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Habs Sign Gionta 5 years/25 million


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5 million per year is indeed a lot. But lets face the reality of things. To attract players to Montreal, we have to put the money on the table. We have complained for years how we arnt able to attract players, and when we do, we complain about the salary.

We still have the money to put under contract either Kovalev or Tanguay ( Probably Kovy since he will be cheaper ) and sign our 5 RFA'S.

Im pretty happy with this. Its a step in the right direction.

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The Montreal Smurfs is more like it.

Look, I like Gionta, and I like Camellari...but come on...our pressing need was that we aren't strong/tough enough. So Gainey responds with a 5'7" guy, a 5'11" guy, and a 5'9" guy.

The Habs are gonna be pushed around all year long with this team. Hope Gainey has something better up his sleeve.

So what? Latendresse, Pacioretty, Lapierre, Andrei K, Stewart, Laraque are pretty big guys...and anyway none of these new guys don't get pushed around easily.

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Welcome to Montreal GIONTA. Hopefully the chemistry with him and Gomez can pickup again.

yep, those 2 with Cammalleri could be fun to watch if they have a good chemistry

not sure if Gainey can add a winger on a 2nd line with Plekanec and A-K

one thing for sure, this team has been drastically changed since yesterday

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with this signing i REALLY hope it means gainey is planning on including Pleks in a trade for some draft picks and the best prospect he can get, and still resigning Kovy, top two lines would look unreal.

A. Kost - Gomez - Gionta

S.Kost - Cammy - Kovy

What do you think???

I think the plan is to play Cammy as a winger as he was used in Calgary & for parts of his time in LA. This would mean we'd still need Pleks. Top 2 lines would look like this:

Cammy - Gomez - Gionta

S Kosty- Pleks - A Kosty

My hope is that we do still resign Kovalev (i think he would still be a great top 6 complement) and sergei sticks with a pairing like Laps/Lats. But time will tell...If we do sign Kovy we might need to trade away some salary...

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So what? Latendresse, Pacioretty, Lapierre, Andrei K, Stewart, Laraque are pretty big guys...and anyway none of these new guys don't get pushed around easily.

I will give you Lappierre and Stewart...do you want Laraque playing big minutes after his performance last season? I'm talking about a first or second line, big forward who will get his nose dirty. I'm tired of watching these fancypants dipsydoodle heads who shy away the moment things get physical (I'm looking at you, Andrei Kostitsyn, Tomas Plekanec, et al.).

Pacioretty is unproven. Latendresse is a bust as an offensive player but could be a good third or fourth liner. Again, we are lacking size and strength on our top two lines. No one that can stand in front of the net. No one that can clear the corners.

And I'm not saying the guys we got today are wimps...but when they're standing in front of the net against Chara, or now Pronger, or (sigh) Komisarek...they're not gonna stand a chance.

Anyway, since this thread is about Gionta...good player, good that he's back with Gomez...but not what we needed.

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I think the plan is to play Cammy as a winger as he was used in Calgary & for parts of his time in LA. This would mean we'd still need Pleks. Top 2 lines would look like this:

Cammy - Gomez - Gionta

S Kosty- Pleks - A Kosty

My hope is that we do still resign Kovalev (i think he would still be a great top 6 complement) and sergei sticks with a pairing like Laps/Lats. But time will tell...If we do sign Kovy we might need to trade away some salary...

I realize that is the plan, I am however suggesting that it makes us a stronger team to replace pleks with Cammy and then add Kovy into the top 4 wingers (a.kost, gionta, skost, kovy) thats all, just my opinion!

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Hey! The Devils have been whipping us for years! If you can't beat 'em... Join 'em... Or... I mean... Take all their players! :lol:

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL now were only missing that goalie ermm whats his name again? the brick wall when we play againts him?? OH YAH MARTIN!!

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Guest olddude
So what? Latendresse, Pacioretty, Lapierre, Andrei K, Stewart, Laraque are pretty big guys...and anyway none of these new guys don't get pushed around easily.

Now if only BG can give big George PMS for the entire season.

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If we do sign Kovy we might need to trade away some salary...

Yep, and strangely the only salary we could really get rid of is guys we just signed. So like it or not, these are your Habs. Koivu and Kovalev are both gone.

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Well, this is both good and bad.

Good in that we get a proven top-six winger. Bad in that we have him for 5 years at a larger cap hit than what Kovalev would likely have cost, and it's not at all clear to me that Gionta is a better point producer than Kovalev right now. He's hovered around 60 points the past three seasons in Jersey.

Five years is also a bit too much term for a 30-year-old player. If we were comfortable giving Gionta that kind of dollar and term, why didn't we re-sign Tanguay? I guess Gainey is really gambling on Gomez and Gionta being able to recapture their old Devils magic.

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This is the only signing of all that I have big issues with.

Well, I have huge issues with the Gomez signing, but only because of salary and asset concerns. Gomez himself is a good player whom I'll enjoy seeing in a Habs uni. From a purely player-based standpoint, Gill is the only player whose signing I really object to. A definite downgrade from Komisarek.

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This is interesting...

The last time Gionta and Gomez played together on a line, they both had career years, with Gionta scoring 48 goals and 89 points, and Gomez scoring 33 goals and 84 points. Once separated, neither has scored more than 25 goals or 70 points. This could be a sign of very good things to come. I'm hoping that Gainey can re-sign Kovalev though, as this would give us a very deadly set of 2 scoring lines.

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was not happy when bob picked up hal gill and totally turned off the tv i come back to find that we got some good forwards and everything ON PAPER seems alright. i just dont get the hal gill signing at all or the spacek signing....replace both of them with beauchimin and things woulda been perfect in the back in having some young kids fill in the rest of our D.

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Well, this is both good and bad.

Good in that we get a proven top-six winger. Bad in that we have him for 5 years at a larger cap hit than what Kovalev would likely have cost, and it's not at all clear to me that Gionta is a better point producer than Kovalev right now. He's hovered around 60 points the past three seasons in Jersey.

Five years is also a bit too much term for a 30-year-old player. If we were comfortable giving Gionta that kind of dollar and term, why didn't we re-sign Tanguay? I guess Gainey is really gambling on Gomez and Gionta being able to recapture their old Devils magic.

Kovalev has been a pain in the butt for coaches since he's been here while Tanguay is more of a playmaker than a finisher. I guess Gionta fits a lot better in the Martin/Gomez plan.

As for the lenght of the contract...well, it's a bidding war out there...

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Well, this is both good and bad.

Good in that we get a proven top-six winger. Bad in that we have him for 5 years at a larger cap hit than what Kovalev would likely have cost, and it's not at all clear to me that Gionta is a better point producer than Kovalev right now. He's hovered around 60 points the past three seasons in Jersey.

Five years is also a bit too much term for a 30-year-old player. If we were comfortable giving Gionta that kind of dollar and term, why didn't we re-sign Tanguay? I guess Gainey is really gambling on Gomez and Gionta being able to recapture their old Devils magic.

It's not so much the 5 years in itself that concerns me. It's that we now have $18.3 million locked up in 3 forwards, none of which I'd put in the "elite" category for 5 years (and we once again have them all becoming UFAs at the same time).

Depending how they do and if they are tradeable, it may not leave much flexibility. Think of the "big 3" in Tampa: well by committing 1/3 of the cap, these are our "big 3" forwards: and our big 3 only average 60-70 points a season each.

Other than maybe the Gomez trade (how Sather got Mcdonagh out if it, I'll never know), the individual moves on their own I'm fine with. But the overall combination is leaving me really concerned for the future of this club. That's a lot of money to be spending on "good" forwards.

The cap may go down by 5-10 million next season (in effect, it did go down this season but there was some method the players voted on that let them essentially inflate it by 5%) and we will have basically no flexibility. We will also have Kostitsyn, Price, Markov, etc. contracts coming up in the next 1-2 seasons, with a potentially lower cap: this 18 million on 3 players is going to seriously hinder this club.

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