Habs Fan in Edmonton

It was a good trade. Captain Kirk was great for the Habs and instrumental in their cup win. I think the change of scenery was good for both players. Richer did score 50 twice, not bad for a 2nd line winger.

Hard to argue with that one, getting Lafleur was quite a coup. Some of the trades mentioned were actually good for both teams. Mahovlich helped the Habs win a couple cups but Redmond scored 50 a couple times for Red Wings, too bad he had a bad back or he would have scored a lot more. Richer had some good years with the Devils and won a cup as did Muller with Montreal.

Plus getting Philip Danault and a 2nd round pick from Chicago for Dale Wiese and Thomas Fleischman was pretty good. The Suzuki trade turned out very well.

Absolutely, I remember screaming at the TV "you effing idiot". You want your players to be disciplined, especially in the playoffs and then you take an absolute bonehead bench penalty. Complete stupidity.

Corey made some bad decisions, no doubt about that. I am glad Hughes is in charge now, not every trade or signing will work out but I am confident every move will be well thought out and not an emotional decision. Therrien - yikes, I just shudder a bit when I see that name. That's what happens when speaking French is a job requirement, your pool of candidates is much smaller and was obviously very small when he was hired.

Those were all bad trades no doubt. There are those trades that perhaps makes sense at the time but turn out terrible. Who thought that Chelios would play another 18 years in the NHL at the time of the trade? Chelios was only 1 year younger than Savard. Who thought at the time of the trade that John Leclair would become the top power forward in the NHL? Those trades turned out terrible but it's easy to say that now in hindsight. My point with the Gomez trade is that it had almost zero chance of working out when you are spending 13% of your market cap on a 30 year old, 60 point center.

Thanks for clarifying as I had no idea what you guys were talking about.

I don't disagree with anything in your post. Fiset/Nolan would have been a better package and Mike Keane was an underrated player. It was a bad time in Habs history.

I am glad you are not saying the gomez trade is good because then we would have a major disagreement. LOL I agree they got less than full value for Roy but given the circumstances and chaos at the time they were likely not going to get full value.

I have never heard that clip, thought Gainey and Sather were good friends so it would be surprising if Sather would make Gainey look bad after. Sather made a huge mistake by signing Gomez to that bloated contract, he must have thought he had died and gone to heaven when he was able to dump it on Gainey AND get McDonagh.

I am not disputing that it was an awful trade. My main point is comparing the two trades which can be difficult and the circumstances that existed at the time of the trades. Whether is was Fiset and Nolan (still a bad trade) or Thibeault/Rucinsky/Kovalenko it appeared that Roy's time in Montreal had come to an end if Savard was also looking at trading him. They didn't get enough for him and likely weren't going to get enough for him. For the life of me, I had just can't wrap my head around why Gainey had to give up anything to take on a contract that had negative value. That is my main point and that's why I think the Gomez trade is so bad.

I don't know anything about a trade Savard had lined up, it's the 1st I have heard of this. I am not saying it wasn't a really bad trade, it was a really bad trade, likely made in desperation but that's not my point. I know we are not talking about any Hall of Fame players involved in the Gomez trade but that trade was absolutely doomed right from the beginning because of the market cap of Gomez and the years remaining on the contract. Why Gainey had to throw anything in is mind boggling. Some trades are easier to analyze in the rear view mirror. For example, who thought John Leclair would become the best power forward of his time. Looking back the Recchi trade was a bad one but at the time of the time it wasn't so clear. Patrick was a great goalie but if he had not won any more cups when he went to Colorado, would you still feel as strongly about the trade?

Nobody here will dispute the great career Patrick Roy had. When he left Montreal he was not in his "happy place" anymore. He probably needed a change of scenery. The Habs team at the time was mediocre, especially their defense. Colorado had Sakic/Forsberg and needed that one final piece. You could certainly argue that Houle could have got more in the trade for Patrick but I don't remember what the market was like at that time. Patrick's market value, given all that was going on was probably not at a peak value.

All true, but the fact he won 2 cups in Colorado and a Conn Smythe makes it more of a great trade trade for Colorado than a bad trade for Montreal. He went into a great situation in Colorado. He was just the final piece they needed, they already had an excellent club outside of goaltending. I doubt very very much he would have won 2 more cups in Montreal with the team they had.

I don't think it was worse. At least Rucinsky scored 20 + goals 4 times for the Habs, Thibeault had a few good years Kovalenko was a bust although he did score 17 his 1st year. For 13% of the salary cap Gomez scored a total of 21 goals in his 3 years with the Habs. And they gave up McDonagh and Higgins for the privilege of taking on Gomez and his contract. Another difference, we would all agree Houle was in over his head as a GM, had a gun put to his head by Roy (we may never know all the details) and perhaps made the best trade he could at the time. Gainey was an experienced GM, there was absolutely no excuse for taking on that albatross of a contract AND giving up McDonagh and Higgins. I don't know what Gainey was thinking. In the world of the salary cap, an absolutely horrendous trade.

Ranked #2 here Ranking every NHL team’s 2024-25 prospect pool, from 1-32 (msn.com)

Mailloux had a solid full season of development in Laval last year while Reinbacher had a revolving door of coaches and some injury issues. But training camp will likely decide it and Reinbacher is a talented guy so nothing will surprise me.

I didn't say he was the best shooter, just that he was on par with anyone. Certainly from the back end he has the best shot. I think his snapshot is phenomenal, certainly on par with Caulfield. I'll admit my memories of Laine are a little hazy, haven't seen him much lately but the consensus seems to be he has a great shot.

Perhaps but we really only have 2 veterans (Matheson and Savard) so the kids are going to play. The question is which kids? Hutson has 2 games of NHL experience, Barron is weak defensively, Reinbacher didn't have a great year of development last year. Spending time in Laval was great for Arber so I am pretty sure he will have a regular shift. I think Mailloux has a real shot this year with Harris and Kovacevic gone.

True, but you could say the same thing about pretty much all the other young Habs defensemen. They all have some warts.

He may be done in Laval, his shooting is elite. I don't think there is anybody on the Habs that shoots it better.

True, they just didn't know if Hage would be available at 21 so they surely had options, B,C,D and E on the table. The clip of their pre draft meeting provided no insight on who else they may have taken, obviously heavily edited.

I tend to agree, it was surprising Eiserman dropped as far as he did but maybe it wasn't surprising to the scouts. There were obviously some red flags regarding his play. It would have interesting to see if Montreal would have taken Hage had Eiserman been available but we will likely never know.

Of all the trades made by Montreal GM's since I have been a fan (a long time) the Gomez trade is the biggest head shaker for me. At the time Gomez's contract was 7.35 Million, salary cap was 56.8 million. His contract was 13% of the Habs market cap. The equivalent today would be about 11 Million (your Hutson, Huberdeau comparison is a good one). Gomez scored 58 points the year before and was turning 30. Gomez's contract should have had negative value but NO Gainey threw in their best defense prospect and a good two way forward in Higgins. That trade was absolute sheer lunacy!!! Sometimes trades turn out badly but you can understand the thinking at the time. At least I could understand the rationale behind the Drouin-Sergachev trade, Drouin scored 21 goals early in his career with Tampa, was still only 21 or 22, drafted 3rd overall and looked like a top 6 forward, Sergachev at the time was a good prospect. The trade turned out badly but at the time I could see the reasoning behind it. The Gomez trade was horrible right from the start, 13% of your market cap for a 60 point, 30 year old centre!! In my opinion the worst trade by a Montreal GM I can remember. Just an awful trade!!

Fair point, it is the dog days of summer and not too much to get excited about until training camp (don't expect any more trades) so it was a very good attempt to generate some discussion.