The Habs have finally relieved themselves of the expensive underachieving veteran Sergei Samsonov. The trade was made on Saturday June 16th with the Chicago Blackhawks. The deal sent Samsonov to the Hawks for 6'5, 244 lb defencmen Jason Cullimore and for smallish forward and former Hamilton Bulldogs Tony Salmelainen. Not long after the trade Gainey bought out the remainder of Cullimore's contract to make him a UFA. The deal frees up roughly 3 million in cap space for the Habs to put towards a bid for big name free agents like Briere and Drury. The 34 year old Cullimore collected 7 points least year while playing 65 games. Salmelainen is 25 and recorded 17 points in his rookie campaign with the Hawks.
Its been well known that Samsonov was on his way out. As early as November of 2006 he was already complaining about ice time and shortly there after asked for a trade out of Montreal. Bob tried to accommodate the disgruntled winger but there were few teams lining up to acquire the services of a small forward making over 3.4 million and producing very little. He was even put on waivers for any team to pick up for FREE and still there were no takers. When all was set and done he finished the year with 9 goals and 26 assists and was a healthy scratch for a total of 19 games. Not the production and ice time you expect from a player being paid that much and who was your big off season free agent signing.
Valentenko Signed: The hulking Russian defencmen who was predicted to sign this year has done just that. He signed a 3 year entry level contract with Montreal and will most likely start the season in the AHL to hone his skills. Things were also starting to look up for a fellow Russian defencmen Alexei Emelin. It had been reported that he had agree in principal to a contract with Montreal and all he had to do was commit to coming to North America and sign the dotted line. Not so fast. Then this past weekend there was a report the Emelin had signed a new 2 year contract with AK Bars Kazan of the RSL. The report appears to be true although he was supposed to be under contract with Lada for one more year. Either way it looks like Habs fans will have to wait a little longer to see the young defencmen in action.
Komisarek and Higgins Re-sign: 24 year old Chris Higgins and 25 year old Mike Komisarek have both signed new 2 year contract with the Habs. They are 2 of the 4 young players that are RFA who were starting to make big contributions to the team. The other two, Plekanec and Perezhogin have yet to re-sign. Although Perezhogin did sign a contract in the RSL and will not be back with Montreal. Higgins started last year off the way he ended his rookie year posting 13 points in as many game. Then in a game against New Jersey he was hit into the boards awkwardly and sprained his ankle which put him out of the lineup for an extended period of time and was never really able to pick up were he left off. He finished the year off with 38 points in 61 games. Komisarek had a career year and played on the teams top defensive duo with Andrei Markov. He recorded 4 goals and 15 assists for 19 points in 82 games. They will both make 1.5 million this coming year and 1.9 the following year.
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