What players have expressed willingness to come to Habs but never did....
 

for whatever reason? Include GM's/coaches/scouts/etc as well or even players that did end up coming. If you can also expand on why they did or didn't come over that would be great.

Just curious...

Brisebois (contract not offered, retired)
Kovalev (spent too long mulling over contract...contract taken off table)
Koivu (contract not offered, signed with Anaheim)
Gagne (No cap room, traded to Tampa)
Beauchemin (Not sure if the Habs spoke to him)
Frolov (?)
Laperriere (contract not offered)
Yzerman (No call)
Lemaire (Couldn't agree on a deal, Martin was brought in)
Robinson (No call)

add on...

me (no call)

Kadri (drafted by enemy)
Boucher (stolen by enemy)

Gagné expressed interest to come here?

The ones that come to mind for me are Brendan Shanahan and JP Dumont.

Yeah Montreal was on the list he handed to Philly before he got traded to TB.

Oh and erm... Patrick Lalime :sarcasm:

By talking about "expressing willingness", you frame the question around the players/coaches position, and not around management. Most players and/or coaches are very interested to work for pretty much every team to begin with. And it's perfectly understandable; they are looking for a job, and there are much less of those jobs than people willing to do them.

In practice, for any position (especially for a franchise as "upper class" as the habs), there will be a ton of people interested by it, and thus, by definition, a lot of people "willing to come to the habs" but denied/never called back.

95% of the Francophone players - It is very politic to say you'd like to play for Montreal, but then like everyone else you take the best offer from the best contender team.

Sidney Crosby.

David Perron

Tretiak.

Gagne never wanted to come to Montreal, he said he would knowing the Habs had no room and the Flyers and Habs wouldn't be able to make a deal imo.

Most of the time, it's players who are nearing the end of their career. Rarely do you see a player in his prime showing interest to come and play in Montreal.

Except for half the team right now who were UFAs last summer. But yeah, in years passed it was definitely the case.


Also here's another notable one. Daniel Brière.

briere didnt wanna come here, i thought this was known.

Brett Hull, Brendan Shanahan, Robert Reichel.

There's obviously more, but these 3 came to mind.

I honestly believe this guy will end his career in Montreal. Few more years before we see you in a nice red jersey Crosby!

Make it so! I'll even give him a Mario Lemieux deal, he can surf my couch when he gets here and I'll make sure he gets used to the MTL lifestyle :naughty:

If Briere wanted to play here he would have taken the ridiculous contract that was offered by Gainey.

Brendan Shanahan
Marian Gaborik

I disagree. Habs are a upper echelon franchise but there are a lot of players who did not, do not want to play here.

Maybe I should change the title to "People who expressed a desire to come to the organization".

????????????????

I honestly believe Alex Kovalev will return to Montreal on a much less expensive contract and end his career here... at least I hope so.

I know, I know... lots of you disagree. Because he's a "floater"...

Brett Hull.

He very seriously considered signing a two-year deal with the Canadiens (and apparently was tabled a three year offer as well) but couldn't turn down an opportunity to join the Red Wings.

Uh, no. He obviously didn't want to play in Montreal.

my self, i can make great coffee, and work the phones for PG

I remember that Dumont, when he was UFA, has said that he really wants to play for Habs.

If this is meant simply to bash the management for not bringing in players, we must realize that these things are absolutely not as easy as "sure, climb on board".

#1- many players use negotiations with one team to boost their perceived value for a more desirable landing spot - Martin Lapointe is a good example.

#2- there are plans we have no clue about, evaluations of health/talent/salary structure... these are issues that the ordinary fan will never know.

So debating this a collection of Hab bashing masturbatory fantasies.