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Lapierre traded! (For Brett Festerling and a 5th Round 2012 pick)


JCPetit

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By bidding against themselves, I mean in terms of the dollars offered. From what I recall, no one came even close to offering what the rangers offered Gomez, Drury or Redden. Similarly, no one offered similar term or dollars to Hamrlik either. The flames reportdedly wanted Hammer back, but only on a two year $4M deal. In hindsight, for the Flames, it probably would have been good to have Hammer work with Phaneuf for another year.

You hated the Hamrlik signing? He got a bit too much money. Maybe 3/4 mill to high. He has been a rock playing a number one D role for a lot of his time here. I hop e he is resigned at a discount. There is still some skill in them old legs

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Something is wrong in the locker room!

One more "little" player with the Habs...this is gonna look good when we'll be in February and March...

Meh. I like Lapierre but Desharnais clearly deserves a shot with the Canadiens. I think maybe this trade and the O'Byrne trade need to be looked at as a couple.

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You hated the Hamrlik signing? He got a bit too much money. Maybe 3/4 mill to high. He has been a rock playing a number one D role for a lot of his time here. I hop e he is resigned at a discount. There is still some skill in them old legs

Hammer was overpaid, but he filled a glaring need on our team and has been the heart and soul of the blueline. Without him the magical season of 2008 would never have happened, nor would we have gone so deep in 2010. Frankly I find it strange to read fans acting like that was a bad signing. He may not have been worth the dough in some "objective" sense, but in the context of our team, which had had a crying hole on the blueline for years, he was worth most of those pennies. And I'm with you, I'd re-sign him for two seasons at maybe $2.5 mil.

I'll be astounded if Gomer goes anywhere, for all the reasons dlbalr states. In any case, he's playing pretty well now. May as well sit back and enjoy those crazy rushes, we've got another few years of them. :wacko:

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"The Canadiens are now down to 3 Québec-born players in their roster. However, none of those 3 are regulars (Darche, Desharnais and Picard). There is definitely a decline in the number of players originating from La Belle Province making it to the NHL, however it would be outrageous to say that there are none or that they are untouchable. The Montréal Canadiens represent more than hockey in Québec, and it is a shame that the management is unable to find or acquire them. There are 6 NHL teams with 3 or more Québec players on their active roster. Lapierre was the only regular Québec player left in the team. I have never felt the gravity of the situation until Lapierre got shipped West. His departure is a serious blow to the faithful Habs supporters. When are the Nordiques back?"

While a French player in this market is, of course, an important target, this is the NHL, a business where you ice the best players available in order to compete and you don't pander to political whimsy. What other teams have or do not have is immaterial to the team iced by the Habs. If there is a gravity to this situation, I respectfully submit that it's only in the minds of those who believe that language has any place in the current climate of the NHL, not where dollars and cents are the ultimate bottom line; the fact Montreal continues to sell out regularly would seem to indicate that the availability of Francophone assets is decidedly secondary (at best). I further disagree completely that this is a "serious blow to the faithful Habs supporters," not only because they still fill the Bell Centre to bursting, but also because there are more than enough fans who are interested specifically in the hockey and not in the political aspect of this sport. If at one point the Canadiens represented Francophone desires in professional hockey, I submit that time has passed leaving instead a club, based in a Francophone centre, whose incomes supports a Francophone community, but whose needs require players whose political and language bases are unimportant.

As to any potential return of the Nords, there could be nothing better for the Habs. Not only would they regain their best rivals, but they'd lose the fairweather fans who seem to believe that language is of greater necessity than skill in sport. I would suggest, however, that they might find the Nords would have an equal amount of difficulty finding French players who would be regulars, let alone superstars. More power to them if they succeed in landing the Patrice Bergeron's of the league, but those players are generally entrenched and change locales infrequently. In fact, because of the political atmosphere, I would guess they'd do as Briere did and *use* the Nords to negotiate a higher salary in whichever city they'd prefer to play.

Perhaps one day sport can just be sport, and not some political manifestation. Maybe it'll just be enough that the Canadiens represent the beautiful City of Montreal within the remarkable Province of Quebec, that each time there's a home game, more of that unique culture is displayed for hockey fans across the globe to admire. Unfortunately, there are still too many that cling to archaic standards and ideas that don't really mesh with today's business reality.

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I want nothing to do with the Nordiques. Experience shows that such a team can create a drain on Habs's revenues and in fact increase the pressure to position them as 'francophone' for marketing purposes. Also, rivalries of that intensity can work against a team. Beyond the career-ending injury to Pierre Mondu, it was often remarked back in the 80s that the team that won the provincial series in the playoffs had nothing left thereafter. Those kind of wars we can really do without.

As for the 'French' thing, like Colin I'm fairly sick of the whole canard. While the Habs certainly could have done a better job scouting the province, the real issues are that Quebec is producing shockingly few upper-tier hockey players, and those that do exist have often showed NO interest in playing for Montreal (Briere, Lecavalier). Neither fact is the Habs's fault. As occurs all too often, cries of injustice and victimization rise to the heavens in lieu of painful self-reflection. Quebecers aren't the only people to do this, but I must say they're unusually good at it.

I also like how the discourse has subtly shifted from being able to speak French to being Quebec-born. This allows people to just ignore Benoit Pouliot, not to mention Jacques Martin. The players must also be top-line players. That way we can discount Mathieu Darche, David Desharnais and Alexandre Picard. In any case, Lapierre was not a top-line player...And of course the fact that team management is controlled by a francophone doesn't count either.

All of this being said, in pure hockey terms I'm reconsidering my complete indifference to this trade. There can be no denying that when he was on, Lapierre was capable of being a devastatingly effective agitator and 3rd/4th line C. Festerling is unlikely ever to become one of the best 5th defencemen in the league. So we gave back the player with the most potential. I am concerned that we gave up on Laps because of an inconsistency which is in fact the calling card of young players. It would not surprise me to find him, in a couple of seasons, being a heart and soul guy despised around the league not just for his yapping but for his effectiveness.

It could be argued that Laps quit on the Habs, not the other way around, and that's a legitimate rebuttal to what I'm saying. But was it necessary to push things to that point? It's worth asking.

Edited by The Chicoutimi Cucumber
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QUOTE (Habsfan @ Dec 31 2010, 04:38 PM) Something is wrong in the locker room!

One more "little" player with the Habs...this is gonna look good when we'll be in February and March...

Meh. I like Lapierre but Desharnais clearly deserves a shot with the Canadiens. I think maybe this trade and the O'Byrne trade need to be looked at as a couple.

Meh. DESHARNAIS HAS MORE SMARTS IN HIS FINGER THAN LAPIERRE EVER WILL. I liked Lappy but like Desharnais more. We didn't trade Lappy for Desi. We got nothing in return.

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Meh. DESHARNAIS HAS MORE SMARTS IN HIS FINGER THAN LAPIERRE EVER WILL. I liked Lappy but like Desharnais more. We didn't trade Lappy for Desi. We got nothing in return.

In a cap era with roster limits, yes, that's how you look at a trade; heck, that's the basis for half the trades in the NHL today, making room for someone. Not only did this free up the required roster spot for Desharnais, but Festerling is not a slouch like some are making him out to be. The Hamilton coaches want to work on his offensive game with the goal that he'll be more well rounded and ready to compete for a spot next season in Montreal, if not before.

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  • 4 months later...

Lapierre seems to be playing great during the playoff drive. I know he was a disaster in Anaheim, but geez...couldn't we use a big, agitating C who brings his best game for the playoffs? I'm not trying to argue that losing him was a catastrophe (especially as he is slated to become a UFA anyway) but I dunno, in retrospect dumping him seems like odd asset management. Just sayin'.

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Lapierre seems to be playing great during the playoff drive. I know he was a disaster in Anaheim, but geez...couldn't we use a big, agitating C who brings his best game for the playoffs? I'm not trying to argue that losing him was a catastrophe (especially as he is slated to become a UFA anyway) but I dunno, in retrospect dumping him seems like odd asset management. Just sayin'.

He was very good for the Habs in last year's playoffs too before having an awful regular season. Also, he's actually an RFA this summer, not unrestricted yet. His performance in the postseason has at least earned him a qualifying offer, something that probably wasn't going to happen in Montreal and clearly wouldn't have happened with the Ducks.

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He was very good for the Habs in last year's playoffs too before having an awful regular season. Also, he's actually an RFA this summer, not unrestricted yet. His performance in the postseason has at least earned him a qualifying offer, something that probably wasn't going to happen in Montreal and clearly wouldn't have happened with the Ducks.

Well, that's what I mean - he's a proven playoff performer, albeit mostly a regular season headache. I just find it odd that his great playoff was simply thrown overboard in the organization's assessment; we're not talking about Dawes here, we're talking about a guy who, when he is on, is one of the game's best agitators/4th-line C. I know he asked for a trade, but I always wonder about those situations: whether there was honest communication between team and player, whether the coach basically gave up on him, whatever. It does seem to represent the loss of another useful asset for zilch. That he was RFA rather makes it more irksome, given that we would have had him for at least another year on the cheap.

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I don't qualify the return (Mara and MacIntyre in the end) as zilch, Mara added a little depth (which is all that Lapierre was) while MacIntyre single handedly bought Hamilton a lengthy playoff run, aiding in the development of players like Palushaj, White, Nash, and Engqvist amongst plenty of others. That counts as something in my books though it can't obviously be quantified in terms of how much it helped.

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I don't qualify the return (Mara and MacIntyre in the end) as zilch, Mara added a little depth (which is all that Lapierre was) while MacIntyre single handedly bought Hamilton a lengthy playoff run, aiding in the development of players like Palushaj, White, Nash, and Engqvist amongst plenty of others. That counts as something in my books though it can't obviously be quantified in terms of how much it helped.

I agree brian, every time we dump some loser and he has some good games the habs are guilty bad asset management. Well I kinda liked lappy but as you will find I believe that he will play for a lot of teams cause he is going to wear out his welcome. He is a very good agitator and an embarrassment to whatever team he plays for. Something like Avery but not quite as bad. And to be honest not as talented.

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