There may be others lost in the sands of time but I figured I'd stick with the last 30 years or so.
Let's see there's Irving Grundman who drafted Wickenheiser over Savard (many have defended this trade but their defense has fallen on deaf ears from those who can't forgive the sin of losing Denis Savard.)
There's Rejean Houle who's responsible for 'the Trade' and was accused of being a puppet of Ron Corey's.
Bob Gainey makes an appearance here given his half-hearted and then aborted rebuild.
And finally we have Mr. Gauthier who has guided the club to what seems like a probable last place finish in the Eastern conference as well as a Lottery Pick.
Rejean Houle is probably the worst but Gainey got my vote. I would like to take this opportunity and say again:
**** you Mr. Gainey, and **** you Mr. Gauthier.
I voted for Houle but in fairness he should never have been there in the first place. He had zero experience in front office and go right to running the Habs. That's quite the jump
I voted for Houle but in fairness he should never have been there in the first place. He had zero experience in front office and go right to running the Habs. That's quite the jump
the person appointing him has been extremely incompetent, that's for sure. This might absolve some of the blame off Houle.
BUT
This doesn't change the fact that, on a whole, Houle was the worse GM. This isn't the GM who should shoulder the most blame, but the single worst one
Houle had to cope with a scouting staff that became dormant under Savard, with Ronald Corey who micromanaged everything and an ownership group that demanded he shed payroll.
Gainey had Timmins - one of the best head scouts in the business - and he still manged to destroy this team. He has no excuse for his terrible moves except that he's a terrible GM.
really - how could anyone not vote for Houle? The man had absolutely no clue and no plan. I feel bad about the hand he was dealt but does not mean he was not the absolute worse GM in the history of the team, maybe the of any team in the last 20 years (including Mike Milbury).
There may be others lost in the sands of time but I figured I'd stick with the last 30 years or so.
Let's see there's Irving Grundman who drafted Wickenheiser over Savard (many have defended this trade but their defense has fallen on deaf ears from those who can't forgive the sin of losing Denis Savard.)
There's Rejean Houle who's responsible for 'the Trade' and was accused of being a puppet of Ron Corey's.
Bob Gainey makes an appearance here given his half-hearted and then aborted rebuild.
And finally we have Mr. Gauthier who has guided the club to what seems like a probable last place finish in the Eastern conference as well as a Lottery Pick.
Discuss.
Absolutely impossible to judge. Houle had to deal with one of the worst budget possible, everytime he had a good player that was going to become a UFA (or sign for more money) he had to deal him and he never even had the chance to sign an UFA worth mentionning. The latter two worked in a cap era with equal chances to every other GM. That's not even comparable.
Voted Houle. The Franchise never truly recovered from the Houle Era !
Altough if you give the Gainey/Gauthier enough time they could manage to do just as bad.
Did somebody ever come out with a book or another behind-the-scene article about the Houle era? I still can't understand on what basis he was hired. I mean, what are his major standout qualities:
- Good guy, very likable.
- Good company man.
- ???????
There were so many bad hockey decisions at a time when Molson was loosing money with the team, I think it's obvious that he was always supposed to be a fall-guy for ownership's inability to compete financially. And now once again a Molson is running the team into the ground.
Can anybody recommend anything to read about the subject?
Houle and it's not even close. Horrible trades, horrible drafting, and lineups full of AHL calibre players. There was no reason to be optimistic during entire Houle era. He drafted horribly and always threw a prospect away in every trade.
We've at least been competitive under Grundman, Gainey and Gauthier (other than this year).
