Dagenais Done

After an unnecessarily long wait, Canadiens fans breathed a sigh of relief today at the announcement that Pierre Dagenais has been sent to Hamilton of the AHL. In 32 games this season, Dagenais has scored 5 goals and added 7 assists, and is a minus-5 - not the kind of numbers you would expect from a second-line winger. Dagenais' playing time dwindled as his coaches realized he was too slow for the new NHL, and he was replaced by rookies Garth Murray, Andrei Kostitsyn and Jonathan Ferland. This move definitely was made in part to send Mike Ribeiro, Dagenais' best friend, a message: this is your last chance to shape up or you too will be shipped out. I can't wait...

Cristobal Huet will be starting tomorrow night against the Avalanche, which was no doubt the right move to be made. Newest speculation (which I had thought of a while ago but was pretty sure wouldn't happen) is that the Canadiens are interested in J-S Giguere's services out of Anaheim. If Theodore is to be traded, here's how I would rank the goalies that the Habs potentially could get in return: 1. Luongo; 2. Biron; 3. Brodeur; 4. Giguere; 5. Aebischer; 6. Auld. I wouldn't be unhappy with the acquisition of any of these goaltenders, but some would require additional players to be sent along if a deal were to be completed.

Finally, Saku Koivu was quoted in the Gazette today as saying that he wants to sign a contract extension with the Canadiens, but that he wouldn't rule out testing the free agent market when he becomes a UFA this summer. This, of course, is because the Canadiens haven't contacted Koivu about starting negotiations 10 days after the negotiating period began. It would be a shame for Koivu, who is so entrenched in this city's hockey culture, to finish his career somewhere else; he has been a pillar of longevity in a decade of turmoil in the franchise.