Jump to content

Why does no one talk about losing these guys?


Nilan25

Recommended Posts

I thought Lang and Tanguay were among our best forwards last year. I cant believe they are just being tossed on the scrap heap, especially given the price we paid for Tanguay. Furthermore, why has no one signed them?

Edited by Nilan25
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought Lang and Tanguay were among our best forwards last year. I cant believe they are just being tossed on the scrap heap, especially given the price we paid for Tanguay. Furthermore, why has no one signed them?

Injuries are the biggest concern. Lang's injury some believe is essentially career ending in terms of being an impact player, so there's some risk in giving him a decent deal. As for Tanguay, I think the shoulder problems scare some teams off, as do the contract demands (I'll be curious to see where he lands, I suspect he's still asking for 5+).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They were good for us, but I think Bob is trying to bring in players that will be GREAT for us.

I dont know. But Tanguay was always in the right spot, something you cant teach. We gave up a lot for him and he is only 30 years old. Also a Quebecker!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yet another Gainey screwup

knock, knock.

hello? i'm looking for the 'Gainey is an idiot' thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

knock, knock.

hello? i'm looking for the 'Gainey is an idiot' thread.

+1

Can't you guys find some other way to take out your anger? I hear people were protesting outside the Bell Centre... maybe that's your best bet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I said back on the day Bob traded for Tangs that he over paid for him.

If you want to slam Bob I guess you could argue that he over pays for the privilege of being a garbage disposal service to remove other teams garbage players.

I'm not trying to say Tangs or Gomez are garbage, but they were unwanted waste that their teams desperately wanted to dump and Bob paid high premiums to be able to pick them up and did their previous teams a huge favor in doing so. This seems to be the price of drafting BPA. The only way to get players that you really want for cheap is to draft them yourself.

Lang could still potentially come back but he would have to accept a low figure incentive contract and Bob would have to trade somebody, probably Plex. Depending on what Plex is awarded or agrees to will most likely determine if he stays or goes so there could be some changes still to come.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah, but now Gomez is clear, he was the first part of the puzzle.

At the time I was shocked and horrified, but it is all making sense.

Tanguay is hardly garbage. If he had been healthy...oh well Alex, enjoy the desert / south beach / wherever!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not trying to say Tangs or Gomez are garbage, but they were unwanted waste that their teams desperately wanted to dump and Bob paid high premiums to be able to pick them up

I clearly didnt state that Tangs is garbage, but the fact remains that Tangs was out on the Flames curb for pickup and Bob paid a hefty price to be able to remove him from the Flames curb. Ditto for Gomez but at least the Habs are already reaping long term benefits of that pickup.

Even if Tangs had played the entire season and got 80 pts a 1st and 2nd rnd pick was still a high price to pay to do the Flames a favor by removing 5+ mil of cap space on a player the Flames were highly dissatisfied with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Me personally, am still in denial. When i see all those players playing against us then maybe I'll snap out of it

Until I see the results or the team skate in september... then maybe I'll burst into tears :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 players with less than a season under their belt with the Habs. Both with injuries. That's probably why nobody talks about them.

Next.

Exactly what I was gonna say! It would have been nice to keep both of these guys, but at waht price? Lang was a nice acquisition by bob, however, with his injury and his age, i don't think he's worth 4 million$ per year. Maybe 2.5 million.

Tanguay is completly different. He's in the prime of his career, however, he doesn't seem to be at 100% from that shoulder injury. and 5.35 million is too much for somebody coming off a year where they missed 30 games!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tanguay is completly different. He's in the prime of his career, however, he doesn't seem to be at 100% from that shoulder injury. and 5.35 million is too much for somebody coming off a year where they missed 30 games!

i didn't watch nearly as many games as many of you did, but from what i could tell - i really liked Tanguay. but, why would BG take a chance on Tangs shoulder and take a chance on Tangs clicking with Gomez when he could get a veritable sure thing in health & meshing with Gomez in a guy like Gionta for very similar money?

Lang i really liked too - but again, BG can't afford to risk having even 2.5 mil sitting in the pressbox nursing a nagging injury.

in all the risk that BG took by essentially putting his job on the line in a total team make-over, i see a lot of conservatism here too.

Farewell Tangs & Lang! I don't think you were parts of the problem, but I think your injuries have hurt you again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the whole idea is to move the team in a different direction than last year. Better? Maybe, maybe not. But Gainey obviously saw some problems with the identity of the team and decided to try something new. Unfortunately, I don't really see Tanguay fitting into the style of play I think Gianey is going for here. Lang probably could have played it, but there are the health and ago concerns. Or maybe it just didn't work our financially.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems pretty simple to me. Lang was not re-signed because of his horrific injury, which makes him a high-risk signing. Tanguay was not re-signed for completely different reasons that probably went something like this:

1. Bob was resolutely determined to end the situation where Koivu was our best C. This was his driving purpose heading into July 1.

2. He pursued various options. Gomez emerged as the most feasible, the one that would allow him to upgrade at C without losing other key elements like Markov or Price.

3. Gomez is a playmaker par excellence. So is Tanguay.

4. It would be very unwise to sink $13-mil + in two players of very similar profile.

5. Therefore, in a very sage and much-under-analyzed quest for chemistry, Gainey decided to abandon Tanguay and pursue players who seemed like better 'fits' with Gomez. Both Gionta and Cammalerri are goal-scorers. That makes a ton of sense when you've just acquired an elite playmaker.

So it's not that there's anything wrong with Tanguay. It's that, once Gomez became the centrepiece of this astonishing reconstruction of the Habs that Gainey has undertaken, there was no more logic in keeping Tanguay. Keeping Kovalev would have made more sense, since his game would probably mesh better with Gomez's, but that's another story.

It's also possible that Bob saw something he didn't like about Tanguay when he was coaching the squad. Impossible to know. Personally I think the above is what actually went on, especially as Gainey himself made these points when asked.

As for the argument that Bob overpaid for Tanguay: this is what happens when a GM 'goes for it.' Bob thought we had a reasonable shot of going deep last season. Therefore, he made moves (Lang, Tanguay) with the short-term in mind. It didn't work - which is usually what happens when teams go for it, but what the hell, it was a reasonable gamble at the time. What would be a *real* error would be sticking with Tanguay and Lang just because you gave up picks for them. No, Bob wisely decided to go in a new direction and made the moves appropriate to that new direction. Those picks are gone forever, another casualty of the aborted 100th Anniversary Season and the mistaken belief that our 1st-in-the-Conference showing in 2008 was a sign of a team ready to contend. Time to move forward - Lord knows, Gainey has!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In his day, Bob wore the C and when the coach called he answered the call with inspirational effort that spread down the bench. He was able to inspire his teamates and the club prevailed generally.

Two seasons in a row Bob puts it on the shoulders of the players and stands pat at the deadline. Unfortunately, the team ran into a brick wall for many reasons, including bad chemistry and questionable effort from too many...it costs the Habs dearly in lost value in the off season.

Bob is obviously trying to learn from those mistakes by retooling almost the entire team.

Positives: By signing Gionta, Gomez and Camallari, he shows the city and other UFA that he is serious about restructuring the team to get a winner. If these players succeed, but the team struggles, he has some trade bait later on this season or in the off-season and cap space for a first line centre...

Negatives: holy risk batman! If these guys fail Bob will get run out of town and the team will be destined to struggle for many, many years.

Not sure if this is gonna work out. I have my doubts. But, it takes major balls to change directions so quickly and completely in Montreal...that I love!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In his day, Bob wore the C and when the coach called he answered the call with inspirational effort that spread down the bench. He was able to inspire his teamates and the club prevailed generally.

Two seasons in a row Bob puts it on the shoulders of the players and stands pat at the deadline. Unfortunately, the team ran into a brick wall for many reasons, including bad chemistry and questionable effort from too many...it costs the Habs dearly in lost value in the off season.

Bob is obviously trying to learn from those mistakes by retooling almost the entire team.

Positives: By signing Gionta, Gomez and Camallari, he shows the city and other UFA that he is serious about restructuring the team to get a winner. If these players succeed, but the team struggles, he has some trade bait later on this season or in the off-season and cap space for a first line centre...

Negatives: holy risk batman! If these guys fail Bob will get run out of town and the team will be destined to struggle for many, many years.

Not sure if this is gonna work out. I have my doubts. But, it takes major balls to change directions so quickly and completely in Montreal...that I love!

Yeah. I'm not sure people have fully processed exactly what Gainey has done here. Never in my life have I seen a team retooled so fast and so profoundly - he has changed almost EVERYTHING from the coaching at both minor- and major-league levels, to the players on the ice. It's a whole-hog transformation. Completely ballsy, and almost unheard of. It truly is a measure of Gainey's disgust with the old team, and his insistence upon winning, that he would blow it up so profoundly. I mean, I used to think that Serge Savard was gutsy when he re-assembled our entire first line over the course of two seasons (Muller in 92, Damphousse and Bellows in 93). That's NOTHING compared to what Gainey has attempted here.

Risk? Actually, I don't think Gainey's moves are all that risky in pure hockey terms. It would have been a greater risk to sink millions into declining Koivus and Kovalevs - almost a guarantee of continued failure and mediocrity. But Gionta, Gomez, Cammalleri, Spacek, Moen, and even Mara and Gill are all proven performers (and the first two, along with Moen and Gill, are proven playoff performers as well). The risk is not that they will suck, it's that they won't be worth their collective cap hit, which is indeed a serious consideration, but not the same as the fear that these players per se will 'struggle for many years.' Provided the cap doesn't shrink too massively, this team is destined to be at least competitive and at most a contender IMHO for the next few seasons. Ignore those TSN arseholes. Their 'analysis' has nothing to do with reality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder if Bob has fully realized what he's done. He now has no idea if he'll be able to successfully defend his title at the team's training camp golf tournament or not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

gainey is "going for it" with proven veterans and the players still standing, this could be an interesting season. lang was a great addition until that injury essentially finished him. as far as tanguay goes, he was alright but not overly impressive. i thought i read where carbo thought he was brittle.anyway, if the habs succeed, then bg is a "genius". if not he'll be run out of town, with price tailing behind him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah. I'm not sure people have fully processed exactly what Gainey has done here. Never in my life have I seen a team retooled so fast and so profoundly - he has changed almost EVERYTHING from the coaching at both minor- and major-league levels, to the players on the ice. It's a whole-hog transformation. Completely ballsy, and almost unheard of. It truly is a measure of Gainey's disgust with the old team, and his insistence upon winning, that he would blow it up so profoundly. I mean, I used to think that Serge Savard was gutsy when he re-assembled our entire first line over the course of two seasons (Muller in 92, Damphousse and Bellows in 93). That's NOTHING compared to what Gainey has attempted here.

Risk? Actually, I don't think Gainey's moves are all that risky in pure hockey terms. It would have been a greater risk to sink millions into declining Koivus and Kovalevs - almost a guarantee of continued failure and mediocrity. But Gionta, Gomez, Cammalleri, Spacek, Moen, and even Mara and Gill are all proven performers (and the first two, along with Moen and Gill, are proven playoff performers as well). The risk is not that they will suck, it's that they won't be worth their collective cap hit, which is indeed a serious consideration, but not the same as the fear that these players per se will 'struggle for many years.' Provided the cap doesn't shrink too massively, this team is destined to be at least competitive and at most a contender IMHO for the next few seasons. Ignore those TSN arseholes. Their 'analysis' has nothing to do with reality.

I agree on most of the risk being cap-related. The real danger here is that Gainey may have tied his hands going forward in case he needs to add another few key pieces, and may have to rely on someone taking some of the big contracts off his hands, and probably having to overpay in the process. Depending on the state of the economy/salary cap, this may not be as easy in the coming years as it is now (and it ain't easy now either). In the past he's always kept some-to-significant cap wiggle room, so he could add a Schneider to plug an obvious hole. Now, we're more likely to dance to the tune of "this is your team for the next few years, like it or not". The other very real possibility is that if some of the kids progress as expected, especially blue-chippers, we will have some serious headaches signing everyone, and again, may be in a predicament to have to give away assets just to be able to hang onto guys like Price. But hockey-wise, looking at the upcoming season there isn't much argument that on paper this team is MUCH MUCH improved over last year's product.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me both Tanguay and Lang were rental player.

They both gave 1 good year in exchange of draft picks.

I prefer this to a rental player just for the playoffs that goes away

and us losing a draft pick for a brief stint in the playoffs.

This said i prefer Cammelleri and Spacek for approx the same money we paid

Lang and Tanguay last year. And this didn't cost a draft pick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me both Tanguay and Lang were rental player.

They both gave 1 good year in exchange of draft picks.

I prefer this to a rental player just for the playoffs that goes away

and us losing a draft pick for a brief stint in the playoffs.

This said i prefer Cammelleri and Spacek for approx the same money we paid

Lang and Tanguay last year. And this didn't cost a draft pick.

:clap:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...