Post by Montreal Canadiens on Jan 15, 2022 12:30:57 GMT -6
HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF?
At 10:32 PM Blake Wheeler skated off the ice at the Bell Center. He didn’t head to the locker room with the rest of the team. He made a right, not a left and went into GM Todd Snider office. GM Snider was not to be found, he left from Columbus directly to NY for a mini vacation before his Canadians play the Islanders on Monday instead of flying home with the team.
Wheeler did an about face, walked into the next office and confronted Assistant GM Patrick Roy and apparently uttered these words “I’m done, please trade me I’ve played my last game here”. The words were eerily similar to the ones Roy had said some 26 years ago (Dec 2, 1995) after a blow out loss to Detroit when he was in net for Montreal Canadians.
However, the circumstances are different. Roy was left in goal by his coach Mario Tremblay to be embarrassed for 9 goals in an 11-1 loss to Detroit. Wheeler has been anything but embarrassed by his coach Dominique Ducharme. Wheeler is the captain of the team, plays 19 minutes a game and leads the team in scoring. Ducharme hasn’t benched him or moved him down the lineup. So why does Wheeler want out? Pretty simple really, Montreal is dead last in the PFHL, Wheeler hasn’t won a championship since his college days with Wisconsin- Madison. He never won the Stanley Cup in 14 years with the defunct NHL playing with Boston, Atlanta, and Winnipeg. He is 35 years old and on a 2-year deal. Only Freddy Andersen (32) and Josh Manson (30) are over 30 and Montreal GM Snider and his team built a team to win multiple times 3 years from now, not this year.
The Canadians executive are in a bit of a pickle now. They want to honour Wheelers request (demand), but they will not sell him below fair market value. Wheeler has no leverage; he’s signed for 2 years and does not hold a no trade contract. Therefor Montreal can wait to get the right offer that will help the team. What is the right offer? Well looking at the roster Montreal has a pretty solid D -Core, they made trades for Devon Toews (27) and signed for 4 years, Marcus Pettersson (25) 4 years, Henri Jokihariu (22) is ready to be resigned to go along with Disperal Draft picks Ryan Graves (26) , 3 years, and Vince Dunn (25) 4 years, all on team friendly deals. At forward the Habs boast a young nucleus of Cole Caufield (21) Nick Suzuki (22), Jesper Boqvist (23) , Nolan Patrick (23) Luke Kunin ( 24 ) and Matthew Tkachuk (24) again all of who will be around to build together.
So where is Montreal lacking? In goal, between the pipes! Montreal waited in the dispersal draft and ended up coming out with Robin Lehner and Jake Allen. Lehner was shipped out after terrible play and GM Snider took a chance on Frederick Anderson. So far that hasn’t worked out like he wanted. David Rittch who was obtained in the Jake Allen deal has been a nice surprise. Moving Ilya Samsanov to St Louis could be a big mistake for the organization in the long run. They now need to wait till Dan Vladar, Hugo Alnefelt or Fredrick Dichow can claim the net, and that might be a couple years away.
So will history repeat itself, will Wheeler get his wish and get moved? Can Montreal swing a deal for a # 1 netminder? Or get enough pieces in return to make it worth their while to move Wheeler?
While History repeats itself usually, just maybe the Habs find a way to please Captain Wheeler and he decides to stay!!
At 10:32 PM Blake Wheeler skated off the ice at the Bell Center. He didn’t head to the locker room with the rest of the team. He made a right, not a left and went into GM Todd Snider office. GM Snider was not to be found, he left from Columbus directly to NY for a mini vacation before his Canadians play the Islanders on Monday instead of flying home with the team.
Wheeler did an about face, walked into the next office and confronted Assistant GM Patrick Roy and apparently uttered these words “I’m done, please trade me I’ve played my last game here”. The words were eerily similar to the ones Roy had said some 26 years ago (Dec 2, 1995) after a blow out loss to Detroit when he was in net for Montreal Canadians.
However, the circumstances are different. Roy was left in goal by his coach Mario Tremblay to be embarrassed for 9 goals in an 11-1 loss to Detroit. Wheeler has been anything but embarrassed by his coach Dominique Ducharme. Wheeler is the captain of the team, plays 19 minutes a game and leads the team in scoring. Ducharme hasn’t benched him or moved him down the lineup. So why does Wheeler want out? Pretty simple really, Montreal is dead last in the PFHL, Wheeler hasn’t won a championship since his college days with Wisconsin- Madison. He never won the Stanley Cup in 14 years with the defunct NHL playing with Boston, Atlanta, and Winnipeg. He is 35 years old and on a 2-year deal. Only Freddy Andersen (32) and Josh Manson (30) are over 30 and Montreal GM Snider and his team built a team to win multiple times 3 years from now, not this year.
The Canadians executive are in a bit of a pickle now. They want to honour Wheelers request (demand), but they will not sell him below fair market value. Wheeler has no leverage; he’s signed for 2 years and does not hold a no trade contract. Therefor Montreal can wait to get the right offer that will help the team. What is the right offer? Well looking at the roster Montreal has a pretty solid D -Core, they made trades for Devon Toews (27) and signed for 4 years, Marcus Pettersson (25) 4 years, Henri Jokihariu (22) is ready to be resigned to go along with Disperal Draft picks Ryan Graves (26) , 3 years, and Vince Dunn (25) 4 years, all on team friendly deals. At forward the Habs boast a young nucleus of Cole Caufield (21) Nick Suzuki (22), Jesper Boqvist (23) , Nolan Patrick (23) Luke Kunin ( 24 ) and Matthew Tkachuk (24) again all of who will be around to build together.
So where is Montreal lacking? In goal, between the pipes! Montreal waited in the dispersal draft and ended up coming out with Robin Lehner and Jake Allen. Lehner was shipped out after terrible play and GM Snider took a chance on Frederick Anderson. So far that hasn’t worked out like he wanted. David Rittch who was obtained in the Jake Allen deal has been a nice surprise. Moving Ilya Samsanov to St Louis could be a big mistake for the organization in the long run. They now need to wait till Dan Vladar, Hugo Alnefelt or Fredrick Dichow can claim the net, and that might be a couple years away.
So will history repeat itself, will Wheeler get his wish and get moved? Can Montreal swing a deal for a # 1 netminder? Or get enough pieces in return to make it worth their while to move Wheeler?
While History repeats itself usually, just maybe the Habs find a way to please Captain Wheeler and he decides to stay!!
