Hi folks,

What's your take on this? All rumors seem to point to Gainey stepping down or forced to.

Wait ... or even contract renewal



edited : title

this cant be good......

Damn...I mean if this is a firing, I cannot say it's not warrented. Although, a firing in the middle of the season I guess shows they have no confidence in Gainey for the trade deadline + resigning FA's.

Maybe Bob is retiring. Or maybe Boivin. Who the hell knows? Molsons have been owners for only two and a half months, so this definitely seems like a full on change.

Gainey gone? I wasn't expecting it but at the same time I would not be surprised.

5-year plan had officially failed last July 1st. But most of all, Mr. Gainey had a lot to deal with in his personal life in the last years. Combined with the duties of GM with the Habs, that's too much to handle for a common person. But he did managed to get the job done and get through it. I'm sure stepping back and enjoying more life in a relaxed way will do him a great deal of good now. He has done a lot already for the Habs.

what time does it start?

Bobby Mac on Twitter:

Gainey steps down, Gauthier is the new GM.

Pierre Gauthier.. he was currently asst GM. Is this a by-interim move?

We'll find out soon, I guess.

anyone have a history on Gauthier? You have to wonder what this might do to any possible deals that are in the mix right now.

Also Gainey's always been seen as having Price as "his guy" maybe someone like Gauthier will be more willing to deal Price and stick with Halak.

According to Bob MacKenzie, Gainey voluntarily stepped down. Of course, that's what they said about Andre Savard.

he is considered as a great hockey mind, responisble for building the Senators and the Ducks into champion-caliber teams. Has been asst-GM with the Habs for a while now. Would make sense if he is the interim GM with the trade deadline only 3 weeks away.

I think they wouldn't let him trade Halak.

He scouted for the Nordiques in the 80's, was an assistant GM in Anaheim in the early '90s, was GM of Ottawa during their turnaround in the mid '90s, then returned to Anaheim, before joining the Habs in 2003 as a professional scout and later assistant GM.

this is just really bad timing...their more going on then we know...

He's also the guy that recommended the Habs sign Samsonov, trade for Niinimaa, etc. He was head of the pro scouting, which many found lacking. Of course, that also means he probably recommended some of the good finds too, like Cammalleri and Gionta. Most people point out the negatives. I think he did the scouting on Pouliot, too.

But yes, he's the interim GM. Not official one.


It's not the worst timing in the world. Gauthier has two weeks of no hockey coming up to make acquaintances. He knows the team pretty much as well as Gainey did. He'll have his ideas on what should be done.

Wow. One has to think that this is more than Bob finally having enough. Like others have stated, maybe it's because he wanted to trade Halak and keep Price, maybe it's something else that wasn't in line with the owners.

Wonder if Martin will move upstairs and Boucher will be promoted...

Thanks Bob, in a case like this you really wished he never went in to the mgmt side of hockey for the habs, as great as a player Bob was, he has been a terrible GM. I measure teams success by Cups, playoff success, drafting and prospects. None of this criteria has been met, unfortunately.

I like some of the young talent now, but Bob's propensity to overlook Canadian Junior hockey and choose undersized USHL players IMHO has been an epic disaster and has and will set this franchise back.

but as interim gm i cant see them letting him do alot..unless they are like you got 2 weeks to make somthing happen and if so your the gm

Maybe after the season. That's where the speculation will begin for real... to bring back Serge Savard, Carbonneau, Patrick Roy, Scotty Bowman, Jacques Demers...

They should have a reality/game show for the job.

It is quite amazing that the GM steps down and all the messageboards are filled with speculation that it has to do with the goaltenders. It never ends.

If Gainey is being fired/resigning because of ownership meddling (ie. Price/Halak), say goodbye to the Canadiens as a competitive franchise.

Oh wait, does this mean Pierre Maguire can finally be our GM?

I wonder whether he would have resigned had he landed Kovalchuk.

Wow, a shocker to say the least.

Gauthier as GM. Disaster in the making. Hopefully his tenure is exceedingly short.

Shame about Bob, but I think patience was lost - despite the fact that I believe the club had turned things around with his house cleaning.

I suppose this paves the way for Serge Savard to take control.

OHHHH YESSSS!

Yes, I'm happy. Gainey clearly didnt knew how to deal with the new NHL and the cap. His recipe in Dallas didnt work anymore. As I've said many times, only 1 win in the 2nd round of the playoffs in 5 years is a failure.

I'm not high on Gauthier. As saskhab pointed out, Gauthier was responsible of the pro scouting, which didnt bring us much luck. Hopefully if Gauthier becomes GM it means someone else becomes pro scout.

In any case, Gainey wasnt the Molson's man. Gainey is part of the Habs family, but Serge Savard is part of the Molson's close circle. And Serge Savard doesnt like what Gainey has done of the Habs. So there was no fan of Bob at the top of the Habs hierachy.

Gainey gambled alot on Price and it didnt bear fruit. He saw that Halak -- not Price -- was his only playoff ticket. Financial matters made it worse. He painted himself in a corner he saw no way out of. It'll be easier for Gauthier to liquidate assets Gainey bought.

I think the timing is thoughtful, because the team's future is uncertain and a big part may hinder in the coming weeks with the trade deadline and the players they have to make decisions about. Better know than season's end if he is to do it.

I smell Vinny, Price and Pleks moves by the Molson's ( making decisions ) in the coming weeks.

Good luck to Bob!

Well, I'm glad everyone now knows the reasons why Bob is resigning. Might as well not call a press conference now.

Moving on, then...

Gauthier or anyone, first thing is to sign Plekanek before any trade.

Well, if management is stepping on toes making player decisions (seems likely) then Montreal will become a laughing stock. Which is fine, more time for me to enjoy the rest of my life. If Gauthier steps in as permanent GM, then Montreal likely will become a laughing stock. His track record leaves me fairly certain that he's destined to fail - again and again. If Serge becomes GM of the Habs, then there's a ray of hope, though I'm not sure how big. His time was more than a decade ago. He may not have liked what Bob was doing, but from what I understand of what he wants, we're going to have a huge star (read: massive cap hit) and he'll have room for little else.

If he did resign because of meddling toes, then I'm extremely disappointed because the reality is his new edition never got a fair shot. Has the team played even one game fully healthy yet? And yet they're still in a playoff position.

Unless monopoly money is now accepted as a legit currency, it ain't happening unless there's several trades made.

I don't have a good feeling about this.

me to..i hope we dont have more drama with this team..

Yeah...Gainey wasn't the best...but I worry about the devil you don't know vs. the devil you do.

So Gainey doesn't know how to GM in the cap world, but somehow Savard would? That makes no sense whatsoever.

Time to get a guy that's actually actively employed in the NHL in recent years to be the GM.

Or me.

Watch for Dale Tallon's name to surface after the season, a Quebec born GM with lots of recent experience.

When the Leafs were searching for a GM, most Leaf fans would've told you that their #1 choice was Brian Burke. So the question remains, if Gauthier is indeed the Interim GM. Who's at the top of our wishlist?

Line in the sand over Price? Bob refused to move him and management wanted to go with Halak? In essense, management wants to give up on a 22-year old kid? Just spitballing, but if this is even remotely close to the reason, then we're in for a Harold Ballardian era here in Montreal. I can see things like the Spacek signing being part of the reason he may be forced out, but if this boils down to the goalie situation, then Montreal is being run by children.

Of course, it's all speculation.

Hopefully Bob decided to resign because of family issues, or because he wanted out of hockey - lost his passion.

I just have a lot of fear that Harold Ballard has been reincarnated in the Molson kids.

Flight of fancy...but I really wouldn't mind Pierre McGuire as a GM. I know gonna get blasted for this, but what Montreal has missed a lot of lately has been that sandpaper and grit, and McGuire seems big on it, a Montreal guy...can deal with the media.

This is my biggest fear. Good ownership does not stick their nose in personnel decisions.

To be honest, I think this is probably the reason. If anything, I think he just stuck around as long as he did out of a sense of duty to the organization with the Centennial and the ownership change. A lot of people here seem really cynical/suspicious, I see a situation that isn't unlike Bob Clarke in Philly, who said he was just burnt out.

Let's hope you are right and we are all just pessimistic because of the lack of success over the last 15 years.

me to

IMO the Habs should follow the same model as applied to the JM hiring.
The guy (or gal) with the most amount of experience.
Then again that could f*** up on me cuz as far as I know Melrozzz and that other douche are out there too

Big news. Now, and or the first time ever, I believe that Carey Price could be traded.

It all depends on who they hire in the offseason. I expect status quo from Gauthier at the deadline.

In that instance, the same model may yield the same result as Martin has GM experience.

Let the Patrick Roy rumours begin :-)

Do you think Montreal would consider Steve Yzerman.

I am surprised at the timing. We are 4 days away from the Olympic trade freeze followed by 3 days until the NHL trade freeze.

I hope deals are not made in haste.