Trading Cristobal Huet Comes Back to Bite Bob Gainey

Do you get the feeling that perhaps Montreal General Manager Bob Gainey traded away his team’s best chance at winning the Stanley Cup for a measly 2nd round draft pick? That is what probably happened when he decided to trade away ex-Canadiens goalie Cristobal Huet to Washington for a 2nd round pick.

One can only ask why? Was the acquisition of a 2nd rounder that important? Did he have that much confidence in a 20 year old kid to get the job done in 4 rounds of pressure packed hockey? Gainey is supposed to have a keen mind for the game, but this move looks amateurish and makes no sense.

Besides, what if Carey Price got hurt, then what? Was he really going to count on Jaroslav Halak? I realize that Huet is no Vezina candidate, but he’s not too shabby either. He’s a big reason why Washington was able to make it to the playoffs. It would seem to me at the very least that they should have kept the French goalie for insurance, if nothing else.

I have been ranting about this a bit already and a few other bloggers have been questioning the move as well. Now that the Flyers have taken a 3-1 lead in the series and starting goalie Carey Price has been benched in favor of back-up Halak, more and more people will be wondering why the Montreal GM chose to make his number one seeded team weaker at the trade deadline, when most other playoff bound teams were making trades to strengthen their clubs.

Oh well, if worse comes to worse and he gets fired, the Maple Leafs will be happy to take him.

Speaking of General Managers and the Leafs, one of the things that Peter Karmanos mentioned in yesterday’s article was that no one from Toronto had even asked for permission to talk with Jim Rutherford yet. Perhaps much of the Toronto media’s speculation about JR being near the top of a short hiring list was a bit premature?