Confirmed with Link: Domi for Galchenyuk

[The Feckless Puck]

No, I think the rebuild started when the NHL sold the team to IA, before Chayka became GM.

Whatever rebuild happened when the NHL sold the team to IceArizona got demolished when Barroway and Tippett had their mutually-agreed-upon divorce. The team got a completely new front office, a new coaching staff, and - in the year and change since it happened - almost a completely new roster. If that's not a total rebuild, then I don't know what is.

 

[Jakey53]

Does it really matter when a rebuild started???

Seems to me too many people are getting hung up on that just to justify a debate point.

At this stage I don’t freakin’ care about that crap. I just want to see the team improve from year to year.

Rebuilding teams should improve year over year for, I don't know, four or five years, then they plateau and hopefully stay that way for a number or years, then they start to regress and the cycle starts all over. Sometimes the rebuild works and sometimes it doesn't so a rebuild starts over again earlier. I think it's more or a reference point more than anything. Posters on this forum have different opinions when our rebuild started, so it's really just posters giving there opinion, something to discuss, that's all, just like you and the rest of BOH forum talking for the last ten years about when the Coyotes are leaving.

 

[Jakey53]

Whatever rebuild happened when the NHL sold the team to IceArizona got demolished when Barroway and Tippett had their mutually-agreed-upon divorce. The team got a completely new front office, a new coaching staff, and - in the year and change since it happened - almost a completely new roster. If that's not a total rebuild, then I don't know what is.

Like I just mentioned, everyone has their opinion when the rebuild started. For me, the rebuild started with the Yandle trade, but if you think otherwise that's fine.

 

[Price is Wright]

If Galchenyuk has 1C potential, Montreal would have figured that out.

This really grinds my gears.

2012-13 he comes into the league in a lockout shortened season. Plays the wing.

2013-14 plays the wing again but moves up to the top six. Team feels David Desharnais is a better option at centre.

2014-15 plays the wing... again... instead of centre where DD is, who is losing his 1C spot. Plekanec is sheltered with Pacioretty to look better than he is and gets a contract out of it. Chuck gets 10 games at centre in January and nearly puts up a point every game but Michel Therrien criticizes his two way play.

2015-16 the team decides to keep DD at centre but move Lars Eller to the wing so Galchenyuk plays centre with Alex Semin as the other guy on his line. Plays well but his wingers struggle. By December, Desharnais is back with Pacioretty and Chuck is moved to the right wing this time. Therrien praises himself for it. At some point DD gets hurt. They audition several guys for the 1C role including a 20 year old Mike McCarron before finally playing Galchenyuk. He explodes with Pacioretty, who plays more of a playmaker role for Chuck. He goes point for game at centre but it gets written off as bad team end of season play.

2016-17 it is made clear he is the 1C of the team. Plays near point per game with Pacioretty and Radulov. Gets hurt. Julien becomes the coach. Chuck gets rushed back and plays like a guy playing hurt. Julien takes him off centre to put Philip Danault at 1C. At the start of the playoffs Julien plays Galchenyuk at the fourth line on wing and claims to be trying to spread out the offence. Eventually with nothing working in the final game that year, moves Galchenyuk back at centre and the Habs are eliminated with Chuck taking the final faceoffs. Bergevin that summer announces that Galchenyuk is not a centre.

2017-18 Galchenyuk plays wing while Jonathan Drouin gains 10lbs and tries to learn how to play centre. He fails. Both play their best when put on a line together where they basically switch roles after faceoffs. Chuck's two way play has improved and he is strong on the faceoff when he gets a chance in the second half of the season. He never plays a centre role though. Julien's lines that year had Danault, De la Rose, Byron, Drouin, Plekanec, and Hudon all assigned a Top 6 C role over Chuck, who only plays the wing.

Conclusion: Montreal had him since 2012. They never figured it out. That's on Bergevin. The obvious move was in 13-14 to move DD to the wing so Galchenyuk could play centre full time. Instead DD never stopped playing C and even in 15-16 when he was supposed to now be the 3C with Fleischmann and Weise, got just as many minutes as the Eller-Chuck-Semin line and not much less than the Patches-Plek-Gally line. Montreal handled this very poorly. Maybe I'm wrong. I was wrong about Beaulieu. But every year following that wretched team was watching a guy with all the potential in the world be screwed around with instead of treated like the #1 team prospect and third overall pick.

 

[Coyotes2000]

Why is it such a big deal that the guy plays at Center?

 

[Foggy1097]

Why is it such a big deal that the guy plays at Center?

Because he wants to play center and feels that he is the most comfortable and effective playing there...and by all accounts, the numbers prove this to be true. He cannot be a complete defensive liability, but I don’t think he will be. This will be a great test of Toc’s communication and teaching ability, but I’m optimistic that it will go well and I think they’ll give him a pretty long leash and plenty of reps so that he has every chance to succeed there.

 

[Bonsai Tree]

I, for one, am tired of watching the lines filled out like a BINGO game. I’d give both Chuck and Strome the full year. I’d tell them so so that they’re not over stressed at the start of the season.

 

[Bryson]

This will be Galchenyuk next year...

 

[cobra427]

I, for one, am tired of watching the lines filled out like a BINGO game. I’d give both Chuck and Strome the full year. I’d tell them so so that they’re not over stressed at the start of the season.

I wouldn't. I would tell every player you earn ice time, its not a gift, the merit system. The second you give ice time out and don't hold players equally accountable is the start of players not respecting the coaches any more.

 

[Foggy1097]

I wouldn't. I would tell every player you earn ice time, its not a gift, the merit system. The second you give ice time out and don't hold players equally accountable is the start of players not respecting the coaches any more.

Very true. But if Chucky makes a couple mistakes in his own end you can’t just pull him out or move him to wing. Young players playing center need reps...they don’t always know how to handle a situation or where to be until they face it numerous times and learn from their experiences. That is something MTL had no patience with. This is something that Toc and the organization have shown a willingness to be patient with so far. They’ve been patient with Strome and Dvo and I expect they will do the same with Chucky. They will give themselves a solid sample size with him at center to determine whether or not they think he should stay there full time.

 

[Jakey53]

I, for one, am tired of watching the lines filled out like a BINGO game. I’d give both Chuck and Strome the full year. I’d tell them so so that they’re not over stressed at the start of the season.

Play dictates ice time. They have to earn it, just like the rest of the C's. IF they can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.

 

[johnchayka89]

The balance of reward & punishment is an art. All players make mistakes. Mistakes differ...
If the player has his own agenda, isn't listening to the coach and playing his system, then there is a bigger problem.

 

[johnchayka89]

This will be Galchenyuk next year...

Bryson, what was the general consensus in Montreal about Galchenyuk?
Was it the player, or was it the management being blamed?

 

[Bryson]

Bryson, what was the general consensus in Montreal about Galchenyuk?
Was it the player, or was it the management being blamed?

100% management. Have you ever experienced racism or bigotry? Unless you experience it first hand it's very difficult to quantify and explain. In only one year and a half Bergevin had traded away every black and russian player on the team.... including a Norris Trophy defenseman and 30 goal scoring Galchenyuk was the cherry on the Sundae.

Galchenyuk has been near point per game every single time he has played as a top 6 center. In one of his first stints at center where he played for about 12 games he did better than expected including scoring his first hattrick and the coach had told the media that Galchenyuk came to see him to let him know that he was more comfortable on the wing,.. just so that he could promote his teacher's pet and local french boy David Desharnais. Galchenyuk later confirmed this to be completely false and a lie. Think about it. Which player goes point per game and then asks the coach to be removed from the top line so that he could go back to playing with scrubs? How does that make sense? In the year he scored 30 goals, he only did it because DD got injured so Galch got promoted to #1C where he went on a ridiculous tear scoring majority of his goals on the back end of the season because of it. If DD does not get injured, Galch never even has that 30 goal season.

Montreal is currently being held hostage and being invaded by a foreign bacteria known as Marc Bergevin. Things are so bad in MTL right now that fans are wanting to get a GoFundMe going to put up some billboards around the city asking for the GM to be fired and wanting the owner to sell the team. It did take time for fans to turn on Bergevin though and even today he still has his staunch supporters. Nobody wants to admit that their GM is incompetent I guess. As for AG there are also people that believe he is not a center. People will only believe what they see and that will be up to Galchenyuk to prove his critics wrong.

For the record this bias was not only against Galchenyuk. Lars Eller was also traded from a team that had no centers, he went on to have a career year and score the stanley cup game winning goal. The reason MTL would fail in the playoffs year after year is because management chose to go with 5'6 local french boy Desharnais as their #1C... here is a picture of what playing Desharnais in the playoffs looked like, this is the guy they chose over Galchenyuk and Eller...can't make this stuff up folks...

 

[Jamieh]

Yet tgat same Racist GM kept the Native goalie?? What complete BS pulling the racism card. In 7 drafts as Montreal GM Bergevin has drafted a Russian with his first pick 3 times.

100% management. Have you ever experienced racism or bigotry? Unless you experience it first hand it's very difficult to quantify and explain. In only one year and a half Bergevin had traded away every black and russian player on the team.... including a Norris Trophy defenseman and 30 goal scoring Galchenyuk was the cherry on the Sundae.

Galchenyuk has been near point per game every single time he has played as a top 6 center. In one of his first stints at center where he played for about 12 games he did better than expected including scoring his first hattrick and the coach had told the media that Galchenyuk came to see him to let him know that he was more comfortable on the wing,.. just so that he could promote his teacher's pet and local french boy David Desharnais. Galchenyuk later confirmed this to be completely false and a lie. Think about it. Which player goes point per game and then asks the coach to be removed from the top line so that he could go back to playing with scrubs? How does that make sense? In the year he scored 30 goals, he only did it because DD got injured so Galch got promoted to #1C where he went on a ridiculous tear scoring majority of his goals on the back end of the season because of it. If DD does not get injured, Galch never even has that 30 goal season.

Montreal is currently being held hostage and being invaded by a foreign bacteria known as Marc Bergevin. Things are so bad in MTL right now that fans are wanting to get a GoFundMe going to put up some billboards around the city asking for the GM to be fired and wanting the owner to sell the team.

For the record this bias was not only against Galchenyuk. Lars Eller was also traded from a team that had no centers, he went on to have a career year and score the stanley cup game winning goal. The reason MTL would fail in the playoffs year after year is because management chose to go with 5'6 local french boy Desharnais as their #1C... here is a picture of what playing Desharnais in the playoffs looked like, this is the guy they chose over Galchenyuk and Eller...can't make this stuff up folks...

 

[Bryson]

Yet tgat same Racist GM kept the Native goalie?? What complete BS pulling the racism card. In 7 drafts as Montreal GM Bergevin has drafted a Russian with his first pick 3 times.

I'm sorry does Price look black or Russian to you? See what I said? Nobody wants to admit that racism exists even when presented with the evidence. It's not something you can prove unless caught wearing a white hood, and even then.

Yes he drafted 3 Russians, 3rd overall pick 30 goal scorer Galchenyuk was traded for a 3rd liner that scored 5 non empty net goals last season. Sergachev, a potential franchise defenseman with #1D upside was traded a year later for a disgruntled local french kid Drouin who asked Yzerman to be traded when he refused to report to the team and whom MTL attempted to play at center even though he has never done so in his life. Needless to say that didn't go so well.

Claude Julien's anti Russian bias is no secret and goes back to his days as coach in Boston...

https://www.tsn.ca/agent-blames-julien-for-fewer-russians-on-habs-galchenyuk-s-struggles-1.896907

 

[Jamieh]

I'm sorry does Price look black or Russian to you? See what I said? Nobody wants to admit that racism exists even when presented with the evidence. It's not something you can prove unless caught wearing a white hood, and even then.

Yes he drafted 3 Russians, 3rd overall pick 30 goal scorer Galchenyuk was traded for a 3rd liner that scored 5 non empty net goals last season. Sergachev, a potential franchise defenseman with #1D upside was traded a year later for a disgruntled local french kid Drouin who asked Yzerman to be traded when he refused to report to the team and whom MTL attempted to play at center even though he has never done so in his life. Needless to say that didn't go so well.

Claude Julien's anti Russian bias is no secret and goes back to his days as coach in Boston...

https://www.tsn.ca/agent-blames-julien-for-fewer-russians-on-habs-galchenyuk-s-struggles-1.896907

So he used his Team's best puck 3 years out of 7 to draft Russians but he is Racist afainst Russians so he traded them?? That's some sound circular reasoning by you!!! I would highly doubt you would find many people who are Racist who also like Natives in Canada. It's just possible that your GM isn't very good at his job and highly unlikely he is Racist. Also not sure Russia is a Race??

 

[Bryson]

So he used his Team's best puck 3 years out of 7 to draft Russians but he is Racist afainst Russians so he traded them?? That's some sound circular reasoning by you!!! I would highly doubt you would find many people who are Racist who also like Natives in Canada. It's just possible that your GM isn't very good at his job and highly unlikely he is Racist. Also not sure Russia is a Race??

I don't really care to argue semantics with you. Ever heard of lazy russians or you can't win with russians? There's also a fear that some Russians might just pack their bags and bolt back to Russia like Yakupov or Radulov. To deny that bias doesn't exist is being naive.

Julien came in last year after the Russians had already been drafted. And yes it's possible that the GM is not racist, that he's just an idiot. But again trading 1 russian player is one thing, but trading all of them in practically one off season is more than just co-incidence. The #1C position in MTL was like a $2 dollar hooker with everyone getting a turn yet Galchenyuk didn't get a single shift at center? Anyways for whatever reason better players were traded for inferior players under bergevin over the years, call it whatever you want. Bergevin completely destroyed the left side of the defense... Markov, Emelin, Sergachev etc.. all gone...

 

[Bonsai Tree]

I'd want to see a lot move evidence before accepting these accusations against Bergevin and or Julien that they are racist. Come on.

 

[Summer Rose]

Galchenyuk isn't even of Russian descent. His dad's from Belarus. Mix up a Belarusian with a Russian and they're liable to punch you in the face.

 

[XX]

Why is it such a big deal that the guy plays at Center?

He is, statistically speaking, a special player at center, given his production. Much less special at wing.

 

[Jamieh]

Galchenyuk isn't even of Russian descent. His dad's from Belarus. Mix up a Belarusian with a Russian and they're liable to punch you in the face.

Not too mention he played Internationally for USA and only spent a few years of his life in Russia. His Father only played two years in Russia after he was born.

 

[Bryson]

I'd want to see a lot move evidence before accepting these accusations against Bergevin and or Julien that they are racist. Come on.

What kind of proof do you want? A personally signed affidavit? Well that's not going to happen. Come on.

Galchenyuk isn't even of Russian descent. His dad's from Belarus. Mix up a Belarusian with a Russian and they're liable to punch you in the face.

And to a racist chinese, vietnamese and japanese are all the same because they have slanty eyes. If you think that someone with bias is going to make the distinction guess again.

Let's not pretend like french players aren't being favored with affirmative action just because of where they were born. We had Francis Bouillon playing ahead of PK Subban for Christ's sake and Desharnais as our #1C. This is the reality we must accept as a fan of the MTL Canadiens whether you agree with it or not and it's infuriating. We just want the best GM, Coach and players for the job regardless of where they were born or what language they speak... maybe by the year 2052...

 

[Jamieh]

What does that make Tippet for playing Moss and Chipchura??? You have no idea what's happening behind the scenes so to just cry Racism says plenty about you.

What kind of proof do you want? A personally signed affidavit? Well that's not going to happen. Come on.



And to a racist chinese, vietnamese and japanese are all the same because they have slanty eyes. If you think that someone with bias is going to make the distinction guess again.

Let's not pretend like french players aren't being favored with affirmative action just because of where they were born. We had Francis Bouillon playing ahead of PK Subban for Christ's sake and Desharnais as our #1C. This is the reality we must accept as a fan of the MTL Canadiens whether you agree with it or not and it's infuriating. We just want the best GM, Coach and players for the job regardless of where they were born or what language they speak... maybe by the year 2052...

 

[Bryson]

Not too mention he played Internationally for USA and only spent a few years of his life in Russia. His Father only played two years in Russia after he was born.

A few years of his life? The only reason Galchenyuk was even born in the states is because his father was playing for the Milwaukee Admirals at the time. He moved back to Russia at the age of 4 and came back to the states at the age of 15. Which do you think had more of an impact on Galchenyuk's life, ages 0-4 or 4-15 where he literally grew up, learned to speak Russian and play hockey? Hmm tough choice here...even at 24 years old that still equates to having spent nearly half his life in Russia.