- Sportsnet affirme...
- Que Brendan Gallagher...ne sera pas échangé...
- Misère..
- On prie pour que le réseau se trompe...
- Faut échanger Gallagher à la moitié de son salaire...
- Avant qu'il soit FINI à 100 pour cent..
Teams will come calling, especially after Gallagher opened the door to potentially moving on from the Canadiens if Gorton sends them down the path of a full rebuild.
“This is my 10th season now,” Gallagher said when he was asked in late November if he’d want to stay in Montreal under those circumstances. “I’ve always come in with the expectations to win. I felt like my teammates had the same goal, I felt like management had the same goal and sometimes organizations go through those things. I guess those are conversations that would probably need to be had down the road.
“But for me, I play this game to win. It’s really the only way I can enjoy it. You don’t always have to win every game, but the important thing is I need to feel like we’re trying to win. I need to feel like it’s important. If that’s the decision that they want to make, those are probably conversations that you have to have going forward.”
No matter where that conversation goes, it’s hard to imagine it leading to Gallagher moving before Mar. 21.
The heart-and-soul winger is in the first year of a six-year, $39-million contract. He has a no-movement clause and partial no-trade, and the idea that you can push him out (without retaining money) and recoup good value is farfetched.
Not that teams won’t appreciate what Gallagher brings to the table. He’ll play any role, bring everyone around him into the fight, and he still has the potential to be 25-goal scorer for years to come.
But if you’re an acquiring team, you’re looking at his four goals in his last 37 playoff games and using it as leverage—on top of his lofty contract—to steal him away from the Canadiens.
If you’re Montreal, you’re asking yourself if the player is worth more to you than he is on the market.
The answer is, he’s worth more to you. Gallagher is the player you make captain, the one you want leading a new crop of up-and-coming players, and not a guy you move for pennies on the dollar.
“I still feel like this is an organization I love dearly,” he said on Nov. 30. “That’s probably not being strong enough with it. I love this city, I love everything about it.”
If you’re Gorton, lean into that and convince Gallagher to stick around for the time being.
Unless, of course, someone makes you an offer you absolutely can’t refuse.
It’s just highly unlikely that offer is coming prior to the deadline.