The Montreal Canadiens and Georges Laraque part ways (Updated)

Submitted by Fred Poulin on Thu, 01/21/2010 - 10:58

NOTE FROM PRAX: Updated with Gainey comments

UPDATE 2: Poll added

Eight days ago I wrote a blog on George Laraque’s demise as an NHL enforcer, well looks like the Montreal Canadiens took my advice this morning when they decided to officially part ways with BGL. Bob Gainey called Laraque to tell him personally that head coach Jacques Martin didn’t have any confidence in him and that the organization believes that it can win without an enforcer in the line-up.

According to RDS, The Canadiens will pay Laraque’s salary for the remainder of the current season and then buy out the last year of the three-year $4.5 million contract Laraque signed on July 3rd, 2008.

Laraque was a daggers dawn with the Habs’ head coach Jacques Martin this season. “Jacques Martin doesn’t like me and doesn’t believe in toughness,” Laraque told TSN.

Laraque added that Martin never shared any concerns directly with him and is furious with the Canadiens’ approach based on the emotional issues he’s dealing with following the devastating earthquake in Haiti and the impact this disaster has had on both him and his family.

“Classless,” Laraque said angrily. “To do this in the midst of all I’m dealing with in Haiti, the timing is awful. I’m not going to sugar coat anything.”

Laraque scored his only goal as a Canadiens last Thursday against the Dallas Stars. Laraque had become useless this season, fighting only four times in 28 games and recording one goal and two assists. He was also a -6 this year.

While Laraque has not been efficient this season, the Canadiens are one of the softest teams in the NHL and Bell Centre has been a walk in the park for many opponents this season as evidenced by this Cam Janssen hit on Carey Price yesterday evening. Nobody came to Price’s defense as he had to drop the gloves himself.

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Gainey comments on Laraque

From Habs Inside/Out

Canadiens GM Bob Gainey spoke to the media in Brossard, at Habs practice, on today's decision to release forward Georges Laraque. In a nutshell: he said Laraque was a distraction and was unproductive, and that the team could better pursue its goals without him.

The decision was made to let him go about a week ago, but with the catastrophe in Haiti, where Laraque has relatives, it was postponed. Laraque remains on the payroll this season and probably will be bought out at season's end, though that's unclear. He was not put on waivers because he had a no-movement clause in his contract.

Audio of Gainey's comments coming here soon.

Comments 42

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 11:14

I'll post more thoughts later but all I can say is wow... can't believe they just told him to fuck off... at least try and put him through waivers or something, send him to hamilton, anything.

Cinerichabs88 says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 11:28

you cant send him to hamilton, he would still have to go through waivers, this way he cant join a team because he still belongs to canadiens for the rest of the year and then next year he's free to fly in the summer. we wouldn't of gotten antyhing for him not even a draft pick. i'm not sure if there is no trade clause in his contract, but i know for sure that the habs tried to package him but nobody is going to want washed up back spasmed enforcer. he deserved what he got becuase he's been blasting the habs in the media ever since he got hear. he hasn't lived to expectations and all he does is complain.

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 11:48

Notice how I never mentioned trading him. I know he isn't worth anything. But why couldn't they put him through waivers? Even if he has a no movement clause, at least that way he has a chance to go to another team, maybe at half the price through re-entry waivers.

And where did he blast the Habs in the media before today? I would love to see that (other than maybe being upset at not being played much, but I wouldn't call that blasting).

I'll be the first to tell you Laraque is useless, and his career was all but over the moment he signed here and started having back problems, but Gainey clearly has a problem dealing with his players. The way he gets rid of them is classless, from Laraque today to all the players he let go in the off-season without so much as a word to them.

I honestly hope that the Habs miss the playoffs, it's the only way to get rid of this joker GM.

demez says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:00

Did he seriously just bring up Haiti? Seriously? What a joke this clown is, where was he the 1 1/2 seasons BEFORE the Haiti earthquake? Sorry Big Crappy George Laraque, you can't stake, can't pass, can't shoot, won't fight, don't hit and now you got to leave. Sucks to take a cap hit and this useless excuse of a hockey player still gets paid what does he care, now he doesn't even have to pretend to care about playing the sport making him a millionaire, he could go rebuild houses in Haiti if that's where his mind is cause it certainly hasn't been on hockey. Hopefully Lapierre is next, we got rid of Fatendresse, more spring cleaning on the way.

George, I don't think we could place him on waivers, I'm pretty sure his contract was had a no movement clause, he couldn't be traded, sent down, placed on waivers, and had to give a list of 6 teams he would accept a movement to.

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:03

I'm sure if Gainey told him to either sit at home or get put on waivers and maybe get moved to another team, he would have accepted being put on waivers.

My point has nothing to do with the hockey aspect, I accept that he was useless and needed to be taken care of, all I'm saying is that there are better ways to deal with these situations. Gainey has no class when it comes to player relations.

demez says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:07

We don't know what Gainey could or couldn't have done, it's all speculations, especially since Gainey doesn't let anyone know what's going on, maybe he did ask him to go the AHL or to trade him and he said no. Whether you sit him at home or buy out his contract and let him sit home, what's the difference, at the end of the day you're paying a guy who's done nothing for this organization. Whether it not it could have been done in a better way, for a guy that never cared about this team he doesn't deserve much more respect than that. Maybe if he actually protected his players he might have earned a better fate.

demez says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:09

What annoys me more than anything is we're still going to be paying Laraque and Carbonneau, two of the most useless members of this organization in the past decade.

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:12

I'll agree with you when you say that we don't really know what else Gainey could or couldn't have done, but that being said, how can you say that Larawue didn't care about the team? Clearly he has some medical issues that he couldn't resolve to play at 100%. And fine, they needed to get rid of him. But didn't I read that he did it over the phone? Could he not have done it in person, maybe with Martin or Geoff Molson, explained to him the situation and given him some options?

Just like how he treated Kovalev, Koivu, Dandenault, Bouillon, even Komisarek to a degree in the off-season, this situation screams lack of class.

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:13

Not going to comment on Carbonneau because I think he drew a bad hand, but regardless... who's fault is that? Gainey's. Gainey's the one who needs to GTFO.

demez says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:19

Who do you replace him with? Who's going to be able to do a better job than he has? My only problem with Gainey is that we keep losing players for nothing come the off-season.

Cinerichabs88 says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:21

ok i agree with gaineys time being over but the truth is laraque has no right to call the team classless, because if he had any class he wouldn't of said "i would of liked to be on the ice but i only played 3 minuts" when every thing happend on sunday it wasn't georges or puliot that should have faught, if george really wanted to do something on his next shift he should have been starting something, back or no back problems if your playing than do your job and then they'll give you time to rest, you have to earn your ice time buddy.

Cinerichabs88 says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:22

and Neilson can fill that role he wont back down from anybody

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:22

Mcguire is perfect for the job. And he has the balls to let this team rebuild properly, and not try to cover up his mistakes with other mistakes.

He speaks french, he lives in Montreal, he's well connected to players, scouts, GMs and the media all around the league, and other than a few people who find him annoying he's well liked. Also a plus, he has almost no ties with the organization, other than, conveniently, the Molsons.

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:24

Eric, I don't understand how his comment about not playing enough during games shows any lack of class... the guy just wanted to play more, and sure, he wasn't good enough to warrant in it, but he didn't come out and say ''Gainey and Martin are idiots for not playing me more''.

Like I said, he was useless as a player, but that doesn't warrant Gainey treating him like shit, IMO.

And I too hope they bring up Neilson now, would love to see what he can do.

demez says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:28

Anyone who comes in has to clean house, hit the basement and draft, draft, draft but they're all scared of the fans and that they'll stop coming to games if they don't stick to band aid fixes to make 8th and out in 4.

Cinerichabs88 says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:32

you have to read between his lines the fact that he cannot admit that he's not earning his time is whats important, every interview that he has ever done after a game or practice he always brings it up, after a while instead of talking through the media just shut up and play your game, if i was playing like shit i wouldn't expect to be brought into his office im expecting a phone call.

bob gainey just said it he was a distraction to the team, after a while it's got to stop. so it's more of an interior thing than i thought. theres always a reason.

monkey says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:38

Laraque had a no movement clause!?! That's an epic fail on Gainey.

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:40

This is kind of my point.

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:42

What I'm reading between the lines is that Gainey is a horrible GM. He hired Laraque in the first place, and tossed him to the curb to cover up his mistakes nearly two years later.

Like I said, fine, get rid of Laraque, I agree that he was useless, but Gainey just doesn't know what he's doing at this point.

Cinerichabs88 says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:43

thats what i said,

Phil T says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:49

For all we know Gainey has a master plan; a huge trade he's about to pull off to finally get us a top6 winger and puck-moving defenseman to help Markov out.

Or not.

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:51

And by the way, how did we not pick Sykora up off waivers? WTF is Gainey doing?

Cinerichabs88 says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 13:01

do you really want sykora, i heard the canadiens are interested in matt cullen, it would bring some gritt to the team.

demez says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 13:04

Gainey speaks french, lives in Montreal, knows the Habs cause he helped them win cups. McGuire is a Monday morning quarterback.

Phil T says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 13:19

Matt Cullen's been a bust out of Carolina... Like Eric Cole

Wouldn't turn out well.

Cinerichabs88 says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 13:20

true but puliot and latendress were busts in there respective teams and look at them now.

demez says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 13:34

What are we going to do with Sykora? Don't we have enough guys with no motivation or energy on the team? Sure Wild was a terrible move for him but the guy disappears for long periods of time and is nothing more than a shadow of his former self. Maybe for a million I'd pick him up but I wouldn't lose sleep over not having acquired him.

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 13:35

Ya, and that knowledge of winning cups has translated SO WELl during his tenure as GM. Mcguire has been involved with the league for 2 decades, won 2 cups with the Pens, and has been a part of both success and failure.

And, as I said, he has balls to do do things properly.

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 13:41

Sykora has 10 consecutive seasons of 20 goals or more in the NHL. That stat speaks for itself, especially on a team that's 28th in goals scored and missing a top six winger.

With more than half of the season done, we wouldn't be paying him more than 600K, and he's a UFA at the end of the year. He's had some injury trouble but that's it.

Considering his last two seasons he scored 25 and 28 goals, respectively, how is he a shadow of his former self, exactly?

George Prax says:
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 13:43

Pouliot and Latendresse were also like 23. Cullen is 33. Difference is also, we could have had Sykora for free, whereas we'd probably have to trade for Cullen, who makes twice as much money.