[Papa_Bear_21]

Originally Posted by onice

I never said the Chelios trade was a good one. I just said the Gomez trade was worse. They won a Cup with Savard & he never saddled them with a ridiculous contract.

Chelios for Savard.......the Habs win a Cup with Savard balanced with the fact that Chelios went on to have a Hall of Fame career except he moved on and didn't stay with the Hawks. Agreed it was a bad trade in the long ter,. Short term, Savard helped us get a Cup.

The Habs won the Cup INSPITE of Chelios being traded, not because he was traded. In fact, Denis Savard played only 14 games in the playoffs (contributing only 5 assists) and none in the finals if I remember correctly.

Originally Posted by onice

The Gomez trade....we trade away 3 assets - one of which will become a top 4 d-man for a mediocre 2nd line centerman who in a salary cap world earns over 7 million dollars and handcuffs the team because he's not earning his money and he's playing so badly no one wants him.

Actually we gave up 3 assets (two of which are not currently on the NHL club) for what was perceived by many NHLers as a legitimate #1 centerman at the time. But that's not all we ended up getting (and I'm not talking about Pyatt and Busto).

From my post a little higher up in this thread:

....please don't forget that with Gomez came Gionta, Cammer, and probably Hal Gill. While they are not superstar players, they have played a HUGE roll in our success the last two years.
People can say what they want about the Canadiens offering more money than others, but in over 15 years of free agency in the NHL, they had NEVER signed a prominent UFA that had not already played with the team. There's no way 2 all of sudden sign here with 37 point Tomas Pleckanec as the #1 center and a team that essentially imploded in the second half of season.

Now, not only having those players had a positive result on the success of the team, having Gionta and Cammer also allowed Patches to play in Hamilton at the end of the '08-'09 season and the beginning of the '09-'10 season, which potentially saved his career (as a first line player that is). Furthermore, I don't think anyone can debate the effect Hal Gill had on PK Subban, who is on his way to becoming a mega star.

So the way I see it, the Habs traded McDonagh for Gomez, Cammer, Gionta, Gill, the development of Patches into a legitimate top 6 forward (and maybe power forward) and the maturity of PK Subban. Doesn't look like the "top 5 worst trade" in team history to me.

Originally Posted by onice

And you brought up Pierre McGuire about shaking your heads. Why don't you go back and listen to Pierre and hear what he had to say about the trade.

Actually, I listen to Pierre virtually every day. So I've heard what he thinks of the trade many times because he tends to repeat himself, particularly when it comes to dissing the Habs players, coaches, and management, which he does often.
If you listen to Elliotte Friedman talk about the trade, his view is a lot more tempered, even if he is not totally in agreement with it. And for the record, I did not love it at the time and I don't love it now, but between trading McDonagh for Gomez or PK, Pleckanec and maybe Halak or Price for Lecavalier (as was rumored) I would take the Gomez trade all day.