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Wikipedia | ResoluteThe Habs remain winless at home in the 2011-2012 season and despite everybody in the locker room taking a calm demeanor after the overtime loss against the Maple Leafs on Saturday, GM Pierre Gauthier made what some see as a panic move, or in others words, moves that show some sort of panic installing in the GMs' mind. The Habs sent recently returned Brock Trotter along with a 7th round draft pick in the next year's NHL entry draft for center Petteri Nokelainen and minor league defenseman Garrett Stafford.
The skinny on all these players?
Nokelainen, 25, has played five games for the Coyotes this season and had one assist. He was signed as an unrestricted free agent in May. He has played 189 games in the NHL so far with four different teams and has registered a total of 34 points (17g-17a) with 66 penalty minutes. He is a 6'1, 191 lbs center from Finland and was drafted 18th overall in 2004 by the NY Islanders.
Stafford, 31, had one goal and three assists in six games for Phoenix’s AHL affiliate in Portland this season. He is a career minor-leaguer who has played for three different NHL teams, but has spent most of his time with their AHL affiliates. The 6', 195 lbs defenseman has played a total of 7 games in the NHL (0G-2A-2P) and 572 (83G-234A-317P) in the AHL.
Trotter, 24, had two goals and five assists in five games this season for the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs after playing last year for Riga in the Kontinental Hockey League. He is a small centre, but a talented one none-the-less and had played only 2 games in the NHL so far with the Montreal Canadiens. His last season in the KHL was fruitful for him where he managed to get 26 points in 49 games.
So this is what it was. Trotter, who seemed to be off to a good start in the AHL will find himself with the Coyotes while the Habs get another under-achieving first round pick and a minor-leaguer defenseman.
GM Gauthier also sent Andreas Engqvist and Aaron Palushaj down to the Hamilton Bulldogs to make room for Petteri Nokelainen and recalled Michael Blunden from the Bulldogs to add some muscle on the fourth line. Are these efforts to beef up the fourth line with some toughness? After the way Price was knocked around in Saturday's game, maybe they should be looking for some muscles on the blue line first. Blunden who has played a total of 51 games in the NHL has registered 2 goals, 2 assists and 69 penalty minutes. He is 6'3" and weighs 207 pounds. It remains to be seen whether any of these new additions will manage to light a spark under the team to get them going.
Comments
Gauthier's got to go
Just another example of Gauthier being inept, where is the faceoff specialist that we so desperatly need? Oh yeah, that's right Halpern is a Capital now!
Agreed
There are many things that seem wrong with the management at this point. Gauthier is inept, you are absolutely right. These trades simply seem like moves to fix the fourth line, which should not have been necessary at all! No offense to Mathieu Darche, you know how much I love that guy, but he should be our fourth liner on a regular basis.
We should have taken Steckel when we had the chance to, but we let him go to Toronto. We should have kept Pyatt or Halpern, but we let both of them go. There was our fourth line and our faceoff specialist. Bringing guys like Palushaj and putting them up on fourth line does no body any favors. Palushaj is not the type to be playing on fourth line, he is far too good, you are stifling him by doing so. He is simply NOT the fourth line player. You need toughness there, but everytime the Habs had a chance to pick up a tough guy, they always simply let it go... Blunden may be a decent choice, only time will tell. Konopka is another one that we simply let go for no reason.
Then there's Cole. Martin's comments about Cole not being the saviour of the team or the fact that he pointed out to the reporters about how many goals Cole scored on PP last year.. i mean seriously? How many goals did Darche score on PP last year that we find him playing. Again, no offense to Darche, and if that guy had good hands to go with the work ethics he has, we would have a 50 goal scorer in him. He is a plumber, just like Moen, who work hard, but are not blessed with the hands of scorers. They belong on line 3 and 4 and playing in short-handed situations when you need hard-workers who don't necessarily have scoring hands.
Martin's inability to manage the players properly is finally showing. Without Muller, he seems to be lost on how to make this team win. It's time for a change. The longer we wait, the bigger the hole we dig. Remember Devils? They waited so long that after their new coach came on last year, despite their gold rush, they were unable to make it to the playoffs and ended up no where with not a good pick on drafts and nor a spot in the playoffs. Either keep Martin, tank the team so we can pick high, or get rid of Martin asap so we can have some change and a team that can win.
We have a good team on paper, but it seems lost on ice. Why is that?
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