Shots on Net [13.07.10]

More news from your Habs as Carey Price becomes the last free agent. What's the hold up King Carey? Don't tell me you got Allan Walsh as your agent?!

Maxim Lapierre has signed a one year, $900,000 deal with the Canadiens. He's been playing with the Habs as long as I've been a fan, so that's nice. <TSN>

Mathieu Carle has been signed to a one year, two way contract. <Canadiens>

One year contracts are popular today as James Wyman has also been signed to one that's two ways. <Canadiens>

P.K. Subban and Mike Cammelleri were at the 18th annual NHLPA Golf Classic on July 12 to raise money for "Hockey for Haiti", an effort in which former Hab Georges Laraque is involved. Click the names to see videos. And here's another one of Mike. Can I say that the NHLPA loves Mike, and maybe the Habs players in general? See the article about Mike cheering on the Azzurri. (And YAY for Juventus love!) <NHLPA>

This story is just great, so I have to share. Electronic House has given the 2010 Home of the Year Gold Award for Best Fun Room to a Canadiens home! This house belongs to a fan in Red Deer, Alberta who turned his bar and media room into Canadiens territory. I especially like the C in the ceiling. Man, I hope I can do something similar one day. Be sure to check out the gallery! Photo from Electronic House. <Electronic House>

Gorgeous! ♥

In case you missed them, here are some pictures from the development camp from the Habs. <Canadiens>

Fans neither forgive nor do they forget. Remember the Richard Riot? Halak's trade won't be forgotten unless we get something big out of the Habs next season and on. At least an ECF finish. Stu Cowan speaks to Pierre McGuire and continues to question the controversial trade. Let's see if Bob's 'thoroughbred' (what are they, horses?) comes through for us.  <Montreal Gazette>

Speaking of rioting, the true cost of keeping fans in line during this amazing playoffs run was $2,181,059. Insane, no? But nothing bad happened, so that's great. I guess the playoffs are costly for Montreal, but a Cup would be priceless. (No pun intended.) <Cyberpress (FR)>

Continuing with the money theme, Gary Bettman earns a lot. Just over $7.23 million. And he fights with nice people like Ron MacLean on TV. Yup, you're getting paid well. Does he deserve it? Now that's another question.... <Sports Business Journal>

It's all about money, right? Some teams are struggling to sign players with the $59.4 million cap (e.g. Chicago), while others have many players but haven't even hit the floor of $43.4 million! See Cap Geek for the numbers. <Cap Geek>

Eller and Schultz want to try and please, but actions speak louder than words. Kinda sad that they have to do this. Couldn't we have gotten these guys for Price? St. Louis was interested.... <Sporting News>

Bleacher Report gives us a summary of Pierre Gauthier's moves as a GM. I like it. <Bleacher Report>

It's expensive to be a Habs fan (#2 in the league), but even more expensive to be a Leafs fan (#1 in the league). The Leafs get to be first at something. <Team Marketing Report>

Habsworld discusses captaincy. I'll agree with their choice of Gionta, with Gill and Cammalleri wearing the 'A'. Markov's not usually in the line up, and Gill will probably leave. Maybe let Gill have it for his last year here and then give it to Josh Gorges. <HW>

Jean Beliveau is a classy man. I'm so glad he played for us. <Dennis Kane>

Something I found on the official site: Henri "Pocket Rocket" Richard's playlist. I kid you not. <Canadiens>

...

So now we await Price and we'll see what kinda money he'll be getting. I think we could have probably afforded Halak and had a cheap back up from Hamilton now that Lappy has signed for less than a million. I get the strange feeling we'll be overpaying Price now that he knows he's number one and we don't have anyone else. Gah! Why is goaltending always such a headache for the Habs? The Habs have $4,728,273 to sign Price and anyone from our prospects.

Shots on Net [05.07.10]

So it's been a while and I apologize as I moved and have been doing home renos for a while now. Here's a summary of things that have been going down with our Habs.

PK Subban attended the Pepsi North America Cup event that was mentioned previously. Look at him holding that trophy. Hopefully he can hold Lord Stanley's mug in a Habs jersey. [Toronto Star]

Image by Glenn Lowson for the Toronto Star

The 2010-2011 NHL regular season schedule was released on June 22. The season will start and end in Toronto against the Leafs. The Habs will play St. Louis and Halak (if he's in net) on March 10. [Canadiens]

The Canadiens signed Mathieu Darche on June 22 to a one-year, $500,000 contract on June 22. It's his first one way deal. Good for him. [Canadiens]

Also on June 22 Tomas Plekanec was signed to a six-year, $30 million deal. Gionta and Plekanec are getting paid exactly the same now. I hope we get good point totals from both of them for the terms of their contracts. [Canadiens]

On June 25th the Canadiens were active at the draft, moving up from 27th to 22nd via a deal with the Phoenix Coyotes to snag defenceman Jarred Tinordi in the first round. [Canadiens]

 Picture from Getty Images

Looking good! Though the number 10 was kinda strange to see on him. Number 10 belongs to a beautiful Flower, of course...

The Habs added more prospects on June 26. With the 113th pick, the Habs selected Mark MacMillan. Morgan Ellis was selected at 117th. Brendan Gallagher was taken at 147 and John Westin from Sweden was taken 207th. I must say, John's name doesn't look very Swedish. Maybe that's just me. Hope these guys can all help us out in the near future. I look forward to seeing them don the CH. [Canadiens]

Morgan Ellis looks happy.

Picture from Getty Images

And here's a video of Brendan Gallagher from 2009:

On June 28 Tom Pyatt was signed to a one-year, $500,000 contract. (YAY! Thanks PG.) [Canadiens]

On the same day Benoit Pouliot was strangely given a ginormous raise and signed to a one-year, $1.35 million dollar contract. I'm as confused as the rest of the fans out there. [Canadiens]

On June 29, Sergei Kostitsyn was traded with future considerations to the Nashville Predators for UFA centre Dustin Boyd, goalie Dan Ellis, and future considerations. Ellis signed a two year, $3 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning (and they steal from us again?!!) while Boyd inked a one-year, $650,000 contract with the Habs on Canada Day. No idea about the future considerations. It's interesting to note that these two teams are connected by the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones. [Canadiens]

Also on free agent frenzy day the Habs signed goalie Alex Auld to a one-year, one million dollar contract. It is now official that whoever is in net next season (be it Price or some other poor soul) will be the number one goalie. But thank you Alex for willingly being our back up. I hope your shield of armour is strong enough to take criticism from all the fans and media. [Canadiens]

The eventful Canada Day also saw denfenseman Frédéric St-Denis signed to a one-year, $550,000 contract. [Canadiens]

Goalie Curtis Sanford was given the same money for the same amount as St-Denis on the same day. He chose Montreal over Vancouver and Phoenix, who also made similar offers. [Canadiens]

The PGA showed some love for the Habs by having caddies wear the jerseys of the 17 players with retired numbers. Henri Richard, Yvan Cournoyer, Stephane Quintal, Rejean Houle, Pierre Mondou, and Michael Cammalleri were present from the Habs. You can check out Mike here. [Canadiens]

Scott Gomez is getting Saku Koivu's old number. Number 11 was the number he wore in minor hockey, baseball and basketball. That's one athletic kid. It's interesting that Bob Gainey told him not to wear that number last season. The man had some sense, even though he brought Gomez's ridiculous contract upon us. [The Montreal Gazette]

You can read about Aurèle Joliat's childhood home in Ottawa and see some pictures thanks to this interesting story by the Ottawa Citizen. It's cool to know he lived on Stanley Avenue and won three Stanley Cups! [Ottawa Citizen]

Twenty-two prospects will be attending the Canadiens' second development camp which runs July 6-9. All of this year's draft picks will be attending, as will 'Lars Leller' and Ian Schultz who were acquired in the trade from St. Louis. Is it bad if Eller's name is misspelled so quickly? [Canadiens]


Alexander Avtsin has left HC Dynamo Moscow in order to play for the Canadiens' system. The Russian was chosen in the fourth round, 109th overall in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. He's a big guy It's great to see a player who we recently drafted that actually wants to play for us. Unlike some others. *cough* Louis Leblanc *cough* [Russian Prospects]

You can work for the Habs! (Dream job...*drool*) Ahem, that is if you have the right skills. [Canadiens]

Keep track of the all the remaining contract lengths and signing dates thanks to the official site. [Canadiens]

The Canadiens are facing a cap penalty for the 2010-2011 season. It's (only) $68,751 (some people earn less per year but ok). That puts the Habs' cap at $59,331,249. That's still a load of cash. [Cap Geek]

On a somber note Sgt. James MacNeil, who was a Habs fan was laid to rest in Nova Scotia on July 2 in Cape Breton. Rest in peace. [680 News]

....

All salary figures are from Cap Geek.

So the Canadiens were really busy as the entire post here is full of links to the official website. Hopefully there will be a variety of stories next time. This was inevitable with free agent frenzy going on. 

One thing I don't get: pay cuts for quite a few players, and a pay raise for someone not so deserving. Is this a consequence of signing free agents in the past for insane salaries? Overpaying players hurts you in the future. *sob*

Hope you all enjoyed Canada Day and Independence Day!