The resignation of Bob Gainey earlier today caught most in the hockey world by surprise; despite his struggles in the top Montreal hockey job few people (if any) expected him to walk away in the middle of the season. Replacing Gainey is Pierre Gauthier, who has held the general manager’s position previously in Ottawa and Anaheim.
Aside from his aversion to high jersey numbers, we know a few things about Gauthier from his work with other teams. He took a chance when he joined the Senators, leaving an assistant general manager position in Anaheim to take over the league’s worst franchise – and in turning the Senators around he showed both decisiveness and professionalism.
When Gauthier arrived the Senators were a mess; previous G.M. Randy Sexton had fired Rick Bowness after a 6-13 start, but things got even worse under new head coach Dave Allison and in December Sexton was dismissed and Gauthier was installed. Immediately, Gauthier went to work mending the Senators’ relationship with star centre Alexei Yashin – a holdout and a player the Senators had consistently snubbed in favour of first overall pick Alexandre Daigle. Just a few days into his new job, Gauthier awarded Yashin a five year contract and the 21-year old became the key to Ottawa’s offence.
For close to a month, things were relatively quiet, as Gauthier assessed the team and installed his own system. In late January, however, Gauthier’s assessment was finished and he made sweeping changes to the team. On January 23rd, Gauthier made a blockbuster trade, sending Martin Straka, Don Beaupre and Bryan Berard to the New York Islanders in exchange for Damian Rhodes and Wade Redden. On the same day he sent away forward Dan Quinn to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for cash.
Gauthier’s biggest move that day had to do with the Senators’ off-ice personnel. Head coach Dave Allison, by that point sporting a 2-22-1 record, was dismissed along with his assistants (including current analyst Pierre McGuire) and replaced with a young Colorado Avalanche assistant named Jacques Martin. For better and worse, Martin’s defensive system would define the Senators as they blossomed from a laughingstock to an Eastern Conference powerhouse.
The trades didn’t work out too badly either; Straka would eventually turn into a star offensive player, but not until three more years, split between three different organizations, had passed. Both Beaupre and Quinn were all but finished at that point, and their careers ended shortly after the trade. Berard never really had a chance to develop; a flawed but potent offensive defenceman, at 23 years of age he suffered a serious eye injury that derailed his career. Meanwhile, Damian Rhodes would share the net with Ron Tugnutt for the next few years in Ottawa, mostly at an acceptable if unspectacular level of play, while Redden became a key piece of the Ottawa blue-line.
In 1998, Gauthier resigned as Senator’s GM, citing personal and family reasons, and was quickly hired back by the Anaheim Ducks as their general manager. Things didn’t go nearly as well in Anaheim, and after Gauthier was dismissed in 2002 it was widely viewed as an overdue move. There were also whispers of discontent throughout the Ducks organization, allegedly because Gauthier ran all aspects of the team with an iron fist.
In Montreal, Gauthier inherits an organization he’s familiar with and a coach he’s comfortable with, so he won’t need time to assess before making whatever changes he feels are necessary. Canadiens fans just have to hope that their team follows the path of the Gauthier Senators and not the Gauthier Ducks. Gainey’s left quite a mess for him to try and clean up.
This is the best thing that could happen to the Habs, I think it was time for a fresh view. And this is coming from a Leaf fan, I think Gainey’s biggest struggle was when it came to which goaltender to trade and what to even do on that front, Gauthier however will probly have a deal done sooner rather then later and I am still betting Price is on his way out of town. Gauthier ‘s biggest problem will be to overcome the salary cap mess left by Gainey’s incompetance… I dont think Gainey new what to do in this cap era. I think Gauthier will however start to make some trades with its UFA’s like the Kostysins and Plekanic (try to ignore the spelling of their names if they are wrong) I am betting that he sends them out and wait to really retool this summer with the limited pay-roll they will have left. But I cant seriously think that Gauthier will really be able to do much for the next season or two to drastically change the team unless he can fetch a top 6 forward for Price or a good prospect, and get ownership to let him buy some guys out.
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good article willis i bashed u a few months ago on ur writing cuz i didnt think it was that good but ever since the new year ur writing has been amazing keep up the good work u now no wut u r talkin bout
i hope he resigns plenkanec, just throwing this out there, i heard the flames where interested in trading for brad richards from dallas, could you see them maybe intertested in gomez to play along side jarome??? good article keep it upp!
Very good article as always Jon, I imagine that this is the end of Carey Price. Gainey had a real love for him but it’s obvious that for right now Halak is the guy and with Gainey now gone Gauthier will likely make that clear by shipping Price out and locking up Halak. Obviously if he could trade Gomez he would but lets face it no one is going to want that kind of salary for him. Should be interesting to see what Gauthier does with this team though.
@Who dat:
Haha, you of all people bashed Willis’ writing?
I had to read a few pages of an encyclopedia to get my brain back to an even level after reading your attempts to express yourself in the English language.
People clamoring for the Habs to trade Gomez don’t have a handle on the reality of this team it seems….
Sure Gomez is overpaid, no one will argue that – but he’s nowhere near as terrible as most would have us believe.
Besides, the Habs have exactly no depth whatsoever at center and trading away the #2 on the team would be stupid. Plekanec is not signed and there’s no way to know if he’ll test the UFA market. If he does, someone will offer him 6M per year and he’s not worth that, so I’d be kinda glad we don’t have the cap space to overpay.
Even if we sign Pleks to a reasonable deal, we still need a #2 center so any trade involving Gomez would have to net us a suitable replacement, because there’s no one in Hamilton that can fill those shoes. Now what team would trade its #2 center for our #2 center, unless theirs was overpaid too?
Anyway, Gomez is worth probably around 5M per season… he makes 7,3M. Sure it’s wasted cap space but 2,3M is not such a huge difference maker. Anyone saying we’re screwed for 5 years because of the Gomez contract is out to lunch.