It looks like Souray is gonna go out West at the end of this year.

I think we should trade him for another solid D-Man when bouillon is healthy, barring we lead the division.
If we trade him b4 the deadline, it could be detrimental to the team. If we don't trade him, i think we'll lose him.

I would love to see him resign, but right now, his value looks pretty high, we should get something for him in return b4 he just walks away.

<mod edit: maybe I'm abusing my 'powers', but changed topic title from Sourray to Souray>

Hmmm what?

I am shure Gainey already know about what Souray's true intentions and goals are regarding
his soon to be UFA status,.....they have a close and honest rapport from what I know.
Gainey is in the knowned but we arent,......IF our speculations that Souray is planning to reach LA or
the West Coast next year is real.......than it seems Gainey has decide to hold on to him until then.
Trading D for D is unconventional and rarely happens anyhow,.....and why would a team trade for Souray only to lose him to the West Coast next year anyway ? Could one of the WC teams be interested ? Why would they trade for someone that is expected to be knocking at their very door next summer to get a job.
Our D has been kept intact and Gainey has improved our forwards situation
and our goal situation........a substantial improvement as a whole but one which would have been
offset if Gainey had decided to compromised our D integrity over some less important aspects.
Gainey's focus is on getting his team this year to secured itself a playoff berth higher than the one
they managed getting in the past two seasons,....any trades involving Souray at this point would have
been regressive to that goal and most innapropriate,....it seems to me.

Right on PB, Souray has his faults, but any trade at this point will bring back a lesser return.....and we do have enough depth defencemen, what we need is a top-two pairing d-man, and you're not getting that for Souray in the last year of his contract.

Plus all this Souray going to West Coast stuff has all been hearsay and has (to my knowledge) always been denied by Sheldon himself. I would not be surprised if he just re-signs with us, Gainey's been pretty good at keeping around the players he wants on the Habs. The wild card here is obviously his daughter, as a parent you gotta do what you gotta do.

I would maybe give Garth Snow a call just to see if he makes us an offer we can't refuse, since he is Milbury's pupil and all.......but hold onto Souray otherwise.

Souray's situation is still too early to tell.

The season hasn't begun yet and there's still plenty of time until June 30th 2007. You never know what can happen. Maybe he'll want a trade out West, maybe he'll want to play in Montreal, maybe he'll work things out with his [ex?] wife.

Only time will tell on this one.

Souray should just play out the year in Montreal and see how far the team can go. NHL teams now have something of value like the NBA, "The Expiring Contract".

What realistically can Montreal get for him when he supposedly wants to go to LA? A 5th round draft choice? Lets no overrate his value on the open market as any team picking him up would only get him for 2006/2007 season.

I for one am not worried if he plays the year out with the Habs.

In the hypothetical situation where Souray wants out so as to move west, I would hope that the Canadiens get something for him at the trade deadline or something.

He still has a pretty good trade value, I'm sure.

I really would hate to see Souray leave,
I would HATE even more to see him go for nothing,
but the fact remains that Sheldon is a great D-man and if we are to see him go then BG will know if it is worth it to the team to trade him at deadline or to keep him till we win the cup at play-offs end.

IN BOB WE TRUST

I seem to remember reading an article posted on here about a month ago about Sheldon hoping to be part of the Habs long term plans. I hope so too, as he, Markov, and Rivet are as close to top 3 as we can be until we bring in a true #1 Dman.

I'ms ure if Gainey can't sign him to a long term contract by the trade deadline he'll probably try and dump him and not risk losing him for nothing in the offseason

Why would a team that has fought hard to qualified or even worst that is still strugling to get qualified would
even consider letting go of any of their players that brought them there ? This is no time for a GM to
weakened his team....unless he want's to be despised by the fans and the players of the team.
This is a good time to bring players IN not OUT.....Edmonton didn't worry about loosing Spacek or Laraque, they worried about helping the team,....so did CAR with Aaron Ward, BUFF with McKee, Dallas with Arnott or
any of the other qualified or about to be qualified teams.
I dont see why some of you here are mentionning Souray and trade deadline in the same sentence.....unless
you foresee our fate this year to be like the tradeline sellers of last season, like BOS, MIN, PIT and WAS...to
just name a few.

Well, PB, there's a lot of factors. If the Habs don't improve upon last season and stay near the bottom of the top 8, Gainey could decide that even with Souray, the team doesn't have a great shot at winning it all. If Gainey feels Souray isn't going to help them win the Cup, then his decision is pretty simple. If he can find good return that doesn't hurt the club in the present and helps in the future, how can he resist such a deal?

It all comes down to winning. If Bob thinks they have as good a shot at winning games without him, then certainly he'd rather trade him than lose him for nothing. If he thinks Souray helps the team win games and can help bring a Cup, then he stays.

Understand your point Fanpuck33.......yet your scenario of a GM worying about some '' futur ''at this stage of the game is basically without precedent....with good reasons.
Any team that is about to enter the final dance has a legitimate chance to win it all.....we have seen it
before and we have seen it again last year with 8th seeded EDM challenging CAR for the CUP,.......CAR which
itself could have been stopped short on it's track from the get go by 7th seeded MTL as Koivu not been injured.
GMs are no saboteurs,.....all they are conscerned with at this stage is to provide their teams the needed support to go as deep in the playoffs as possible.....any moves not immediatly conscerned with this state of affair becomes irrelevant.
Let's face it,....if another team is ready to sacrifice draft picks in order to
obtain a '' rental '' it, an of itself becomes a testament of the player's actual and significant value.......and those are exactly the last players any GMs would ever want to substract from the roster of their own teams
on the eves of the playoffs.

Gainey has a bigger worry with Koivu's eye, than he does with Souray's contract at this point in time