Chaaa-Chinnng!

Andrei Markov is now the highest-paid Canadien in franchise history. Andrei will now be making $23 million over the next 4 years, in case you were visiting your Amish friends and missed the announcement yesterday. I think this is a good deal for the Habs. Markov's price would have skyrocketed on the open market. Better to get him locked up now rather than risk getting in a bidding war for him after July 1.

Gainey did not really seem to get into the specifics of the deal...it might be $5.75 million per year, but I would imagine that it is more likely to be back-weighted the last year or two years. Doing such would allow us to sign Souray to a 2-year deal. I also found it curious as to how Gainey made it blatantly clear that Markov was his first priority, even over Souray. I wonder how Souray's camp feels about such statements? I wish Gainey would have chosen his words a little more carefully.

I recall reading a quote from Souray a couple of weeks ago where he said that he would be willing to give the Habs a discount, so long as they made a fair offer. I also believe he said something about how $6 million a season would be too much. It will be interesting to see if we can land Shelly.

As it stands now, our defensemen next year are:

Komisarek-Markov
Dandeneault-Bouillon
Streit-Gorges

My issue with our defense is how undersized they are. Komisarek and Bouillon are the only two physical guys. Frankie is not the most intimidating player, either. If we can't re-sign Shelly, we will need to find a big, physical defenseman.

Ryan O'Byrne also seems to be waiting in the wings. He has had a very steady year in the AHL this year. He is big and physical, although he is not known for his shot. Maybe the Habs will promote him as the 6th/7th defenseman? I think the odds are that he will not be promoted next year.

ESPN Insider

Ok, so I don't pay ESPN money for access to their "Insider". Unfortunately, my buddy Russell does pay them money for their bullshit "Insider" coverage. Yesterday, when he was over to my place for the NFL Draft, he logged in on my laptop and has continued to stay logged in. Out of curiosity, I perused the Hockey Rumors section that is only available to people who have purchased their ESPN "Insider" coverage. In this section, they basically say that the Canadiens are going to trade their 2 1st round picks this year for established NHL talent.

Obviously, they read Pat Hickey's article and assume that his opinion is gospel. No offense, but Pat Hickey is one of the most anti-American, (google Excited States and Pat Hickey) error-riddled journalists that the Gazette has. After Jack Todd, he is the bottom of the barrel. In case you missed Hickey's article, I will post a link for you here. While I'm on the Pat Hickey hating, I'll also inform you that he was overly quick to ASSUME that Perezhogin is on his way out and that Hickey erroneously reported that #42 has signed with his old Russian squad, Omsk. After a little further investigation, it is obvious that Perezhogin was only offered a contract by Omsk and did not actually SIGN with them. It's this kind of bullshit "journalism" that makes NHLers hate Montreal. No wonder we can't sign any free agents...

Apparently, Pat Hickey believes that he is a good scout when it comes to NHL talent, especially after watching 1 (ONE) game. If this year's draft is as weak as Hickey thinks it is, then how are we going to get established NHL talent for 2 first round picks in such a weak draft?

ESPN should be ashamed that they make people pay money for this sort of useless rumor-mongering bullshit.

I'd like to congratulate the Hamilton Bulldogs for defeating the Rochester Americans in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs. Props go out to Ryan O'Byrne for scoring his first career AHL goal, which happened to be the game winner and series clincher.

Lastly, I would like to wish Hamilton's Mathieu Biron a happy 27th birthday today.

Oh yea, the answer to yesterday's trivia question is:

Steve Begin of the 2000-2001 St. John Flames
Aaron Downey of the 1998-1999 Providence Bruins