On the Habs and Wild player swap

I was very surprised in one way but in another I could almost see it coming.

This last week saw Guillaume Latendresse traded from the Montreal Canadiens to the Minnesota Wild for Benoit Pouliot. As you can imagine this trade touched on many “feelings” in Montreal.

Guillaume was drafted in the 2nd round in 2005 and cracked the lineup at the tender age of 19 years old.

Early on Guillaume had a couple of strong training camps and his 2 first seasons with the Canadiens put up some pretty good numbers for a young guy scoring 16 goals in each of those 2 seasons. Expectations were high for the local kid who was living his dream.

Expectations were very high on Guillaume but something eventually went astray. A couple of things seemed to be identified for Latendress to work on to improve his game. One was skating. Lats worked with a power skating coach a couple of summers ago and the word was that his skating was much improved.

The other thing that popped up was his position on offense. I remember quite well that in the last 2 seasons there was alot of talk about Gui “playing in front of the net”… that’s where he’d find success. This season, Jacques Martin made it clear and Guillaume got that message as he talked about playing in front of the net… playing a “Holmstrom” type of game in the face of the opposing goaltenders.

It was mentioned several times by both coach and player. As someone who’s missed 2 pre-season games I have to say that I didn’t see it. I didn’t see Guillaume play that role. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s either not a role that comes naturally to him or it’s a role that he doesn’t want.

Whatever the case Gainey and company decided that they could no longer wait for him to develop in the role they wanted him for. There are other questions about his work ethic and attitude, as in the interviews after the trade he seemed to direct blame at the organisation about not giving him a chance.

I’d have to say the opposite. That over the last few years Guillaume has been given more chances then anyone else.

So Gainey called on the Minnesota Wild to acquire Benoit Pouliot whom it was thought the Habs wanted back in 2005.

Benoit Pouliot is another young player who had alot of expectations in Minnesota and clearly didn’t rise to those expectations. Even though Benoit was drafted 4th overall in 2005 he’s played 65 NHL games and has 18 points.

I think much debate could be made (and already has been made in Montreal) about who won the trade but in my eyes hindsight will tell.

Jacques Martin is familiar with Pouliot and he (Pouliot) brings a slightly different skill set to the Habs. Pouliot played mostly left wing in Minnesota but was a center in the OHL. So is it a possibility that Pouliot could eventually be a “bigger bodied” center for the Canadiens??

Possible.

Pouliot is also a faster skater the Gui… and honestly both these young guys have decent hands.

In all honesty I’m not near as familiar with Pouliot then I am Latendresse. So I’m been looking him up a bit.

All in all, I think this trade brings a few possibilities but I’ll briefly mention 2.

First possibility is that the change of scenery and system is good for both these young guys and they both get their careers on track and help their teams.

Second possibility is that both guys continue to be mediocre and with their mediocrity we here about what they “could have been”, “should have been” or weren’t.

Of course, I’m hoping for the first of these.

Guillaume has 3 points in 23 games this year and Pouliot has 4 points in 14 games. Certainly, both guys need to pick it up.

Finally, this is what I’m hoping to see from Pouliot in Montreal.