tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3435571560723564995.post8550240267640312616..comments2023-06-01T21:15:57.354-11:00Comments on The H Does NOT Stand For Habs: Changing timesJ.T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00012075493503316318noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3435571560723564995.post-14466299061396641362008-06-08T13:39:00.000-11:002008-06-08T13:39:00.000-11:00Interesting quotes from Brown about the previous e...Interesting quotes from Brown about the previous era's drafting and player's developpement.<BR/><BR/>Andre Savard instigated a revolution in those grey areas, not only did he selected Komisarek, Plekanec, Perezhogin and HIGGINS but he was also responsible for the hiring of Trevor Timmins as chief of scouting in July of 2002 which lead them both to the selection of A.Kostitsyn, Lapierre, O'Byrne and Halak in june of 2003. <BR/><BR/>In July Gainey was officially put in command replacing Savard as the new GM.<BR/><BR/>Gainey inheritated a team that was poised to take advantages of one of the deepest bank of assets and prospects that I had ever seen in our Club history ... a near ideal building situation of which he was criticised a few years later to have under-managed by our captain Koivu at the end of our 2006' 07 season.<BR/><BR/>I loved Gainey's implication on his first year with our club but I feel we have been shortchanged in no small ways by his work in the following years.<BR/><BR/>Here are the quality assets and prospects that were handled to him upon arrival by his predecessors.<BR/><BR/>Francois Beauchemin<BR/>Michael Ryder<BR/>Mathieux Garon<BR/>Jason Ward<BR/>Ron Hainsey <BR/>Marcel Hossa<BR/>Joseph Balej<BR/>Mike Komisarek<BR/>Christopher Higgins<BR/>Plekanec<BR/>Perezhogin<BR/>A.Kostitsyn<BR/>Maxime Lapierre<BR/>Brian O'Byrne<BR/>Jeroslav Halak<BR/><BR/>Hell was the name of the black hole in which Andre Savard was pushed in at the earlier stage of our 2000-01 season,... he did incredibly well to get us moving out of it and left us with a man who will continu to make a difference for us in the futur in Trevor Timmins.<BR/><BR/>I wish that '' the changing times " brought about by Savard's upgrading of our scouting-drafting-developpement system would have fallen into different hands than Gainey's as a GM and as a builder.<BR/><BR/>Regardless of my critisms ( and Koivu's own ) I am pleased with our hockey philosophy as it was expressed by Gainey at the press conference following our playoffs season ... lets face it a franchise needs to have vision and a team needs to have a repeatable identity if for nothing else than to make our drafing and building process as coherent as possible and last but not least to render our invitations more attractives to UFA who want to know exactly in what they are being asked to get themselves into at this point of their carreers ... specially when considering long term offers.<BR/><BR/>Now they know.... and so do we.<BR/><BR/>'' we want to be a fast skating team, offensive an opportunistic, an exciting team ... an intelligent team '' <BR/><BR/>Bob Gainey<BR/><BR/>I love that statement, I love our direction and hopefully our futur will remain bound to it and successfull at it.pierrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04722439953017469433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3435571560723564995.post-16215895158758470412008-06-08T13:12:00.000-11:002008-06-08T13:12:00.000-11:00Why do you credit Andre Savard with the players dr...Why do you credit Andre Savard with the players drafted from 2000 to 2003 while he was GM, then transfer responsibility to Trevor Timmins the Head Scout thereafter?Show some consistency, either the credit/blame lies with the General Manager at the time or it lies with the Head Scout.<BR/><BR/>Personally, I thought Andre Savard was the worst G.M. by quite a wide margin in all the years I've followed the team. Rejean Houle at least had the excuse of working with a tight budget and reluctant ownership at the time (Molsons), while Savard had a blank ticket and enthusiastic ownership (Gillett). Not to mention that Houle worked in the darkest days of Anglophobia in Quebec, with the Canadian dollar worth about two thirds of a U.S. dollar. Nor to overlook the fact that three of the four years he was in charge the team set all time records for games lost due to injury.<BR/><BR/>You really oversimplify Timmin's "success" as well. His first pick Kostitsyn was nowhere near the best player on the board at the time, nor will he ever be. If you redo the 2003 draft Kostitsyn would be lucky to land in the first round. Second round pick Cory Urquhart was much, much worse. There were probably a dozen present or future NHL All Stars drafted after a guy who is in the Central Hockey League at the moment. Brilliant start for "Tiny Timmins".<BR/><BR/>Kyle Chipchura is pretty mediocre compared to some of the players taken after him in 2004. I know because I was advocating Mike Green or Wojtek Wolski at the time. That little gym rat with the I.Q. of a barbell picked a guy who can't skate or score. Great!<BR/><BR/>In 2005, luck more than good management brought them Carey Price. Guillaume Latendresse was a good pick, and most of the draft was pretty solid. David Fischer was NOT A GOOD PICK in 2006. The should have stayed where they were and taken Ty Wishart. Ryan McDonagh from 2007 is not much better than Fischer. Timmins REALLY OVERRATED THE MINNESOTA HIGH SCHOOL PLAYERS. Look at Blake Wheeler. You can't call Fisher and McDonagh good picks at the spots they were taken at this point in time. Quite the opposite, I would say. <BR/><BR/>There were 3 or 4 players drafted after Fischer on the U.S. WJC defendse and the same with McDonagh. Every defenseman was drafted later than the Canadien' picks.robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13028087428625855959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3435571560723564995.post-24475605692069414292008-06-08T10:40:00.000-11:002008-06-08T10:40:00.000-11:00Fantastic insight from Brown on what the system wa...Fantastic insight from Brown on what the system was like at the time. I feel sympathy for him and the other picks. I, too, remember prospects languishing for years in the minors. <BR/><BR/>Perhaps Koivu's advantage, other than his outstanding talent, was that there were expectations from outside the organization that he should have instant success in the NHL. I remember him being described as the most talented player not in the NHL (when he was in his obligatory military service for Finland).<BR/><BR/>I remember watching the Terry Ryan draft year. The Canadiens nerds were predicting that Montreal would select either Ryan or Shane Doan. When Doan was selected with the pick before Montreal, everything fell into place. If memory serves me correctly, Ryan's career was hampered by a series of concussions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com