Montreal Canadiens Mistake

Hockey is essentially about goaltending and no team can win the cup without it. In fact, you can't win a cup without amazing goaltending, average goaltending just won't get it done. So Bob Gainey, the GM for the Habs who'd publicly announced his intent to acquire an "impact player," thought that it would be a good idea to send out Cristobal Huet, a veteran goaltender who'd been leading the team much of the year, for nothing but a draft pick and thrust the 20-year old phenom, Carey Price, into the starting role for the stretch run and the playoffs.

For me, this was easily the weirdest and most illogical trade of the day. If he was getting real value for Huet then maybe I could understand, but all he added was a draft pick and not even a first rounder and not even for the upcoming draft. What the Habs received was a 2nd round pick in 2009. This means that Toronto received more compensation for Hal Gill than Montreal did for Huet. I truly feel for Montreal fans who must have knots the size of bowling balls in their stomachs today. Carey Price is obviously going to be a number one guy, but this may be a little soon and while he's show some brilliance this season, he hasn't shown the consistency it takes to win a cup. So instead of securing Hossa, Havlat, Jokinen or any other big name "impact players" they send out a goaltender for a draft pick and then call it a day. If Price stumbles in the playoffs, Montreal may have a full scale riot on its hands and I, for one, wouldn't blame them one bit.