I had heard a few people mention Wisniewski before in some trade rumors and that he was one player that Pierre Gauthier should target.

I guess some people have had their wish.

Montreal Canadiens acquire James Wisniewski from the N.Y. Islanders for a second round pick in 2011 and a conditional fifth rounder in 2012 as per TSN.

Not a bad trade. While the Islanders are permanently in “rebuild mode” the Canadiens pick up a defenseman who should help them spark up the power play.

What do you think? Like it? Hate it?

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I was stunned to see the news come and go. Jaroslav Halak traded to the St Louis Blues!?!?!?!

It had been my hope that Gauthier try to keep both young goaltenders, but in all actuality I figured the chances of that happening were quite low.

Halak had played second fiddle to Price for some time despite showing that he certainly could play and play well. Not sure if Halak had wanted out of Montreal although I wouldn’t necessarily blame him if he did.

Let’s remember, before everyone got on the whole “Halak” stop sign trip…. he had been in numerous trade rumors all season. And even though Carey Price took alot of heat from some fans….. it’s not that long ago that Halak was seen as quite average….. and was continually thrown into trade rumors by fans…. probably some of the very fans who voiced their opposition to this trade on Facebook and Twitter.

Imagine that.

Being a GM…. it would be a hell of a job. Especially in hockey mad Montreal. I’m not sure if I’ll like this deal… but no one really can.

Trading a young guy for another young guy or two…. it’s a crap shoot. There are no guarantees as much as we’d like to think there are.

Halak could go on to be a top notch goaltender. He could. At the same time folks, Carey Price could also go on to be a top notch goaltender for many years. Yes…. he could as well. There are NO GUARANTEES. At the end of the day, a GM (Pierre Gauthier) has to pick one moving forward and stick with his choice.

Gauthier managed to get a good prospect in Lars Eller. How many of you thought that he could get a Lecavalier for Halak? Alot of people voice pretty strong words…. I was on facebook when the news broke…. (yeah, I appologize to my twitter friends… I find it harder to take time away from twitter when I get on there)….

A young restricted free agent goaltender who will certainly demand a raise…. and you’ve got another young talented goaltender waiting in the shadow of this season…. probably wanting a raise. Pretty hard to keep both and build your team up front.

Do I like this trade?

I don’t know. Honestly. I watch and follow the habs alot. But I’m not a GM. And I’m not about to start saying that Gauthier should have gotten a top six forward…. or top centerman. Because I’m not a GM. Chances are, you’re not either. Pretty hard for us to really know what “market value” is when we’re not in the market. We can speculate. But let’s not get too carried away thinking we’d do better. Me and you, we can find out what market value is for a car…. if we go shopping around.

But if you start calling Chicago, Pittsburgh, St Louis or Detroit’s head office to try and discuss a trade for a Habs player…. will they take you seriously?

Anyways, I’ll stick with hindsight on this one. It kind of went without saying that one of the two goaltenders would be moved. So we could pretty much all see it coming…. (right?)

Remember hindsight? That terrible move that Gainey made that brought us some kid named Josh Gorges and a draft pick… some Max guy…. Yeah, that one actually worked out well.

Breath folks. Give this a chance to play out. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. This is NHL hockey, moves will always be made in an attempt to improve teams. This is one of those steps taken by Mr Gauthier.

Like it or not….. Pierre Gauthier has balls.

For that, I give him my fullest respect….. he didn’t waste time lighting a fire.

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It was reported earlier that the Montreal Canadiens traded Kyle Chipchura to the Anaheim Ducks for a 4th round draft pick.

Chipchura was a first round draft pick who has many leadership skills and although he showed them very well in Hamilton in his time with the Bulldogs he was never able to cement his spot in Montreal.

Chipchura is a guy I had hopes for and this year at times he showed his smarts and grit dropping the gloves. But he also continued to struggle and in the end didn’t quite fit into the team’s plans.

So the Habs grab a 4th round draft pick in 2011 (edit: I thought it was 2010 but it was in fact a pick in 2011) and Kyle gets a shot at helping a new team in the Ducks.

I hope that Chipchura gets a good shot at getting his spot in Anaheim. He went up and down to the minors and in the bigs, played his game and never complained. He’s got hockey smarts…. best of luck to you Kyle!

Reported by:

TSN
Sportsnet
RDS

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Mon Guillaume was probably the guy… or at least one of the guys who was almost always brought up in some kind of media reports.

One part of fans and media may have thought that Guillaume hadn’t been given a fair shot… and others thought that he had been given a shot.

In my opinion, from what I saw and heard this season, I thought a message was sent to Guillaume when the Canadiens signed him to a 1 year deal.

But I don’t think the message passed to him was all negative. Of the players that Jacques Martin met with in the off season, Guillaume was one of them. And through camp and the start of the year, I remember hearing Martin talk about what he wanted and what he expected out of Guillaume… on the top lines.

I believe there was definitely a spot for him to win. And maybe that is exactly what the problem was. Maybe Guillaume didn’t take the spot that was there for him.

It’s all “maybe this”, “maybe that”… but one thing is for sure. For such a young player, Guillaume’s numbers weren’t horrible… but the expectations put on his shoulders seemed to quickly outweigh what he brought.

A couple of the areas that Guillaume had been asked to work on was his skating and his positioning… Martin had wanted him to be around the front of the net alot more… if memory serves… I seem to remember Guillaume even mentioning Holmstron as an example of what his role could (or should) be.

Well, he certainly didn’t play like Holmstron. If he had he probably wouldn’t have been traded.

Anyways, I’ve always wanted Guillaume to succeed. I thought it was great for him and the organization when they drafted him and I had always hoped he’d blossom into one of their leaders.

It didn’t happen.

Guillaume, if you happen to read this. I wish you the very best man. You’ll have less media frenzy to deal with and maybe the fresh start will be good for you.

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