Patrick Marleau

This would be a great deal for the Habs ONLY if certain things were to accompany such a trade.

First, you would have to sign Marleau to an extension immediately, as we have seen with players like Smyth and Briere, the closer they get to the end of the season the more tempting it is for them to test the UFA market; Marleau is still only 27 years old and proven, give him the 7 mill per year he is gonna want now and lock him up.

Trading away a 22 year old goalie like Halak to some is not a big deal, but he did play very well last season winning 10 of his 16 starts and posting a 2.89 g.a.a.

Why is that important?

Because Gainey has said Carey Price will not play this season for the Canadiens unless he is the starting goalie. So my question is, if Huet starts to crumble, which he did show signs of doing last season repeatedly before he got hurt, who comes in and plays for him?
Without Halak's performances last season the last game vs Toronto would have meant nothing anyway because the Habs would have been eliminated way before then.

Another problem facing the Habs if they do make that trade, is what do the lines become?
Are guys gonna gel as well once they are moved around? The Koivu Higgins Ryder line was the best line for the last 2 seasons by far when healthy.
Marleau is a center, as is Koivu, Plekanec, Smolinski, Chipchura. So somebody has to move to the wing, my guess is Plekanec. The best lines I could think of would be:

HIGGINS MARLEAU LATANDRESSE
PLEKANEC KOIVU KOVALEV
KOSTITSYN SMOLINSKI LAPIERRE
BEGIN CHIPCHURA LATHI

The fourth line could rotate with Murray and Kostopoulos...a lot of possibilities for Carbonneau..

Marleau would also be a great addition so in two years from now as we start to phase out Koivu and Kovalev.
Along with guys like Higgins, Latendresse, Chipchura, Lapierre and Plekanec, Marleau would be great to build around.

If Gainey could get this deal done and net a decent backup goalie for this season I am all for it but I think it might be a little late to do get that goalie now.
I would assume since Danis has no starting position with the Bulldogs he would have to be that guy.

I would also be curious to see if Ryder could score 30 again in SJ where he won't be saying Raycroft 8x per year.

Habs ink Ryder...

Various sources report the Montreal Canadiens have re-signed restricted free-agent forward Michael Ryder to a 1-year contract, effectively avoiding arbitration with the young scorer.

Terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.

Educated guess: $3.5-$4 million sounds about right, our buddy Eklund has gone way off the dartboard this time, reporting it's $5 million.

The 27 year old scored 30 goals for the second season in a row and added 55 points in the process.

Ryder is known for his scoring touch and devastating shot, but he is considered a defensive liability and has trouble creating his own scoring chances.


More details to follow.

-BBeR

Emery, Avery, Cammalleri, Roy, Ryder, Hunter, Stempniak

Arbitration is a time of year where fans hold their breath that one of their favourite, usually good, players doesn't demand too much and sign for more than he's worth.
If you want a relevant example of how arbitration affects the new NHL and its salary cap, see JP Dumont with the Buffalo Sabres at this exact same time last year.

The French-Canadian was awarded a one-year contract worth an estimated $2.9 million by a salary arbitrator after coming off a decent season while scoring 20 goals and adding the same number for assists in 54 games.

The number was grand, grand in many ways since a checking-line player is hardly worth anything over $2 million these days, so, the Sabres exercised their right to reject a contract and let Dumont walk to free-agency.
Dumont eventually signed for about 700K less with the Nashville Predators and scored 66 points with the last season, a career high.

That's only one and perhaps the best example of salaries awarded that affect a team's ability to keep him under the salary cap.

EMERY UPDATE: TSN reports that the Senators and Ray Emery have avoided salary arbitration with them agreeing to a 3-year contract worth $9.5 million (or almost $3.2 million per season)
(Hat tip to Sherry over at Scarlett Ice)
Now the question remains, what will they do with Martin Gerber?

This year promises to have some pretty big surprises on both sides, starting with the Senators' Ray Emery, coming off a career year all while carrying Ottawa to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in the modern era.

Emery had 33 wins, a 2.47 GAA and a .918 SPCT after overtaking Martin Gerber as the team's number one heading into December.
He made $925,000 last season and is looking for a hefty raise, that will likely come easily.
Reports out of Ottawa suggest that the only way Murray will be able to effectively sign Emery and have room to re-sign Jason Spezza (RFA), Dany Heatley (UFA), Antoine Vermette (RFA), Patrick Eaves (RFA) and Wade Redden (UFA) next summer is if he moves backup goalie Martin Gerber and his $3.7 million salary, which will be a difficult task.

All in all, Emery should get between $2.5 and $4 million next season, as arbitrators have proven they're still in love with the old NHL way of doing these things.

His agent, J.P. Barry is rumoured to be negotiating a multi year contract for Emery, and should Murray not be able to dump Gerber, he could have no choice and let Emery walk to free-agency, deeming his potential hefty salary too high for a goalie of his current status.
The trading of Peter Schaefer last week to the Bruins cleared up significant cap space over the next few seasons for Ottawa, in order to attempt to keep Emery and the crop of 2008 free-agents mentioned above.

Gerber finished the season off well for Ottawa and put up the exact same GAA and SPCT% he had with Carolina 2 seasons ago, all while maintaining a total of 15 wins.
The Swiss-born keeper is capable of a lot more than a backup role, and many fans feel that way; as we saw last season, if Gerber is not confident, he is weak...VERY weak...so Sens fans better be hoping that if Emery is indeed let go (and come on, it's not the end of the world) that Gerber finds his confidence and uses it like he did with Canes 2 seasons ago, and like he did when he shut out Team Canada with an amazing 47-save performance at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.

Among others, Buffalo's Derek Roy could command a Nathan Horton type salary, according to the Ghost, who has a great post handling the fact that Roy could indeed be an equal to the Panther forward.
Roy, an impressive +37 last season, is the team's projected no.1 centre next season, with Bufalo GM Darcy Regier losing both Chris Drury and Daniel Briere to the Rangers and Flyers respectively via free-agency.
The Sabres are expected to push hard to sign Roy and don't expect another JP Dumont-type situation to unfold this time around, as whatever the arbitrator awards Roy, Regier will pay with open arms.
He had a career-year as the team's 3rd line centre, scoring 21 goals and adding 42 assists for a total of 63 points in 75 contests.

On the other side of town, Sean Avery and Marcel Hossa's cases are still unresolved, with both wanting and deserving raises from the salaries they had last season.
Avery, being the most deserving, made $1.1 million last season and could command a salary upwards of $2.5 million in arbitration, while Marcel Hossa is second-rate and definitely not a priority in this case.

The Rangers may indeed sacrifice Hossa, should his contract be too expensive for their taste, and focus on signing the hard-hitting and well-hated Avery instead.
Avery, who came over in a deal from the Los Angeles Kings at mid-season, scored 18 goals and added 30 assists with LA and New York, 20 of those points coming in 29 contests after his trade to the Rangers, making his value as a checking-line player skyrocket.

Speaking of LA, the Kings will have a difficult case in Mike Cammalleri.
Coming off a career year, the 25-year old tallied 34 goals and added 46 assists to lead the Kings, his salary projects to be upwards of $4 million, and his best-case scenario would likely be a salary of $5 million, though, at this point of his career, the Kings better hope it's a multi-year deal for that kind of money.

The Islanders have scoring centre Trent Hunter heading into arbitration, and the veteran shouldn't be too expensive.
Coming off a 20-goal and 35 point campaign, Hunter is likely to get a deal within the likes of $1 and $1.8 million.

Michael Ryder, a potential 40, maybe even 50 goal scorer for the Canadiens, is scheduled for arbitration on July 30, same as Sean Avery.
Ryder had an up-and-down season in Montreal, potting 30 goals and adding 28 helpers for a respectable 58 points.
The downside? A horrendous -25 rating and a decrease in consistency could hurt Ryder's value when it comes time to talk turkey.
Still relatively young at age 27, Ryder still has the time to fully break out into the 40-goal scorer he was projected to become, although he may prove to be pricey when this is all said and done.
Ryder made $2.2 million last season and is expected to once again, get a raise from that.
Often criticized of being a one-dimensional player, Ryder actually evolved into a penalty-killing role last season despite putting up a +/- rating of -25.
He is a key component of Montreal's already borderline offence, a salary of $3 million sounds reasonable.

I have long suggested the Canadiens should do a kind of sign-and-trade of Ryder in order to acquire that star player the Canadiens have longed for, someone like Patrick Marleau.
Besides Ryder, there isn't anyone the Habs could realistically trade that has good value without jeopardizing the club's future (Carey Price, Chris Higgins, Andrei Kostitsyn, Guillaume Latendresse).

Lee Stempniak, the 24-year old scoring sensation out of Darthmouth University in New Hampshire, is the kind of player the Blues need to lock up for a long time.
Stempniak scored 27 goals and 52 points in only his second pro NHL season!
He will likely get a deal done that will pay him between $2 and $3.5 million

And that's all folks, hope you enjoyed BBeR's preview of this year's arbitration saga, which is shaping up to be an intriguing one in many ways!
This took me a long time to write, with only statistics and salary numbers being available to me, I have yet to find a decent list/preview of all this out there, so I decided to write one up myself!

-In goalite news, the Blues have acquired goalie Hannu Toivonen from the Boston Bruins in exchange for centre Carl Soderberg.
Toivonen had a terrible 2005-2006 campaign after a spectacular rookie season, a trade was expected with the B's acquisition of Manny Fernandez from the Wild.

-Some more goalie talk, Brian Boucher is heading back to where he started, signing a one-year minor-league deal with the Flyers' farm club, the Philadelphia Phantoms.

Cheers!

--BBR

Digging deep into the Montreal Canadiens team...

Read at your own risk, it took me 2 hours to get all this frustration out...

2006-2007 record: 42-34-6, 4th in Northeast, 10th in Eastern Conference.
Missed the playoffs by one point.

A. Contract situations
(Players with number figures are under contract)

FORWARDS
F Saku Koivu, $4,750,000
F Alex Kovalev, $4,500,000
F Sergei Samsonov, $3,525,000
F Steve Begin, $1,225,000
F Guillaume Latendresse, $850,000
F Garth Murray, $625,000
F Maxim Lapierre, $563,000
F Andrei Kostitsyn, $612,000
F Mikhail Grabovski, $700,000
F Kyle Chipchura, $984,000

UFA
F Radek Bonk
F Mike Johnson
F Aaron Downey

RFA
F Michael Ryder
F Chris Higgins
F Alexander Perezhogin
F Tomas Plekanec
F Duncan Milroy

DEFENCE
D Francis Bouillon, $1,875,000
D Mathieu Dandenault, $1,750,000
D Mark Streit, $600,000

UFA
D Janne Niinimaa
D Sheldon Souray
D Andrei Markov

RFA
D Mike Komisarek
D Josh Gorges

GOALIES
G Cristobal Huet, $2,750,000
G Jaroslav Halak, $500,000

UFA
G David Aebischer

RFA
G Michael Leighton

B. The changes that may come

-It remains to be seen how Bob Gainey will cope with checking forwards Mike Johnson and Radek Bonk, both will be unrestricted on July 1st.
Mike Johnson made $1.9 million last season, he had a very solid season and was a great pickup by Bob Gainey and ridiculously cheap (4th round pick.)
Radek Bonk was a total bust on certain standards, the Canadiens acquired him and Cristobal Huet from the Kings hoping he would provide that much needed size and offence.
Bonk made a huge amount of money and was not at all worth the money he put in his wallet last season, after a dreadful first season with Montreal, Bonk seemed rejuvenated this season and played some of the best defensive hockey I've ever seen in my life, unless him and Johnson takes paycuts, Bob Gainey won't pay nearly $4.5 million again for them both.

It's known Gainey would like to retain them both, but, if Souray is signed and his salary is commanding, he may be forced to part with either Bonk or Johnson or even both.
Johnson would probably have a bigger role on another team and it's anyone's guess for Radek Bonk.

-Aaron Downey was a horrible enforcer for the Canadiens, he was totally useless and was a waste of cap space and jersey fabric.
The Canadiens acquired goaltender Phillipe Sauve from the Bruins' minor league club in Providence as part of a loan deal for Aaron Downey.
Sauve was acquired because of injuries to Yann Danis and the call up of Jaroslav Halak by the Canadiens, just a depth deal...
He will not be back next season and he'll be lucky to get an NHL job elsewhere.

-Michael Ryder had an up and down season, and thanks to Andrew Raycroft, he managed to score 30 goals yet again.
That won't be forgotten by his agent when it comes time to talk turkey with Bob Gainey.
Ryder is an RFA and a very good forward.
He is very inconsistent however, and it would be nice if he scored on a consistent basis, and not in short periods of time.
He made $2,2 million last season and he'll get around the same thing next season, he doesn't deserve a raise, but, if Ryder feels he does, Gainey will bite and sign him anyway.

-Christopher Higgins and Tomas Plekanec are the restricted free-agents that will likely get a huge pay raise for the upcoming season.
Higgings, arguably the team's best player for the first two months of the season before going down with an ankle injury, will probably net around $800,000 next season, that's a 127 thousand dollar raise from what he's making now.
Plekanec exploded in the second half and became the second line centre the Canadiens wanted him to be, maybe even more than many expected.
After a relatively mediocre rookie season, Plekanec was one of the many young forwards to blossom into young stars for Guy Carbonneau this season, he will likely make $650,000 -$700,000 next season, a hefty raise from his current league minimum $450,000 wage.
Alexander Perezhogin and Duncan Milroy won't have any considerable changes to their salary, they may get a little more, but not much, besides, both are slowly fading away and it is believed Perezhogin could return to play in Europe next season rather than get limited ice-time and put up 11 points in Montreal.
Milroy is the Hamilton Bulldogs' best scorer, and he finally got the call this season, but it was short-lived and he only spent a week with the Canadiens before being sent back down to Hamilton.
He is a long shot to make the club next season.

-Janne Niinimaa and David Aebischer weren't even mentioned by GM Bob Gainey at his press conference a few days ago, however, both had terrible seasons and don't figure to be in the Canadiens plans.
Aebischer, signed specifically to step up should Cristobal Huet get injured or play bad, did not show up like Montreal wanted and needed from him.
After a great start, it was all downward for Aebischer and eventually lost his spot to rookie breakout Jaroslav Halak.
Fans won't miss David Aebsicher, his iconsistent play won't find him a $1.9 million taker for next season, and probably not even a starting job like the Swiss-born goalie longs for.
Niinimaa made a good push for the last month of the season and Guy Carbonneau acknowledged that by playing him on the powerplay and in key situations.
Janne Niinimaa's career has endured a sharp decline ever since he had that devastating surgery that changed the complexion of his career.
Once considered a top defenseman with the Flyers, Oilers and Islanders, Niinimaa had two equally bad tenures with the Dallas Stars and most recently, the Montreal Canadiens.
The only way Niinimaa will be a Hab next season, is if he accepts to be the no.7 defenseman and get paid a fraction of his current salary ($2,500,000).
Ironically, he was the Canadiens' highest-paid defenceman in 2006-2007.

-Sheldon Souray and Andrei Markov are both key to the Canadiens, but it looks like Markov has been made a priority to be signed by GM Bob Gainey before he becomes an unrestricted free-agent.
Markov made $2 million last season and he will probably earn the double of that next year.
As for Souray, he may even get the triple of his current $2,4 million salary on the open market.

I don't think Josh Gorges is going to be Sheldon Souray.

He has said he would like to be back next season only if the price was "fair", and with him and Markov sharing the same agent, things can get sticky for Bob Gainey if he decides to keep them both.
If he does keep them both, there's no way one will make more than the other.
I think I explained this best to Sherry over at Scarlett Ice when she asked me if the Rivet trading was the first step to clear up money to sign Souray:

Trading away Rivet to clear up money was part of it, but, Rivet was also having a very ordinary season and it seemed as if he had worn out his decade tenure in Montreal.

The deal clears up about $2 million, but, with Souray breaking the record for powerplay goals, Michael Ryder (thanks to Raycroft) getting yet another 30 goal season and Sergei Samsonov's paycheck glaring unspectacularly in the pressbox, along with his measly 8 goals, it is actually more difficult for Bob Gainey to retain Souray.

Trading away Rivet was the first step, the second would be to dump either Samsonov or Kovalev, neither will be traded (Samsonov was put on waivers, and went unclaimed) because of the $8 million they represent on the salary cap level.

But Bob will buy out Samsonov and the cap hit will only be $1.2 million, freeing up a good amount, anything is a good amount when it comes to finding money to keep Souray and more importantly, Markov in the fold.

Markov is the better defencemen, I'll say it again: Souray was -28 and his only asset was the shot from the blue-line, it was a valuable one, but his liability in his own end is overshadowed by his 19 powerplay dingers.

Markov, however, is a + on a -162 team and can play 30:00 minutes of sound defensive hockey and spectacular offensive.

On Saturday, I thought Souray would test the FA market, but it appears now that he'll consider staying with Montreal and signing before July 1st only if "the offer is fair".
"Fair" in this case, means around $6 million and if he is sentimental, $5 million.

But, since the Habs were eliminated, according to the hockey media: it makes it all easier to sign Souray, since they say (even though I don't agree) there will be HUGE changes to the roster and many UFA departures (Johnson, Bonk, Niinimaa, buyout of Sammy, possible trade of Kovalev, Bouillon) have probably forced Bob Gainey to re-think his team's situation and change the way the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge look.

And for that, he'll let a few walk and free up space and Souray will be in the Canadiens' price range.

That was a few days ago, and I thank Sherry for asking me that question, as it made me think long and hard on how it would be possible to sign Souray.

But, again, if Bob Gainey is intent on acquiring a free-agent forward like Briere, he may have to let go of Souray if he thinks a scoring forward is more important than his shot.
Briere, I would say, would be more important to this team than Sheldon Souray, and it looks as if Buffalo will keep Chris Drury and let Briere walk, a bad choice in my opinion.
Gainey may be reduced to making another tough choice and getting another migraine:

Do you want to keep Sheldon Souray and his 27 goals, or, get an elite centre like Daniel Briere who can score consistently and make the players around him better.

You make the call, I won't for Gainey.

Cristobal Huet will be the Canadiens' starting goaltender next season to Mitch Melnick's dissapointment, Halak will get a fair share of starts but the Canadiens will play Huet and probably let him go as his contract expires at the end of the season.

Why let him go?

Carey Price.

Or, sign Huet to a 1-year deal and make Price the starter for the 2009 Centennial season?

It's difficult to see Jaroslav Halak be the clear cut no. 1 man for the Canadiens ever, Carey Price is a couple seasons away and Huet is under contract for next season.

It'll be interesting to see how the goalie situation turns out, but, Gainey already hinted he's not worried about the goalies and that he still has confidence in his "Crystal Ball."

-Guy Carbonneau, I'm sorry to say, is not as great as everyone makes him to be.
He expects production from his players, while he doesn't work with them to improve their game, to "cultivate them" as Pierre McGuire would say.

Take Kovalev for example, I couldn't believe that he was benched for the final minute of play in
the most important game of the season!

Like, WHAT THE HELL?

Sure, he didn't play great, but I've really become tired of seeing Kovalev on the bench, he's better than that and I wish Carbo would see it differently.
But no, he has his stubborn view on Kovalev and Samsonov, and I'm starting to wonder if they're related to the fact that they're Russian.

Scratching Samsonov for the final stretch was a totally useless move.
The guy is having a horrible year, you don't enforce that or change anything by putting him the pressbox.

You play him, you play him and you hope he'll regain his confidence and get back into the game.
Enough already about this crap that you "focus" when you're scratched, you don't, you only sulk in despair and it makes even more distracted when you get back on the ice.

Samsonov will probably be bought out and we will bid him adieu.

He just didn't fit in here well Carbo, talk to the guy, see what his concerns are, don't got publicly out saying he's going to sit in the pressbox and never play for the Habs again, that's also another thing Carbonneau lacks: communication with his team and that's what probably cost him a chance to coach a playoff-bound team.

I'm starting to think Carbonneau was a bad choice by Bob Gainey and that he should get the whip soon, even if he is "from around here."
He was a good player, but now he's a coach...and that doesn't mean he'll be a good coach.
Man, just listening to Kirk Muller talks makes me feel like he's under Carbonneau's leash and that whatever he says, he's run it thru Carbonneau first.

I actually would like to see Kirk Muller be head coach of this team, I think he'd be better than Guy Carbonneau.

Here's to hoping Bob Gainey will somehow find this blog and read my blog post and make the right choice.

Canadiens fans everywhere...pray.

May Habs fans everywhere please rise and pray for the Canadiens.

Pray for Cristobal Huet to be healthy tonight, to be back into the game, to have regained his first half magic and last but not least to make those key crucial saves. Pray for him to steal us the win and let us sneak into the playoffs and finally, pray for Cristobal...

Pray for Alex Kovalev to come out of hiding. For his heart to wake up and bring the player that has been hidden inside an imposter's body wearing the same jersey number during the entire season. Pray for him to do what he does best, and his best would be enough to carry us to victory tonight...

Pray for Sheldon Souray. Pray for him to remain a Canadien after the season is over. Realizing this could be his last game, God, please let him score once more and let victory roll over when the siren rings as we see him walk off the ice in Bleu, Blanc et Rouge for possibly the last time ever...

Pray for Michael Ryder to do his thing tonight. Pray for the real Ryder, not the -26 Ryder that doesn't backcheck and gets stupid hooking penalties, but the one who shoots the puck with passion and is driven to get the goal judge to ring up the red light on the opposition's net...

Pray for Chris Higgins to wake up. The Chris Higgins we have seen this year is a mere reflection of last year's breakout. Pray for him to drive to the net, to make the play he made before getting injured, and to become a feared player once again. Pray to God to also let him wake up from a condemned sleep, which has showed us minimal offence...

Pray for Tomas Plekanec. Pray for the guy that was considered too weak to play with Kovalev and Samsonov to carry the team should the Kaptain and Kommander fail to do so...

Pray for the Kaptain. Pray for Saku Koivu to lead us in these times of uncertaincy and keep the pride when we need it most. Pray for him to lead us into Lord Stanley's ring...

And finally...Pray for Guy Carbonneau. Pray for the rookie coach to make the right decision for us when times are dark, pray for him to do what is best for us to win and pray that he continues to blast referees.

Last but not least...Pray for Josh Gorges (who's a healthy scratch). Pray for him not to make that bonehead play and cost us a goal. That's all I'm asking. (Even though he's a healthy scratch! :D)

Ah what the heck, it's the Leafs, I think I'm overreacting, after all, it is the Leafs we're playing...