Bob Gainey

Bob Gainey’s 7 year reign as the Montreal Canadiens’ General Manager is over. Reports broke early this morning of Gainey stepping down voluntarily with Pierre Gauthier replacing the stoic General Manager immediately. Gainey’s record as General Manager of the Canadiens was 241-176-46-7, seeing the Canadiens make the playoffs in 4 out of the 5 seasons. Will the Canadiens thrive while Gainey is away playing the piano? And how can we judge the “Bob Gainey Era?”

Throughout the Internet on message boards and Twitter Canadiens fans would always say, “In Bob we trust,” following any move made by Gainey. But what were people trusting in? When Gainey was first hired by the Canadiens in May 2003, he talked of a Stanlin-esque “5 year plan” to bring the team to hockey glory. The peak of the 5 year plan came in year 4 (2007-08 season), when the Canadiens won the regular season Eastern Conference title, but lost to Philadelphia in 5 games in the second round of the playoffs. After the surprisingly season, expectations for the Canadiens sky-rocketed for the Centennial Season. The painful Centennial version of the Canadiens ended with the team barely making the playoffs, and a first round sweep courtesy of the Montreal Canadiens.

Gainey’s boldest move as the General Manager of the Canadiens is the great roster implosion during the 2009 offseason. Gainey let the core of the team walk through free agency, including long time captain Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev, and Mike Komisarek. Gainey opened up the team’s pocket book and spent a truck load of money come free agent time, adding players such as Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri, and Brian Gionta. The roster experiment only brought upon mediocre results, reflecting upon the 5 ½ season tenure of Bob Gainey.

Mediocrity in the Gainey era can be seen through the questionable acquisitions made by Gainey. It seemed more often than not, when Gainey decided to make a trade it seemed like the Canadiens were victims of robbery. The most cited Gainey trade saw Montreal giving the Dallas Stars Mike Ribeiro in exchange for defenseman Janne Niinimaa, But it was more often than not, the moves that Gainey didn’t make the plagued the team. While sitting on top of the Eastern Conference, while Canadiens fans were expecting to acquire Marian Hossa, Gainey made one trade, giving the Washington Capitals the services of goaltender Cristobal Huet in exchange for a 2nd round draft pick. The failure to add depth to the roster before the playoffs ultimately hurt the Canadiens in the postseason. Gainey has also failed to trade away impending unrestricted free agents, losing top players (Sheldon Souray, Mike Komisarek, and Mark Streit) with no return.

In my opinion, Gainey’s biggest mistakes were his decisions on the development of prospects, particularly Carey Price and Guiaullme Latendresse. Gainey decided to quickly bring both players up to the NHL, either skipping any AHL development in the case of Latendresse, or very little AHL time in Price’s case. The expectations of the fans for these two young players was enormous. With high expectations, usually comes great disappointment. While there have been bright spots in both players careers as Canadiens, they have experienced a rocky road in their development into NHL caliber players.

Although on the trade deadline it always seemed that he was at home watching television, Gainey managed to acquire some impact players. Gainey’s best acquisitions are trading Jozef Balej and a 2nd round pick to the New York Rangers for Alex Kovalev, and acquiring workhorse Josh Gorges and the 1st round selection that turned into Max Pacioretty from the San Jose Sharks for defenseman Craig Rivet and a 5th round selection. Although it is too early to judge the trade fairly, Gainey’s best trade may have been his last, trading away Guiaullme Latendresse to the Minnesota Wild for Benoit Pouliot. Pouliot’s offensive potential has surged since joining the Habs.

Gainey has left Pierre Gauthier with a team currently sitting in 6th place in the Eastern Conference, but sitting only 8 points ahead of 13th place in the conference. On top of the shaky level of the standings, the Canadiens are without top offensive players Mike Cammalleri, Andrei Kostitsyn, and Benoit Pouliot for an extended period of time. With two trade deadlines approaching (the pre-Olympic trade freeze starting on February 12th, and the actual deadline on March 3rd, just one day after the team’s first post-Olympic game) Gauthier needs to quickly decide what to do with the Canadiens. He needs to figure out whether this Canadiens team has a legitimate shot at making the playoffs and contending, or if the Canadiens are not a contender.

Gauthier will be pondering three names in his new office: Tomas Plekanec, Carey Price, and Jaroslav Halak. During the press conference introducing Gauthier to the Montreal media, the new GM mentioned that contract talks with impending unrestricted free agent, and top scorer Tomas Plekanec have started. If these talks stall while Plekanec is in Vancouver representing the Czech Republic, Gauthier needs to make a decision whether he should trade the centreman or lose him to free agency during the summer.

The goaltender debate in Montreal has been going on all season, with some fans regressing to an embarrassing state of pre-teenagedom of picking sides in a Twilight fashion of either Team Price or Team Halak. For now it seems that Halak is the starting goaltender of the Canadiens, but Price’s potential (remember he is still only 22 years old) outweighs what most people think Halak’s potential to be a star goaltender. Gauthier claims that the Canadiens will not trade either goaltender, but if he decides he needs wants to bolster other areas of the team, he will be forced to give up Price or Halak, arguably the team’s top assets.

Gauthier will not have time to relax after the season is over. The Canadiens have $47 million against a decreasing cap devoted to 15 players for the 2010-11 season. It will be a tight squeeze to resign Plekanec, who will be expecting a hefty raise after a career year, and resigning one or both of the young goaltending duo who are restricted free agents.

Gauthier’s legacy as the 15th General Manager of the Montreal Canadiens will be determined early on in his tenure. Whatever Gauthier does with the Plekanec, Price, and Halak, will impact the team not only immediately but for many seasons to come.