Craig Rivet to San Jose
To San Jose:
Craig Rivet for 20 games + 2007 playoffs
5th round pick in 2008.
To Montreal:
Josh Gorges for the next five years
1st round pick in 2007, which should land somewhere between #20 and #30 overall.
Regardless of Montreal's current position in the playoff race, you just can't be disappointed with that kind of return. This was an excellent move by Gainey. It was also quite ballsy to give up a veteran player at this point in the season, no matter what the return. This trade also tells us that Gainey will take a run at signing both Markov and Souray in the offseason.
I don't know much about Gorges. He looks like a defensive defenseman, getting ES and PK icetime in San Jose. I hope that his recent spate of healthy scratches are due to trade talks and not performance. The Sharks have an awful lot of young defensemen, and he may just have been squeezed out. I'm hoping he can step right into Rivet's role. He'll probably be paired with Dandenault.
Hockey's Future describes him as a "solid skater with adequate speed," which would make him more of a New NHL player than Rivet. This post at Shaved Ice has some... interesting scouting info.
For all the talk of veteran leadership, grit, and experience, what the Sharks really needed was a right handed shot for killing penalties. Not many teams have the Habs' wealth of defensemen with right-handed shots (Komisarek and Dandenault, plus Fischer and Carle in the pipeline).
Now for a salute to Craig Rivet - his most memorable moment (to me) in a Habs uniform:
I'm definitely pulling for the Sharks in the West for the playoffs this year.
Craig Rivet for 20 games + 2007 playoffs
5th round pick in 2008.
To Montreal:
Josh Gorges for the next five years
1st round pick in 2007, which should land somewhere between #20 and #30 overall.
Regardless of Montreal's current position in the playoff race, you just can't be disappointed with that kind of return. This was an excellent move by Gainey. It was also quite ballsy to give up a veteran player at this point in the season, no matter what the return. This trade also tells us that Gainey will take a run at signing both Markov and Souray in the offseason.
I don't know much about Gorges. He looks like a defensive defenseman, getting ES and PK icetime in San Jose. I hope that his recent spate of healthy scratches are due to trade talks and not performance. The Sharks have an awful lot of young defensemen, and he may just have been squeezed out. I'm hoping he can step right into Rivet's role. He'll probably be paired with Dandenault.
Hockey's Future describes him as a "solid skater with adequate speed," which would make him more of a New NHL player than Rivet. This post at Shaved Ice has some... interesting scouting info.
For all the talk of veteran leadership, grit, and experience, what the Sharks really needed was a right handed shot for killing penalties. Not many teams have the Habs' wealth of defensemen with right-handed shots (Komisarek and Dandenault, plus Fischer and Carle in the pipeline).
Now for a salute to Craig Rivet - his most memorable moment (to me) in a Habs uniform:
I'm definitely pulling for the Sharks in the West for the playoffs this year.
posted by Jeff J at 9:55 a.m.
2 Comments:
I dunno. The Habs had a nice balance of righties and lefties: one of each per defensive pairing. It didn't help that their 7th (Streit) and 8th (Niinimaa) are both lefties. But I guess Rivet's sliding performance outweighs whatever side he shoots from.
He'll still be missed though. I live in San Jose, and have followed them with some level of interest. Now I have someone to cheer for, (almost) offsetting my antipathy towards Cheapshot Joe.
A classic fight! I had that video up on my site awhile back as well when I wrote of the possibility of Rivet getting traded. Still, I felt surprised when it actually happened even though deep down I knew there was a good chance of the trade going down.
Anyway, I'll surely miss having Rivet on the team, and I'm hoping he does well with San Jose... gives me a western team to cheer for.
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