Salary Cap: First time in 112 years with no Québec player in lineup

[Kriss E]

Local players are always in demand in traditionnal markets, in all sports, everywhere. Only here is it "racist" and "xenophobic" to have local staff. French media is way over the top on this, but there is also a ton of hypocritical fans who can't accept the french legacy this team has.

I don't know if it's xenophobic or racist but it's pretty dumb AF. This isn't Barca where they can just buy talent and groom their own starts from early teens.
Jose Mourinho coaches Tottenham in the English Premiere...

It's not about asking for local talent, that's perfectly understandable. But you need to understand the reality of your league and put winning as the only priority of the Club.
Ya, would be nice if we could get some local talent here but it also should be completely irrelevant.

The NHL is very different. We can't just buy local talent, every team has access to scouting prospects, we have no dibs on backyard leagues/prospects, so even if we really like a local kid it has to work with our draft position. So shit isn't as easy, even less so considering local talent isn't overwhelmingly available.

 

[Runner77]

I would say. Boisvert and audette need to leave. There is no reason to keep guy withtout a big influence in a scout amateur group. Espacially those from Quebec part. Thats a non sense

It makes zero sense that Tampa is better at fishing out of the Quebec prospect pool than the Habs are. Poach and aggressively hire the right people -- and above all, set standards and don't compromise them.

 

[Milhouse40]

Well the habs should be encouraging hockey in the province, and they should be scouting local talent and searching for undrafted Quebecois players. They should not overpay for people, as they did for Drouin, they should scout better and find value.

If a player is good....all the NHL becomes aware of it. Drafted, Undrafted.
There's no gems hiding in the bush in Brossard playing in the park that no one knows about.

Good Undrafted players are free agent and then they get 5-6-7 offers if not more to choose from. It's up to the players
As for the not so good one....there's tons of them in Laval.

As for encouraging hockey.....you're asking the impossible

It's the parents who decide. How the hell they're going to change that.
There's tons of sports way easier, safer, less crazy and cheaper for parents like Soccer, Baseball, Tennis, Basketball or Ski.
No one can change that.

 

[THE HOFF]

Teams that play to the local BS suffer. Has the French management of this team over the past 25 years not taught you anything. We suck because of it.

So french management is the cause of our demise ? Might want to strap your helmet before going down that road.

 

[Kimota]

Not saying that's all the GM should think about but if MB did not get more, he either has his hands tied from the higher ups or he's a pure moron.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Louis Leblanc was also a huge mistake...........all because of media pressure in our year 100

There was nothing wrong with that pick.

There was a lot wrong with the way we "developed" him.

The lack of any Quebec born players yesterday is just the result of very long years of snubbing local talent at the drafts. No surprise there. Danault and Drouin were obtained thru trades. Hudon is the last drafted player by the Habs from the Q who played some games with the Habs. Belzile was signed as a FA , mainly to play at AHL level. Ouellet is a Detroit's product.

Time to change the name of the team to the Montreal CanadiAns. Like the Molson Canadian.

It has nothing to do with "snubbing" players. There are only about 30 full time French Canadian players league wide. Quebec simply isn't producing the number of players that it used to.

 

[Beendair Donedat]

Again just posting to remind everyone that the world is still turning, the sky has not fallen, and it’s nice to finally take the tiniest of baby steps (kicking and screaming the entire way) into the 21st century.

Would anyone, other than the often vilified Don Cherry, care if the Leaf Blowers didn’t have anyone from Ontario on their team? Yet Cherry is often called a racist or xenophobic. Seems to me those are two sides of the same coin.

You know what other tradition the Habs had? Winning the goddamned Stanley Cup. That one fell to the wayside a long time ago - 1993 to be exact. That’s one tradition I’d like to see revived again in my lifetime.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

The media didn't spend much time berating Drouin.....unless you're talking about social media like this site for example.

Think a little harder, he wasn't referring to your very limited conclusion.

 

[BLONG7]

There was nothing wrong with that pick.

There was a lot wrong with the way we "developed" him.


It has nothing to do with "snubbing" players. There are only about 30 full time French Canadian players league wide. Quebec simply isn't producing the number of players that it used to.

Should have taken Kreider....

 

[BLONG7]

So french management is the cause of our demise ? Might want to strap your helmet before going down that road.

It's not that at all..............the one thing it does, if they only want francophones, it limits us to possibly missing out on the best candidate available. From a sports fan perspective, should we not want the absolute best guy for the job and not necessarily the best french candidate?
This is not an adversarial point of view, but an honest one....

 

[salbutera]

It makes zero sense that Tampa is better at fishing out of the Quebec prospect pool than the Habs are. Poach and aggressively hire the right people -- and above all, set standards and don't compromise them.

In all fairness, vast majority of those Qc prospects have preferred signing as UFAs w TBay vs Mtl - indicating Habs had identified the player, just as they had identified Panarin in the KHL...but player preferred not signing w Mtl for whatever reason.

Marchessault, Barre-Boulet, Gourde all undrafted UFAs vs Joseph who was a 4th rounder

 

[Milhouse40]

And the medias just can't let it go.....and it's funny since in the population and comments on Twitter, there's a lot of fans that don't back their views but yet, no one in the medias is taking their side.

 

[Habs Icing]

Here's a follow-up to my previous post about Hockey Quebec letting down Quebec-born players.

The last time the Habs won the Cup in 93 we had 24 teams in the league and 103 Quebecers in the NHL. An average of 4.29 per team

The time before that in 1986 we had 21 teams and 75 Quebec-born players. An average of 3.76 per team.

And before that in 1979 we had 17 teams and 76 Quebec-born players. An average of 4.5 per team.

This year we had 59 of which 12 played less than 10 games. An average of 1.9 per team. As the number of teams in the NHL increased it seems the number of Quebec born players decreased after 1993.

Now one of the reasons for this decrease is the growing global popularity of the sport. We have more Europeans and Americans in the NHL. However, the other provinces have seen only a slight decrease in their numbers from 1993. Ont produced about 10% fewer players in 2021 than in 1993. B.C. saw no decrease, Alberta a slight decrease, the same for Manitoba and about a 15% decrease for Sask. Quebec on the other hand saw their numbers cut in half. To me, that implies one of two things. Quebec kids don't pursue hockey anymore or the bigwigs in Quebec don't know what the puck they're doing. I vote for the latter.

SOURCE: NHL Players Born in Quebec ‑ 1978-1979 Stats Leaders

 

[LaP]

Joueurs québécois : comment mieux faire?

It's disappointing to see there's still people involved into development who think the problem is the LHJMQ. The league was not a problem for Crosby or Kucherov. The problem is way before that when the kids are 5 to 10 years old. We do not develop skills.

And honestly even though i'm probably alone to think that for me it starts with the hockey fans and the media. Everyone in Quebec from the fans of the Montreal Canadiens, our glorious GM and president to the media and parents keep spitting out that the only thing that matters is the system, character and work ethic.

It's been this way for 20 years now. System, system, work, work, 60 minutes, 200 foots, ... Kids grow up thinking it's true. Then they become coach. And it becomes a vicious circle. The first thing that matters is skills. Then once you got the skills developed at an early age you can focus on the system more.

My generation grew up trying to be the next Guy Lafleur, Mario Lemieux, Larry Robinson, Raymond Bourque or Patrick Roy. We idolized skills. The focus of my coachs was the skills. Back then a lack of skills was seen as a bad thing. Turner Stevenson was laughed at for his lack of skills yet the guy was working very hard. Today Turner Stevenson would be idolized by the fans and the media.

Then something happened. I don't know why but people in Quebec started to idolize work and system. Today it's all about the work and the system. Kids grow up listening to that. They grow up thinking Danault is a great hockey player. That Byron is something special. As long as it will be that way nothing will change. We need to start talking about skills. And it starts with us.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

And the medias just can't let it go.....and it's funny since in the population and comments on Twitter, there's a lot of fans that don't back their views but yet, no one in the medias is taking their side.

Pretty much nobody backs their views and they keep churning out these dumbass articles. Cantin didn't even share his on his Twitter feed. Their pushback is very meek too. It's pathetic.

 

[tazsub3]

It makes zero sense that Tampa is better at fishing out of the Quebec prospect pool than the Habs are. Poach and aggressively hire the right people -- and above all, set standards and don't compromise them.

exactly, like having a no excuse slogan and then having it removed lol

 

[Le Tricolore]

Should have taken Kreider....

Hindsight being 20/20, sure, but it's not like they went off the board for Leblanc. They took him at 18th, around where he was projected, and you're saying they should've taken the guy who went 19th. This type of thing happens to every team every year.

 

[ECWHSWI]

It's not that at all..............the one thing it does, if they only want francophones, it limits us to possibly missing out on the best candidate available. From a sports fan perspective, should we not want the absolute best guy for the job and not necessarily the best french candidate?
This is not an adversarial point of view, but an honest one....

please tell me, as a fan, how do you measure that ?

reality, chances are you'll start saying Habs hired the best available period the day they hire an english speaking only coach/GM, in the meantime, everytime the Habs hire a french speaking GM/coach we'll hear "that's because he's french", like the french speaking guy cannot be the best, period, you know...

 

[BLONG7]

Hindsight being 20/20, sure, but it's not like they went off the board for Leblanc. They took him at 18th, around where he was projected, and you're saying they should've taken the guy who went 19th. This type of thing happens to every team every year.

True, but the went by the way of the media and felt the pressure of drafting a local boy instead of a potential power forward......there is NO way you can convince me that there wasn't a discussion about Kreider. Huge mistake that day....the results are in.
Hindsight is 20/20 for sure, but if the draft was down in Dallas or Florida, I think they make a different selection.
Not sure who was rated where, and if Kreider was rated above Louis or not, but it turned out badly for us, whether we made a draft mistake or a another development blunder, I guess is a different conversation.
I think for the most part, because we have to deal with this, has led to some of our demise.....

As a ton of guys have said there are not even many Quebec vorn players to even choose from, sad and true......but no other team gets caught up in that, they just draft the BPA.

 

[MSLs absurd thighs]

Jonathan Bernier is the very guy who asked Ducharme if Jonathan Drouin was under substance abuse protocol when it was painfully clear that the guy was having a burn out/a depression. He has absolutely no credibility on the matter.

 

[BLONG7]

please tell me, as a fan, how do you measure that ?

reality, chances are you'll start saying Habs hired the best available period the day they hire an english speaking only coach/GM, in the meantime, everytime the Habs hire a french speaking GM/coach we'll hear "that's because he's french", like the french speaking guy cannot be the best, period, you know...

First and foremost, they don't even consider english only candidates....no one has to remember anything.....it is what it is, and it's wrong.
I am sure you remember the Cunneyworth fiasco.............our money grabbing owner, apologized to everyone for having the audacity, yes the audacity to hire english only.....................heaven forbid...

Again this is not me, doing anything in an advisarial type of way at all................I want the best GM's coaches and players, whether they are American, english or french candian, Swedish, German, whatever. If they are french, what a bonus...
The language, culture and politics in my view has NO business being in these discussions.

 

[Milhouse40]

Hindsight being 20/20, sure, but it's not like they went off the board for Leblanc. They took him at 18th, around where he was projected, and you're saying they should've taken the guy who went 19th. This type of thing happens to every team every year.

Yeah but Timmins said himself he would have picked Kreider if it wasn't for the Fans.

But the medias are so good at saying: Juulsen and we could have had beauvilliers instead and that type of claims....that game can be played both ways and not only when they want to.

 

[ECWHSWI]

First and foremost, they don't even consider english only candidates....no one has to remember anything.....it is what it is, and it's wrong.
I am sure you remember the Cunneyworth fiasco.............our money grabbing owner, apologized to everyone for having the audacity, yes the audacity to hire english only.....................heaven forbid...

Again this is not me, doing anything in an advisarial type of way at all................I want the best GM's coaches and players, whether they are American, english or french candian, Swedish, German, whatever. If they are french, what a bonus...
The language, culture and politics in my view has NO business being in these discussions.

it is in the discussions, and franckly it's not only in Montreal or in hockey... the main difference is it's being done in the open in Montreal. Fact it include a different language makes it obvious as I doubt people see english speaking baseball players and bother looking if this guy is from NY or Chicago or something where as french accent is there, you don't have to "look for it". Same for the name, doubt anyony think someone named Stephane Tremblay is anything but french speaking you know...

 

[sandviper]

Since the 2000s? It’s happened way before that and has downspiraled since all the head offices and significant wealth left the city. But, I digress.

Immigrants and people from a multitude of cultural heritages are also rabid Hab fans. It’s as if they don’t exist — the third solitude is so marginalized that it doesn’t even get a mention.

No, it’s not just a language thing — for some it’s an identity thing. I still remember when Stéphane Leroux’s definition of a Quebecker was someone with French bloodlines — he’s softened his stance over the years but there are still lots of dinosaurs who think and communicate publicly like he used to and who want the Habs to be a conduit for their arcane and very narrow vision.

I’m afraid it’s not so black and white — there are a myriad of layers, that drive this into the political realm — which is a matter for some other forum based on this forum’s practices.

For those who remember, Pat Burns was often criticized about his background despite being from Montreal. I won't go further than that.

It makes zero sense that Tampa is better at fishing out of the Quebec prospect pool than the Habs are. Poach and aggressively hire the right people -- and above all, set standards and don't compromise them.

Pretty much this. It's not that Tampa gets more out of QC, but they are better at it. Just using players mentioned earlier, Marchessault and Gourde joined the Crunch in 2013 - 2014, and the team had 11 players from QC. In contrast, one the Bulldogs, we had 7.

Fast forward to 2018-2019, Barre-Boulet who the Habs definitely should have tried harder to sign, played along 8 other QC players (9 total). The Rocket had 14 on their team. Belzile and Alain are our notables, but then we have guys like Audette, Lamarche and Grenier who washed out.

Basically, I don't think Tampa is getting more players from the Q exactly, but they are just better at it. That said, we should keep in mind that players like Barre-Boulet chose Tampa over Montreal I believe. Also, it's no guarantee those 3 in particular would had thrived here, more specifically pre-Bouchard players. The Lefebvre years were dark ones developmentally, so Marchessault and Gourde dodged a bullet.

Jonathan Bernier is the very guy who asked Ducharme if Jonathan Drouin was under substance abuse protocol when it was painfully clear that the guy was having a burn out/a depression. He has absolutely no credibility on the matter.

Plus, substance abuse is a completely different program. Habs wouldn't put Drouin under LTIR if that was the case.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Do you guys not see that Q players mostly suck and theres like 20 good ones in the entire world?