Gomez contract is awful and the inclusion of McDonagh has me somewhat baffled (though I wasn't as high on him as most here) but I love Scott Gomez, always terrified me when the Habs played the Devils/Rags, he would always hurt the Habs with his end to end rushes.
I don't care what anyone says, especially not the public opinion here on HFboards which some Habs fans use to gauge any decision it seems, Scott Gomez is a very good player and a fairly significant upgrade on what we had for our top 2 centers the last 2 years. The Rags really struggled scoring goals the last couple of years and I think that has hurt his numbers, Gomez may not be an elite center but he's a PPG/legit #1 center IMO, no question about it.
of course I can't deny the fact that he's got an awful contract, that is part of the trade but the Habs and Gainey have put themselves in a position to take this cap hit and still look to improve the team. So while that 7.35M cap hit sticks out like a sore thumb, the Habs are one of the few teams that can absorb it and continue to try and upgrade the team in other areas. The Habs needed to get better down the middle and this moves does that. I personally think that strictly from a hockey standpoint, Gomez > Koivu + Higgins. That is MY opinion and I know it's probably not share by many but it's what I think.
I still don't think Gainey's done and I suspect he'll make subsequent moves in the next 48hrs which will make this deal look better.
But it proves him wrong that giving a contract of that magnitude to someone means a team will suffer. Lundqvist makes like 6.5, Drury 6.5, Redden 6.5, Roszival 5, yet they still find ways to win.
Of course, but the Rangers are a sad example of how you can be paying "impact" money to several people that just don't live up to expectations. If you compare it to teams like Pittsburgh or Detroit who also pay big bucks to several of their players. Well, those players are the ones who carry their teams when going gets tough. Not the case with the Rangers. And Scott Gomez is exactly one of those players who never delivered when needed the most.
I like this deal for both sides. Montreal gets what they needed, a center, and New York gets some scoring and a good prospect.
Actually we don't because we lost Koivu, thus we are right where we started, except now have 7.3 mil locked up in one player hardly better than the guy we let walk...
I'm not a big Gomez fan by any means but, I don't know, I'm not down on this trade at all.
Gomez is a better player than Higgins. If McDo turns out to be a great d-man, then yeah we'll look bad, but I read a couple of reports this year saying that he wasn't progressing like they thought he would.
Gomez has a big salary but besides that, I don't know, I'm cool with this.
My two cents is many of you are being overly reactionary. I think Gomez will click beautifully with Kovalev and should use his speed to great effect taking outlet passes from Markov.
Habs are a better team today than they were yesterday.
And I like Koivu as much as the next guy, and I'd like to see him come back to this team as the no.2 centre this year, but Gomez is an upgrade over him. Not as injury prone, younger, can play more minutes.
Whitesnake, I do agree that Gainey and Sather were playing poker, Sather desperate to get rid of a big contract and Gainey desperate to land a good center that would help attract a top winger. Gainey blinked in that he gave up the good prospect instead of the other way around . I think Gainey was more desperate. As far as players wanting to play with Koivu over Gomez and the reasons you gave, I agree. The problem is we haven't attracted such a player with Koivu, except maybe Kovalev. As for Gainey creating this specific crises situation , I don't know if I can blame him for it because that means he should have gotten someone else when we weren't so desperate and as I have said, I think he has tried hard. Unfortunately, teams with first line centers don't want to move them ( I was intersted in Jokinen though) and UFA's haven't been interested in the Habs.
As far as Komisarek I am very annoyed at Gainey because of his signing philosophy. Being inflexible on an approach can be a disaster. Look , I believe the Red Wings watch their players develop and if they identify the player as a piece of the puzzle they are willing to commit and offer to extend the guys contract while there is still time in the contract. The Flyers do this as well. common sense tells me a player is more likely to resign , and maybe for a lower amount if his contract doesn't expire for a year than if he just needs to wait a couple of months to be a UFA. The other benefit of trying to extend a guy with a year to go on the contract is that when March hits and if the guy isn't signed, a GM should really know by then that he won't be able to sign the guy and make a an informed decision on whether he should trade him at the deadline or hang onto him for the playoffs even though he will then lose him for nothing, as opposed to wishfully hoping the guy will sign. I agree with posters that Komi Isn't worth 5.5-6 million, but it burns me that Gainey didn't try to something earlier. You know, after Serge Savard and Houle destroed our defence, we had no legitimate hard hitting defencemen for years, except the small but tough Odelein and the junkyard dog Ulanov ( of course he was a bit touched). Then came Souray and then Komisarek. Souray is now gone and it looks like tommorow Komi will as well. You still need tough, hard hitting blueliners and now we will have none. So yeah, I don't like Gaineys ... if the player wishes to play here and we want the player to play here then we will arrive at a mutually satisfactory contract during the period of time we have exclusive negotiating rights with the asset... My opinion is you try to extend the guys contract when there is still plenty of time left, and I say this even though Komi didn't have as good a year as he did before.
Not looking to troll, or do this just to be mean, but I thought you guys might be interested. I'm not going to lie, I can't stand Gomez. You can say I have a bias, whatever. Just passing on some information. I've been a diehard Ranger fan for 15-16 years, never disliked a single player as much as him. And since we in NYC get all the games from the Rangers, Devils, and Islanders on TV, I've seen him play plenty of times when he was a Devil, too. Never liked him, always thought he was incredibly overrated, and was completely against them signing him. He's got all the skills and talents to be a star, but he has zero hockey sense. He's a turnover machine and if he manages to carry the puck into the offensive zone without losing it, he hasn't a clue what to do with it.
But nothing about him bugged me more from the day we got him than this, and you'll notice he began doing this before he left the Devils. In 05-06, when if you recall scoring was elevated around the league and he had his career season (along with Gionta) and for the only time in his career, scored 20 or more goals, he must have thought he had turned into a goal scorer. But even though he obviously hadn't, as numbers began to fall back to Earth league wide, it didn't change his mentality.
This is from a post I made not too long ago on the Rangers board.
1) Ovechkin - 6.7 SOG per game
...
9) Lecavalier - 3.8 SOG per game
...
T-14) Malkin (35 goals), Iginla (35 goals), Gomez (16 goals), Kovalchuk (43 goals), D. Sedin (31 goals), Franzen (34 goals), Phaneuf (11 goals) - 3.5 SOG per game
Of the top 75 in shots on goal last season, everyone from Ovechkin on down to Modano, only three players had a shooting percentage lower than Gomez's 5.9%: Dion Phaneuf and Rob Blake.
So, despite the fact that his scoring just kept going down, "Mr. Muffin," as Henrik Lundqvist said he called Gomez in practice (due to his horrible and weak shot, presumably), just kept on shooting more and more.
Be forewarned: he's a flashy player, but he isn't a very smart one.
I don't like this Deal for only one reason, I wouldn't have gave up the Big D Ryan McDonagh, I think he would have been a way better D than Komisarek when Ryan was ready to step in. I wish Gainey would have included someone else in this Deal! In time I think this Deal will slant in favor of N.Y. Slats has this talent to make it look like you got the better of the Deal, and think he would make a good Pick- pocket! P.S. Hate to Lose McDonagh
My two cents is many of you are being overly reactionary. I think Gomez will click beautifully with Kovalev and should use his speed to great effect taking outlet passes from Markov.
Habs are a better team today than they were yesterday.
Technically, that wasn't very hard now was it? Plus for what it's worth, I think Gomez and Kovalev are a horrible match on paper.
I'm starting to like this deal more and more simply out of spite, the piling on that happening right now is just stupid and is A-typical of any Habs related news these days, it ALWAYS ALL NEGATIVE. Everything about the Habs these days is bad
Anyways...for the thread starter, I welcome a center who shoots the puck.
After this, we absolutely need Koivu! Gomez our saviour? Pfffft....
P.S. 
