Heavyweight enforcer George Laraque will no longer be donning the Montreal Canadien jersey. The Canadiens announced that they will buy out the remaining $1 million over a two year period of time.
The woes of the enforcer were a mixture of lack of production on the ice and being deemed a “distraction” to the team. A sad story really, as Laraque a Haitian, has been providing relief to Haiti after the massive earthquake, a tragedy where it is estimated close to a 150,000 people have perished. The relief effort did take him away from the sport of hockey, and as sad as it may be, the Canadiens still have a business to run.
Laraque is a 33 year old heavyweight enforcer, where he may land is unknown, if he does land anywhere else. Age and diminishing talent will be a factor for any team if they decide to sign him, especially in a day and age where enforcers are becoming more extinct.
I have been looking and perhaps I missed it but were there any posts about the playoffs that Villi Leino had?
Where did that come from? I remember a comment from earlier in the year- in response to one of mine I believe-
where someone had said that Leino was SUPPOSED to bring a skilled offensive game to the Wings. He had that kind of resume. Boy, we sure didn’t see any of that from him while with the Wings, did we?
While Leino certainly showed flashes of brilliance, he never really lived up to the hype in Detroit this past season despite being given several opportunities with various line combinations. I’m interested to see if he can continue the pace next season and become a 20-goal, 60-point scorer or if he will fade into the background like he did with Detroit.
I will add one thing on the Leino situation. People played off Leino as a cap casualty because Detroit needed to shed the space to bring Franzen back. Detroit easily could have moved Jason Williams who wasn’t doing squat for the Wings. I think they saw something that they didn’t like in Leino, whether it was in his work ethic or his attitude or something else. Whatever it may be, I think a lack of production was only one reason why the Wings decided to move him.
I agree with you Chris- but he certainly didn’t have a lack of production with the Flyers- I was stunned by his playoff performance. Where did that come from??????
It was quite evident that Leino was two completely players for each team. With Detroit he never hustled at all, yet with Philly he went into the corners and worked hard for the puck. Perhaps being traded woke him up.
As for his production next year, I predict he will tank and do really bad. He may only be a playoff player, but either way, I do not think he has the heart and I think he will become content with being in the NHL and making a paycheck instead of trying to be one of the top players.