Jump to content

Latendresse traded for Benoit Pouliot


huzer

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 191
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Will Polliot be any better? I have no idea but it'a a start.

One of the reason why I'm not 100% thrilled about getting Pouliot: constant misspelling (Huzer, please no Leclavicle jokes!)

P-O-U-L-I-O-T

Or just Ben, now that he and the Habs fans are intimate... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder at the cause of him not wanting to go to the net? Was he afraid to pay the price? Thought he was better than that? Any thoughts on why he never wanted to park himself there?

Apparently he fancied himself a one-timer-type player who, I guess, hit the high slot to take a perfect pass then tickle the twine. The coach wanted him to muck it out in front of the cage. Lats apparently felt his approach was more appropriate. Difference of opinion and when a player is struggling, that will always result in a coach getting his way. Result: Lats loses ice time, then gets traded.

Disappointing, really. If he just learned to get stuck in in front of the net, he probably would have found success. Maybe the trade will kick him in the pants and he'll figger it out in Minny. Hopefully. Despite his sour grapes at the trade, I always liked him. Felt he could have been a solution in Montreal. I guess not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For my money, this trade is simply about

a. getting assets back for a player who the coach did not like. Whatever our 'bad feeling,' we have to trust the experience of Jacques Martin on this. I'm sure that if Martin believed in Lats, Lats would still be on the Habs - he wasn't just irrationally picking on poor old Gui. Martin did not think he was an asset to the club, period.

b. getting assets back whose contract expectations did not align with Bob Gainey's. Lats has said that he didn't like what the Habs were suggesting this summer. OK: Bob has acted proactively to remove the potential problem, which is, in a way, exactly what his critics have long grumbled about. If you're not going to be able to sign the guy (or in this case, if you're looking at a thorny RFA negotiation likely followed by the player going UFA) then get value back instead of letting him walk.

c. a sheer talent upgrade. Clearly Martin/Gainey concluded that Gui is not likely ever to become a top-6 forward. So they got a player who at least seems to have legitimate top-6 talent. And he can play C, a longstanding organizational weakness. Minny wins the deal inasfar as they get back a proven NHL third-liner. Montreal wins the trade on overall potential. Given the pathetic state of our development system, it certainly helps to add a talent infusion at forward. Bob has done that.

d. A simple positional trade. We have a surplus at RW and a death of talent at LW and C. Trade one reclamation project for another and enhance the team's depth chart positionally.

Notice that Lats' conditioning or character don't even come into the equation (except indirectly through 'a'). In short, you don't need to make Lats out to be a human turd to justify this trade. Like most of Bob's moves, this is pretty well thought-out and defensible. Whether it will work out is another question - although I will say that both Gainey and the Habs are overdue for a bit of luck on this front.

Edited by The Chicoutimi Cucumber
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Boy, if Gordon had laid on the sarcastic bigotry just a bit thicker, he might have just raised Mordecai Richler from the grave.

I was expecting that from you. He also referenced crazed-anglos. Kozed, you've become too predictable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Notice that Lats' conditioning or character don't even come into the equation (except indirectly through 'a'). In short, you don't need to make Lats out to be a human turd to justify this trade. Like most of Bob's moves, this is pretty well thought-out and defensible. Whether it will work out is another question - although I will say that both Gainey and the Habs are overdue for a bit of luck on this front.

+1

Well said. Also I'm hoping for the same "luck". 

Funny, I remember mentioning earlier that in regard of the Beauchemin, Hainsey, Ribeiro and other wastes of assets that panned out elsewhere, Gainey has never traded for a player that broke out with us except for Huet. Pouliot might be the one. Would be about damn time that we take someone else's problem and figure it out. For all the times that other teams have done it to us, we deserve to do it once in a while too...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was expecting that from you. He also referenced crazed-anglos. Kozed, you've become too predictable.

Common-sense is supposed to be predictable. One reference has little weight on the overall underlying tone of an article. Although gotta grant him that his column is about language and sports. He just goes at it with politics as subtle as someone trying to pick his teeth with a 2-by-4. I dont like when Rejean Tremblay does it, I wont like it any more when Gordon does it. Both have equally slanted, subjective views that shouldnt be regarded for anything more than what they truly are: entertaining sideshow freaks. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New respect for Kozed from me. If he does believe Rejean Tremblay is a side-show freak.

Ugh, don't get me started on Tremblay, it'd need it's own thread. I'm pretty sure he hasnt watched a hockey games since 1995...

François Gagnon and Mathias Brunet are da best. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

+1

Well said. Also I'm hoping for the same "luck". 

Funny, I remember mentioning earlier that in regard of the Beauchemin, Hainsey, Ribeiro and other wastes of assets that panned out elsewhere, Gainey has never traded for a player that broke out with us except for Huet. Pouliot might be the one. Would be about damn time that we take someone else's problem and figure it out. For all the times that other teams have done it to us, we deserve to do it once in a while too...

Well, we have a whole new coaching apparatus at both the AHL and NHL levels. So the pattern of failure *may* not replicate itself in this case. Time will tell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I don't know why we have to rip on the guy. He's frustrated, he feels the need to defend himself. We all say stupid things when we switch jobs. Especially at 23.

Anyways, it's no surprise that the new boss has taken a hard line with the young talent on the team. First it was Sergei, then Andrei, then Carey, and then Guillaume. He's trying to figure out Maxim as well, who has at times been one of the guys he's promoted ahead of other young guys as an example, and also been on the other end of the scale as well with Pyatt getting ice time at his expense.

Message from Jacques: Work your butt off, follow the lead, get in line now. Unfortunately, Guillaume felt wronged by the approach, maybe feeling that he was working hard (which he generally was in comparison to the other young guys). Martin's problem seemed to be Guillaume wasn't working correctly.

That's something different. Bob decided to find someone new instead. No hard feelings.

Notice that Jacques doesn't take the hard line with the older guys? Carbo often promoted younger guys ahead of veterans. Jacques seems to trust the veterans. It's a much different approach. Maybe with the injuries, Jacques figures he has no choice but to trust them, I don't know. We'll see how this develops.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Latendresse traded? Ho-hum... another Dagenais bites the dust. (But at least Dagenais could score).

Pouliot? Well, it's hard to lose in this trade. If this guy turns out to be an under-achieving 3rd liner, then we took a draw on this trade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Notice that Jacques doesn't take the hard line with the older guys? Carbo often promoted younger guys ahead of veterans. Jacques seems to trust the veterans. It's a much different approach. Maybe with the injuries, Jacques figures he has no choice but to trust them, I don't know. We'll see how this develops.

I think these veterans have given Martin more reason to trust them than Carbo ever got.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A little excerpt from this story.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/frenc...article1375622/

Former teammate Frankie Bouillon, who now Predates in Nashville, recently said the single most devastating thing we've heard about Latendresse: that he should spend less time talking to opposing players and worry more about his own game than making friends on other teams.

I didn't know Frankie said that. Maybe Lats was part of the problematic "Core" that had to be replaced in the offseason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He'd have to have been part of the "core" to start with, which he never was.

Yeah I guess core was a poor choice of words there. Maybe this whole country club mentality I've been hearing so much about lately would be a better term to describe it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I guess core was a poor choice of words there. Maybe this whole country club mentality I've been hearing so much about lately would be a better term to describe it.

I blame Annie Villeneuve. Lats never had any problems until he fell for that talentless gold-digging homewrecker attention whore...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I don't know why we have to rip on the guy. He's frustrated, he feels the need to defend himself. We all say stupid things when we switch jobs. Especially at 23.

Anyways, it's no surprise that the new boss has taken a hard line with the young talent on the team. First it was Sergei, then Andrei, then Carey, and then Guillaume. He's trying to figure out Maxim as well, who has at times been one of the guys he's promoted ahead of other young guys as an example, and also been on the other end of the scale as well with Pyatt getting ice time at his expense.

Message from Jacques: Work your butt off, follow the lead, get in line now. Unfortunately, Guillaume felt wronged by the approach, maybe feeling that he was working hard (which he generally was in comparison to the other young guys). Martin's problem seemed to be Guillaume wasn't working correctly.

That's something different. Bob decided to find someone new instead. No hard feelings.

Notice that Jacques doesn't take the hard line with the older guys? Carbo often promoted younger guys ahead of veterans. Jacques seems to trust the veterans. It's a much different approach. Maybe with the injuries, Jacques figures he has no choice but to trust them, I don't know. We'll see how this develops.

One of the issues I have with Martin is his trust in Bergeron. The guy should be dressed as a seventh defencemen, used primarily on the PP and NEVER be on the ice in a close game or near the end of the game.

I blame Annie Villeneuve. Lats never had any problems until he fell for that talentless gold-digging homewrecker attention whore...

You could say the same about Phaneuf in Calgary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope they actually plan on giving him an offensive role and not hypnotize him with "play without puck" and 3 years later wonder why his scoring instincts are gone, like they did with Lats.

I agree, I hate when that happens. Thats why I'm always saying drafting best player available doesnt always make sense. If you need a shut down C then why draft a player with a lot of offensive potential and then teach him to focus on the part he's not good at so much that he losses his natural talent and becomes good at nothing. It doesnt make sense. Its would be like drafting Price because he was BPA and then getting him to play defense because the Habs needed a dman. Why not draft what you need and get them to focus on their natural talents instead of trying to turn every player into some they are not.

Its to hard to develop players for all roles, so they need to stick with what they are good at and teach them some stuff they arent good at. Its the jack of all trades, master of none scenario. Kosto was a good all round playeer and your not going to get very far with a team full of Kosto's. i.e. good at everything, but not great at anything

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its to hard to develop players for all roles, so they need to stick with what they are good at and teach them some stuff they arent good at. Its the jack of all trades, master of none scenario. Kosto was a good all round playeer and your not going to get very far with a team full of Kosto's. i.e. good at everything, but not great at anything

Well it doesnt help when you dont already have players for every roles. Latendresse was kept as a 19 yrs old because the Habs had no player who could hit and wasnt a total tool with the puck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well... I was beginning to think I'd go through The Gainey Purge without having to change my favourite players, so much for that.... Not a bad gamble to make, trade Latendresse when he still have some value and get a guy with a higher projected ceiling in return. Obviously this can still go either way since both guys are so young, but Gui didn't look like he was putting it together.....in a while now. Best of luck to him on the Wild, but even better luck to Pouliot with us.

GO HABS GO!

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...