looks to be Higgins only. Our draft record from '03 on looks pretty good. We've been breaking in 3 2003 picks this year (Kostitysn, Lapierre, Halak), and have 3 others on our AHL team (Urquhart, O'Byrne, Locke). 2004 has yielded one NHLer (Streit), one player who has gotten a cup of coffee (Grabovski), and two very promising international performers (Chipchura & Emelin). We can't ask much more from our '05 crop to date, especially Latendresse, Price, S Kostitsyn, and D'Agostini. And we at the very least have 2 of the best forwards in the WHL out of the '06 draft (White & Maxwell), plus a good WJC tourney from Valentenko.

The drafting has been ace. The rest of it is open for debate, though. Not everything is about the draft, though, especially in an age of 25-27 year old UFAs.

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The drafting has been ace. The rest of it is open for debate, though. Not everything is about the draft, though, especially in an age of 25-27 year old UFAs.

Very good point, but I believe that Montreal will need to depend on the draft table, and development over UFAs, unless they can convince Quebeckers to come home. The weather, taxes, and hostile media all make Montreal an unatractive destination.

There may be some players who dream of wearing the CH, but the Houle/Heart years has diminished that somewhat. Also, the fact that these players all have big time business men and lawyers giving them advice, makes their choice less based on nostalgia, and more on sound business decisions.

I think that the draft and trading will be our main suite! And it is a good thing we have been doing so well at it recently.

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LMAO

You must follow really close then because Briere as you mentioned so highly, was a "could be a superstar one day" player....So much so that he was waived around the league. :blink:

If you want Tavares you have to trade all the young talent we have as well as all the vereran players to be bad enough to possibly win the draft lottery and have the number one pick.

Sound like fun yet? :wacko:

Dude you got to learn to read before laughing your ass off... the key words in my post were "a" and "any". We need A Brière or A young Tavares or ANY player able to put up 100 pts in a season.

I never meant we need Brière or Tavares (in fact, we'd need them...) but we need superstars up in here. That was my point. I know Brière was a "could be a superstar" player, but he's not anymore. I hope our players will be kind of Brière in the future.

Then it would be fun, cuz i ain't got no fun watching a team build of "could be superstar" player and enjoy all the other teams 100 pts scorers.

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Dude you got to learn to read before laughing your ass off... the key words in my post were "a" and "any". We need A Brière or A young Tavares or ANY player able to put up 100 pts in a season.

I never meant we need Brière or Tavares (in fact, we'd need them...) but we need superstars up in here. That was my point. I know Brière was a "could be a superstar" player, but he's not anymore. I hope our players will be kind of Brière in the future.

Then it would be fun, cuz i ain't got no fun watching a team build of "could be superstar" player and enjoy all the other teams 100 pts scorers.

Good point. We all have our opinions. And this thread isn't about dissing other people's opinions. So please state your opinion respectfully.

This thread is an appreciation thread for the rebuilding process ... positive karma only please ... or we might upset the re-building Gods, and he will force the return of Mr. Houle and Corey! :puke:

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Let me raise a glass of anything-except-Molson-product to that boycott. Never again for me too.

In hindsight, the way Molson treated the team is just unbelievable. We're the only show in town for 7 million people and we can't afford to sign Mark Recchi? I really didn't realize how cheap and Harold Ballard-like Molson was being till Gillette came in and put a proper organization into place. Couldn't bring myself to see the truth, I guess.

Super thread. Ya, those Molson years turned me into a Brahma drinker. Any hockey talent in Brazil, if so, Alexstream otta be able to find it...

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Dude you got to learn to read before laughing your ass off... the key words in my post were "a" and "any". We need A Brière or A young Tavares or ANY player able to put up 100 pts in a season.

I never meant we need Brière or Tavares (in fact, we'd need them...) but we need superstars up in here. That was my point. I know Brière was a "could be a superstar" player, but he's not anymore. I hope our players will be kind of Brière in the future.

Then it would be fun, cuz i ain't got no fun watching a team build of "could be superstar" player and enjoy all the other teams 100 pts scorers.

I said "a" too :unsure:

Good point. We all have our opinions. And this thread isn't about dissing other people's opinions. So please state your opinion respectfully.

This thread is an appreciation thread for the rebuilding process ... positive karma only please ... or we might upset the re-building Gods, and he will force the return of Mr. Houle and Corey! :puke:

This has all been said before....long before

http://www.habsworld.net/article.php?id=682

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