The McDonagh trade

[Agnostic]

Alot of us knew the story behind that trade.

Here's the shorterversion:

1. Bob Gainey joined the club as GM 2003, by 2009 the Habs Centennial Year the Habs were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round after a what was thought as a packed team. Gainey decided to take another direction. Captain Koivu, Kovalev, Komisarek were all let go.

2. Gainey offered Tomas Plekanec, Josh Gorges, PK Subban another player some believed it to be Carey Price to Tampa Bay for Vincent Lecavalier. Brian Lawton, TB GM at the time, wanted to see what else he can get and released that to the media, Gainey got upset and negotiated a trade with NY Rangers for Gomez.

3. Everyone in the league knew that Gomez was going to be bought out by the Rangers because they were high on signing UFA Marian Gaborik. It was as obvious as Tomas Vanek signing with Minnesota Wilds. Days before Gomez being bought out, Gainey called Slather and asked for Gomez. Gomez at the time still had 5 years left on a $7 mil per season deal after signing a 7 year contract $52 mil with the Rangers 2 years earlier.

4. The principal deal was Gomez for Higgins as the Canadiens didn't want to resign Higgins for $3.5 million Higgins was looking for. Higgins ended up signing $2.5 mil with the Rangers after the trade.

5. Ryan McDonagh was developing the way the Habs were thinking he would. Some believed he'll stay in school for another 3-4 years, same with David Fischer.

6. Gainey decided to throw in Ryan McDonagh along with Chris Higgins, Pavel Valentenko who told the team he was heading back to Russia and Doug Janik for Scott Gomez, Tom Pyatt and Michael Busto.
When fans first heard Gomez for Higgins we were all like ok, that's a good trade, a #2 center who's overpaid for a 2rd line winger. Then as the trade was finalized, we heard Ryan McDonagh, we knew it right then that it was going to be a bad trade. McDonagh was our top prospect at the time, much like Jarred Tinordi is now. Most fans never gave Gomez a chance to begin with.

7. With Gomez as the new #1 center, Gainey was able to sign Brian Gionta who was his linemate in NJ. Then Mike Cammalleri signed along with Travis Moen, and Paul Mara to replace the likes of Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev, Mike Komisarek, Robert Lang and Chris Higgins.

8. Our first year we went deep in the playoffs thanks to Cammalleri and Halak. Everyone just forgot about McDonagh.

9. McDonagh developed and is now a top 10 NHL defenseman. Probably the next Captain of the NY Rangers and might win the Norris Trophy. Much like Chris Chelios

10. Management tries to replicate McDonagh by drafting Jarred Tinordi and Nathan Beaulieu. I think both Tinordi and Beaulieu will be NHL regulars.

The lesson here is don't give up on our prospects until after 25 years old.

McDonagh-Subban would have been nice.

The END

This is the one post that might have as much fail in it as the OP. Won't debate point by point as I've already given this thread more time than it deserves but I assure you don't have a clue what the "story behind the trade is".

 

[ECWHSWI]

I'd like to know more about this McDonuts defenseman you guys are talking about, never heard his name here before...

 

[WeThreeKings]

Flat out not true.. I was pissed enough when it was Higgins for Gomez straight up. It only got worse from there.

 

[sharks9]

I just hate that Habs fans feel the need to whine about this trade all the time. It happened and we don't have McDonagh, now get over it.

 

[Smokey Thompson]

That's enough, when's hockey starting again. I need hockey, where can I watch hockey. Someone find me some hockey.

What a horrible thing hockey. It's like a crack addict. Except one day you actually stop being to get that crack. No matter what you do, you cannot get that crack.

Then you start searching the carpet for crumbs of crack.

Which is what this thread is. Searching the carpet for crumbs of hockey.

I too need my fix of hockey.

The off season is way too long, and seems to have taken a toll on OP.

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

If you go back in time and always keep your key prospects because they will become #1 Ds, then maybe you never go anywhere. Maybe we're still sobbing in mediocrity. The 2010 were a big turnaround for us. What good is it to accumulate youngsters like McDonagh if you never actually win playoff rounds ? Hockey isn't about the shiny prospects, it's about the shiny cup. And I can tell you one thing. We are much closer to that cup right now, than we would have been without the Gomez trade.
.

Gomez was a top 2 worst contract in the league (with Drury) when he was trade. McDonagh was a top 2 prospect for the Habs at the moment of the trade and received high praise from our head scout Trevor Timmins. 2010 was fun but the Habs were 6 wins away from the Stanley Cup which is pretty far from winning it.

Hockey is not about meaningless playoff run it's about winning the Stanley Cup. If you want to win the Stanley Cup you don't trade a top prospect of your team for one of the worst contract in the league especially in a salary cap league. I can tell you one thing the Habs would have made the Stanley cup final in 2014 with Mcdonagh and would be really close to win the Stanley Cup if they would not have made the Gomez-McDonagh trade.

 

[No More Subban]

You win some, you lose some.

****, we got PK Subban in the 2nd round probably 2 hours after that 12th pick.

43rd > 12th

Not mad, bro.

And don't forget our 22nd pick that year also. He's still here.

Solid picks by Gainey that year, imo.

But yeah, at the time of the trade, I wasn't even worried or pissed. He just happened to turn it around big time. I guess I was just too focused on losing Koivu and Kovalev. Now that really ****ed me up.

 

[Whitesnake]

In the end, a bad trade made by a panicking Gainey (not helped by the people around him) who HAD to find a replacement to Koivu who somehow HAD to go. Gainey put himself in that position. That screwed him the first time. And screwed himself more by assembling a terrible trade by adding a guy the WORLD knew the Rangers wanted to get rid of because of his play and mostly contract.

You always lose a deal when you are forced to do something. Rangers were forced to deal Gomez but found another GM who was MORE forced than them.....

In the end, it's not even about how McDonagh has become. Even if the guy doesn't develop and just happen to be a more solid Emelin. We NEEDED that guy in our pool. He was still right up there with Subban as our top 2 prospects even if you believe Subban has surpassed him at the time of the trade. You do not trade a top 2 prospects for a guy like Gomez who HAD to go.

Gainey was fine at the start but things got complicated as it progressed. In the end, he will not be remembered as a good GM. And average GM do make those stupid mistakes. And thank god that other trades as we heard them didn't happen too....'cause it would have been MUCH worst.

 

[Habsrule]

I say that the past is the past and we should all forget about it and move on.

By the way Gomez did have 59 points in 78 in his first year in the Habs uniform. It was not like he was a total bust right from the get go.

Lets just move on.

 

[PuckSeparator]

No matter how you try to spin it this trade will always remain one of the worst of all times and that's a fact. The Kessel trade is the only other recent trade that was initially in the same atmosphere but with Seguin's trade that has evened up quite a bit. The McD trade? Yeah, the gap just got a whole of a lot wider when the guy totally shut down our midgets, made P.K. his ***** during the course of the 6 game series and finally shattered our dreams of lifting Lord Stanley this year.

 

[kassian]

I just wanted to get something off my chest because many Habs fans always talk about the McDonagh-Gomez trade as such highway robbery and that the Rangers robbed us and stuff.

When you look back at things this wasn't a team build from 1st overall picks, this was just a team that had developed some nice young talent and had decided to add some key veterans on top of it and see what sticks.

Now when McD was traded nobody thought much of it. Nobody even cared about Higgins either. Good riddance. Goodbye the old boys club like Koivu, Chipchura, Komisarek. It was just about the Gomez-Gionta reunion, the addition of Cammalleri, the young 2nd line of Plekanec with the Kosts and the addition of Pouliot against Lats.

Nobody cared about McD and even less so when Gorges and Gill were blocking those shots in the playoffs, when Halak was stone-colding Crosby and Ovechkin and when Cammalleri was scoring all those goals against those top teams. Even though we didn't win anything, but we went far, we went further then we had been since 1993, and the memories man, the memories...

McDonagh was never a part of this team. He was never a Montreal Canadien. And a little bit like Vanek this year, guys like Gomez and Gill contributed to something that we will never forget: a deep playoff run that gave us hope. It helped create a winning atmosphere and it gave tons of experience to youngsters like Plekanec, Price and Subban, who are now our leaders.

If you go back in time and always keep your key prospects because they will become #1 Ds, then maybe you never go anywhere. Maybe we're still sobbing in mediocrity. The 2010 were a big turnaround for us. What good is it to accumulate youngsters like McDonagh, Yakupov, Eberle, Hall, etc if you never actually win playoff rounds ? Hockey isn't about the shiny prospects, it's about the shiny cup. And I can tell you one thing. We are much closer to that cup right now, than we would have been without the Gomez trade.

Screw McD.

I will always remember Gomez, Cammalleri, Gill, Pouliot and Halak. Until I fricking die.

McDonagh? He was never a Hab, never will be.

 

[HuGo Sham]

man thanks for giving me hemorrhoids again with this thread
this ****ing trade sucked the ****ing bag from the beginning - it
was the culmination of probably 90% ****** trades since Gainey
tragically lost his daughter - thus I blame Gauthier, his ******
garbage head pro-scout. it was widely understood that when Gauthier got canned
that Gainey ran the habs like the kremlin- air tight, old boy club,
no new ideas, nothing fresh, understaffed - so while i was happy when he brought
stability in 03...the three headed monster of gauthier/boivin/gainey was a huge
detriment to the team --and this putrid trade exposed their incompetency,
lack of fact-checking players, and poor evaluation

 

[RussCourtnallsGhost]

The trade doesn't bother me at all, for one reason: Alex Galchenyuk. We never would have gotten him if McD had been playing for us.

 

[Price My Man Crush]

The trade doesn't bother me at all, for one reason: Alex Galchenyuk. We never would have gotten him if McD had been playing for us.

Teravainen + McDo > Galchenyuk

Sorry.

 

[Habs]

Bob Gainey, lol.

 

[habfaninvictoria]

Alot of us knew the story behind that trade.

Here's the shorterversion:

1. Bob Gainey joined the club as GM 2003, by 2009 the Habs Centennial Year the Habs were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round after a what was thought as a packed team. Gainey decided to take another direction. Captain Koivu, Kovalev, Komisarek were all let go.

2. Gainey offered Tomas Plekanec, Josh Gorges, PK Subban another player some believed it to be Carey Price to Tampa Bay for Vincent Lecavalier. Brian Lawton, TB GM at the time, wanted to see what else he can get and released that to the media, Gainey got upset and negotiated a trade with NY Rangers for Gomez.

3. Everyone in the league knew that Gomez was going to be bought out by the Rangers because they were high on signing UFA Marian Gaborik. It was as obvious as Tomas Vanek signing with Minnesota Wilds. Days before Gomez being bought out, Gainey called Slather and asked for Gomez. Gomez at the time still had 5 years left on a $7 mil per season deal after signing a 7 year contract $52 mil with the Rangers 2 years earlier.

4. The principal deal was Gomez for Higgins as the Canadiens didn't want to resign Higgins for $3.5 million Higgins was looking for. Higgins ended up signing $2.5 mil with the Rangers after the trade.

5. Ryan McDonagh was developing the way the Habs were thinking he would. Some believed he'll stay in school for another 3-4 years, same with David Fischer.

6. Gainey decided to throw in Ryan McDonagh along with Chris Higgins, Pavel Valentenko who told the team he was heading back to Russia and Doug Janik for Scott Gomez, Tom Pyatt and Michael Busto.
When fans first heard Gomez for Higgins we were all like ok, that's a good trade, a #2 center who's overpaid for a 2rd line winger. Then as the trade was finalized, we heard Ryan McDonagh, we knew it right then that it was going to be a bad trade. McDonagh was our top prospect at the time, much like Jarred Tinordi is now. Most fans never gave Gomez a chance to begin with.

7. With Gomez as the new #1 center, Gainey was able to sign Brian Gionta who was his linemate in NJ. Then Mike Cammalleri signed along with Travis Moen, and Paul Mara to replace the likes of Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev, Mike Komisarek, Robert Lang and Chris Higgins.

8. Our first year we went deep in the playoffs thanks to Cammalleri and Halak. Everyone just forgot about McDonagh.

9. McDonagh developed and is now a top 10 NHL defenseman. Probably the next Captain of the NY Rangers and might win the Norris Trophy. Much like Chris Chelios

10. Management tries to replicate McDonagh by drafting Jarred Tinordi and Nathan Beaulieu. I think both Tinordi and Beaulieu will be NHL regulars.

The lesson here is don't give up on our prospects until after 25 years old.

McDonagh-Subban would have been nice.

The END

If Gainey had done #2 it would have been one of the worst trades in history.

 

[MTL-rules]

What are you talking about ? Just go back and look at the thread. Some posters hated the trade (including me)... mostly because we received a bad player with a horrible contract... the idea to include McDonagh was for many posters unbelievable.

We never imagined him becoming such a great player, but a lot of posters were very unhappy he was included in the deal.

As for Gainey/Gauthier... their record speaks for itself, two of the worst GMs in the history of this team (Houle, highly regarded as the worst, didn't have the same money or misson than these two... imo it's arguable that they are as worst, if not worst, than him)

 

[Agnostic]

The trade doesn't bother me at all, for one reason: Alex Galchenyuk. We never would have gotten him if McD had been playing for us.

That's lousy reasoning. It's a disgraceful trade.

 

[Habnot]

That's lousy reasoning. It's a disgraceful trade.

Any other GM would of extracted a top Ranger prospect or first round pick to take on the Gomez contract not give up a top 9 nine player + your best prospect.

No way to sugar coat this deal - one of the most lopsided trade in modern history.

 

[RussCourtnallsGhost]

That's lousy reasoning. It's a disgraceful trade.

You should look up the definition of reason or logic. I'd rather have Galchenyuk than McD, very simple and sound reasoning actually.

I hated the trade the day it happened, but the universe has a way of balancing things out, and only people who are addicted to the sound of their own whining harp on it for years afterwards.

 

[HabsHockey*]

You should look up the definition of reason or logic. I'd rather have Galchenyuk than McD, very simple and sound reasoning actually.

I hated the trade the day it happened, but the universe has a way of balancing things out, and only people who are addicted to the sound of their own whining harp on it for years afterwards.

? He used it properly. The heck are you saying?

 

[Agnostic]

You should look up the definition of reason or logic. I'd rather have Galchenyuk than McD, very simple and sound reasoning actually.

I hated the trade the day it happened, but the universe has a way of balancing things out, and only people who are addicted to the sound of their own whining harp on it for years afterwards.

Nothing's balanced out, McDonagh as a defenceman is contributing more offensively than Galchenyuk. The gap on this trade is widening, not closing.

 

[RussCourtnallsGhost]

Nothing's balanced out, McDonagh as a defenceman is contributing more offensively than Galchenyuk. The gap on this trade is widening, not closing.

Yeah because we don't have enough offensive defencemen, but we have plenty of future star forwards, , keep reaching.

 

[HabsHockey*]

Yeah because we don't have enough offensive defencemen, but we have plenty of future star forwards, , keep reaching.

Yeah cause it would have hurt to have McD? You know, an NHL top pairing D.

 

[Agnostic]

Yeah because we don't have enough offensive defencemen, but we have plenty of future star forwards, , keep reaching.

I am not reaching , just telling you there is nothing in your post that convinces anyone that anything has balanced out.

More faulty logic on your part , prove that the bottoming out of the Habs would have been prevented if that trade never occurred.

McDonagh > Galchenyuk atm , add in Higgins, it's case closed. Time for you to stop reaching,