Montreal Canadiens

Habs improvement : enough to facilitate a trade?

First game after the allstar break, and another ruthlessly efficent win, 4-0 over Washington, further solidifying the notion that the Habs with 62 points in 50 games are becoming an elite level team. With the trade deadline approaching, the question for general manager Bob Gainey is whether a trade deadline deal should be made to benefit the team in the short term, or to maintain the status quo with an eye to the future. Adding intrigue to potential trade deadline scenarios, is the various options Gainey has at his disposal. Gainey could package the likes of Michael Ryder, the teams first round draft pick for 2008, and a prominent young player in the Habs farm system to acquire a top end talent that could significantly impact on the Canadiens post season success.

As always, Gainey will have to determine the needs of the team and balance that with a perspective on how legitimately close he believes the Canadiens are from making a run deep into the playoffs this season. From a historical perspective, trade deadline deals are usually heavily skewed in favour of the seller and not the buyer. Too often, the buyer mortgages away too much for a short term rental player that does not have a great impact on the team. A deadline deal would deviate from Gainey’s build from within approach. That philosophy has thus far yielded a very balanced attack, a cohesive team with good depth, on a affordable budget.

The Canadiens victory over the Capitals demonstrated the difference between a team ascending to the top end of the league’s standings, and a team simply trying to maintain a competitive playoff position. The Capitals have three top tier talents, surrounded by 17 players buying into a system. The Habs now have as many as 10 players that can step up and change the tone and dimension of a game. The evolution of the Habs was succintly summed by Alex Kovalev’s insightful comment: ” the team has taken a long journey to get to the point where the guys are more confident with the puck. Sometimes we play dump and chase, but I see a lot more guys who are comfortable, moving the puck around, making passes and making plays. If you control the puck 60 to 70 percent of the time, its definetly a lot easier a game to play.”

As Kovalev points out, the 2007-08 edition of the Canadiens have evolved into a dangerous team, due to increased confidence based on improved skill level, and better execution. The Habs have gone from a positional passing team, which would utilize one pass and subsequentially dump the puck in the offensive zone, and then either wait for a mistake by the opposition, or try to retrieve the puck and create a offensive chance. Now, as a more accomplished team, the Habs still employ a strong defensive zone coverage, but also play a controlled run and gun style whereby they try and create a scoring chance by utilizing team speed to out number the opposition and produce oddman rushes. The Habs now employ a superior transition game by making an efficent first outlet pass out of their zone, strong puck handling abilities through the neutral zone, and either dump the puck into the offensive zone and outskate the opposition to regain puck control, or maintain puck possession through a series of effective passes across the blueline. The Canadiens superior team skill set is illustrated in the fact that the club is one of the least penalized teams in the league. They force the opposition to take penalties due to their time of possession with the puck. The Habs, are now a multi dimensional team that can intimidate the opposition with speed, skill and a surprising amount of physicality in their game. They afe frequently first on a loose puck, with speed they constantly get into passing lanes, disrupting the opposition. Every 5 man unit has players willing to pay a physical price to make a play, and often even the teams skill players are willing to initiate physical contact to gain puck control.

Given the attributes of the team, Gainey must decide if the time is right to make a move this season or to allow the team to continue to develop organically. Given Gainey’s propensity for building the team from within, it is doubtful that he is prepared to mortgage away any part of the teams future, for a potentially unproductive quick fix. Given the influx of quality young talent in the past few years, (Plekanec, the Kostitsyn brothers, Higgins,Komisarek,etc) it is hard to argue with his perspective. Nonetheless, the Habs rapid acceleration to the top of the leagues standings, may give Gainey pause to consider a deal if it meets his requirements. In all probability, that would involve acquiring a top shelf player that produces at close to a point a game pace, that could work effectively alongside Koivu and Higgins. Such a player would also have to be amenable to having a contract extended beyond the present year, in order for Gainey to consider offering some combination of draft picks and young prospects.

No matter whether Gainey decides to stand pat, or pursue a significant trade, the reality that those options are viable considerations provides tangible evidence to the ever improving present and future of the hockey team. The rebuilding phase of the Gainey administration is complete, now the team is entering into the second phase, finding the final missing part(s) to get Lord Stanley back to Montreal.