Samsonov signs with Montreal

So…

Just to piss off Nick The Dick a little bit, I will discuss Hockey yet one more time. But this time around, we have real news to report: yesterday, after having sent Richard Zednik packing for Washington and acquired Mike Johnson from Phoenix, Bob Gainey inked Sergei Samsonov to a 2-year contract worth a total of $7,000,000.

While I really like Sergei Samsonov, I think that the other 2 moves are much more significant for the Canadiens. In a way, Samsonov is being brought in with the hopes that he can replace the production that Zednik once gave this team. Last year, Zednik went through a very long lethargy and then got lazy on top of it and quickly fell into Gainey’s doghouse. So Gainey and Carbonneau are probably hoping that Samsonov can pick up that slack. The only problem that I see is that the Russian might be a little too much of the same for Montreal. Samsonov is clearly not a physical player, and if he is to play on a line with either Koivu or Ribeiro and Kovalev, he might find that there isn’t much spac out there for 3 “not too big” guys.

I saw him play a lot towards the end of the season, when he got traded to Edmonton, and Samsonov was clearly more at ease when he was playing on a line with Raffi Torres and Jarret Stoll. Torres is a physical guy, and he created a lot of space on the ice for the diminutive forward to play with. But in the playoffs, Craig McTavish tried to play him with Stoll and Ales Hemsky, and then replacing Hemsky by Radek Dvorak, and while he had a few good moments, Samsonov was pretty invisible out there. I think it will be important for him to play on a line with either Higgins or Ryder, otherwise it might not take too much time for the fans to jeer him a little. Still, he is a good player, and he will help the power play a lot, so it is a good pickup.

Getting rid of Zednik was a must. He had to go, having become almost a cancer in the dressing room. Plus, knowing Samsonov was coming into the fold, his salary needed to be dumped. But personally, I think the best move of the day was acquiring Mike Johnson from Phoenix, for essentially nothing (a 4th round pick). At 6’2”, 200 lbs, Johnson is a pretty big guy. He is not the most offensively gifted player around, but he can still contribute offensively, as show his 54 points last year and 63 in 2002-2003. And while he normally mans the right wing, he is versatile enough to also play center (as he did when he played for Toronto and in parts of last year with Phoenix). What I like about him, also, is that he is very responsible defensively as well. He can kill penalties. He can be trusted in his own zone. Johnson is not a spectacular player, nor will he score 30 goals for the Canadiens. But what he will do is show up every night (unlike Samsonov, Ribeiro, Kovalev, Markov and others), he will hit, he will kill penalties, he will play whatever position Carbonneau wants him to play and he will contribute 15-20 goals on the year. And the fact is, the Canadiens do not have enough players like him, and that is why I like this pickup so much.

By the way, starting next Monday, I will begin my 2006 NFL Season Preview. This will be the place to come to know what your team will look like and how it will do. I will do this over 3 weeks, covering 2 divisions/week. On Monday, I will start with the AFC East.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Dwarf out