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Montreal Canadiens coach Bob Gainey confirmed he was in discussions with the Tampa Bay Lightning mid-season about acquiring Vincent Lecavalier but that he had a confidentiality agreement with the Lightning.
A report at the time suggested Chris Higgins, Tomas Plekanec and Josh Gorges heading to the Lightning in exchange for the highly sought after Lecavalier, who was born and raised just outside of Montreal.
At a news conference Thursday, Gainey said it was Tampa general manager Brian Lawton and its club’s ownership group who made the names involved in a potential trade public in early January. Gainey called it “disgraceful” that the confidentiality agreement was broken and that the three Canadiens’ players had to read that they were being considered for a trade.
"I got a call in January from them with a list of names that they wanted to talk about and those players ended up in public because they used those names to take them to other teams to see if they could create a different trade for Vincent Lecavalier," Gainey said. "I think it was disgraceful that Josh Gorges, Tomas Plekanec and Chris Higgins have to read that stuff."
Thursday’s news conference was a post-mortem of the Habs 100th anniversary season, a day after the team was swept out of the playoffs by the top-seeded Bruins. It was an extremely disappointing exit for Montreal, which was earlier in the year seen as a Stanley Cup contender after finishing first in the Eastern Conference in 2007-08.
They had a strong first half, but it all unravelled with injuries, controversy and a coaching change after the all-star game Jan. 25 in Montreal and they ended up barely making the playoffs in eighth place.
Coach and general manager Bob Gainey said injuries were a factor, but he also named Lawton, who he said disrupted his team by letting the names involved in trade talks become public.
"The second half of our season was when things started to go off course and I felt the first place was when we had discussions with Tampa Bay," said Gainey. "We had an agreement with them."
Lawton later told Sportsnet: “I’m not very happy about Bob Gainey’s comments because they’re completely false.
“There are 28 other GMs in the league, and I can assure you not one of them can confirm me shopping names around because it never happened.” Lawton added. “I don’t know what happened at the end of the year with that club, but I assure you it had nothing to do with the Tampa Bay Lightning.”
Plekanec and Higgins, both restricted free agents this summer, were among several Canadiens to struggle this season, along with brothers Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn, second-year defenceman Ryan O’Byrne and goaltender Carey Price.
Now, decisions not only loom on which players to keep, but on who will be on the coaching staff next season.
Gainey, who replaced Guy Carbonneau behind the bench on March 9, would prefer not to remain as coach, but said it would take two or three weeks to make a decision on the job.
He hopes to stay on as general manager, a position he has held since 2003, but that will be up to the team owners and executive. And with all or part of the club up for sale by owner George Gillett, all positions are in question.
What Gainey does not question is his decision to stick with Price, the fifth overall draft pick in 2005 who shows flashes of brilliance, but who looks to be struggling to adjust to the life of NHL hockey.
Late last season, Gainey traded veteran goalie Cristobal Huet to hand Price the starting job.
Price was 24-12-3 with a 2.56 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage as a rookie, but dropped to 23-16-10 with a 2.83 average and a .905 save percentage this season, which was marred by an injury just ahead of the all-star break.
Down the stretch of the playoff race and into the post-season, there were repeated calls to lift Price and go with back-up Jaroslav Halak, but Gainey didn’t budge.
"Carey Price is a thoroughbred," said Gainey. "I made a decision to put Carey in a position to gain experience.
"He got into a starting role at a very young age so he could accelerate the number of games he could play and the experience he could gain and at 21, I think he’s doing pretty darn well. He’s a good goalie."
In goal was not the only area where things went wrong.
Last summer, the Canadiens acquired centre Robert Lang and winger Alex Tanguay to boost the attack after losing unwanted winger Michael Ryder and power-play point man Mark Streit as free agents.
Both Lang (severed achilles tendon) and Tanguay, who will go for shoulder surgery next week, ended the season on the injured list.
And without Streit, the power play that led the league in 2007-08 dropped to the bottom third of the 30-team league until veteran point man Mathieu Schneider was acquired ahead of the trade deadline. But even Schneider ended up sidelined with a bad shoulder.
The fatal injury was a bad knee suffered by top defenceman Andrei Markov with four games left in the regular season. Markov had been the team’s scoring leader and without him, their playoff chances were all-but nil.
The second-half collapse also had a report surface that the Kostitsyns and to a lesser extend defenceman Roman Hamrlik had hung out with a suspected gangster and several reports that some of the team’s younger players were partying too much in downtown clubs.
"All I know is some guys went out too much and it caught up to them," said enforcer Georges Laraque.
The team was playing poorly, but had won five of seven games when Gainey opted to fire Carbonneau, but with all the injuries, the club didn’t get the boost a coaching change often brings.
Winger Alex Kovalev said dropping back into the group of teams battling for the final playoff spots also cost them.
"When you put yourself in a position where you have to win your last 10 games to make the playoffs, once you get there, we didn’t have enough rest to play," he said. "We would have a good period, or a good period and a half, and then go down from there."
Gainey’s main off-season job will be to make decisions on 10 unrestricted and four restricted free agents.
Those free to go on the open market are Kovalev, captain Saku Koivu, winger Alex Tanguay, centre Robert Lang, checking foreward Tom Kostopoulos and defencemen Mike Komisarek, Francis Bouillon, Mathieu Dandenault, Patrice Brisebois and Mathieu Schneider.
NOTES: Gainey also revealed that Guillaume Latendresse injured his shoulder at the end of Wednesday night’s game and will require rehab over the summer. … Plekanec accepted an invitation to play for the Czech Republic at the world championships. … Markov will not play for Russia because of injury, while Alex Kovalev was not asked to play for the team.
With files from THE CANADIAN PRESS
