habs say no!

Probably both teams. Jets don’t want the term and MTL likes gallagher.

Definitely montreal. I think Gallagher can bounce back nicely if he can stay healthy.

Wheeler being stripped off captaincy shows his character problems. No teams will trade for him. Gally still got the A and is a fan fav

Winnipeg declines. Gallagher has five years left and is coming off a terrible season. I think he can bounce back, but Wheeler was legit good last year. There’s no reason to trade his two year deal for a five year one.

I don’t blame Wheeler for Winnipeg being a dumpster fire organization over the past few years.

I’m not a fan of Scheifele’s on ice bull****, but he couldn’t have described this situation better. IMO Bowness should be fired today. It’s a terrible look for that organization. They should be ****ing embarrassed.

"It's kind of hard to digest right now because I
have not had really any conversations with
anyone about it. Players, coaches, staff, kinda
anything," Scheifele told ESPN. "I think it will
definitely be interesting to get their input on why
they decided to do it and what was the reasoning.
Blake's been the heart and soul of his team for a
long time, so it definitely was a shock to me to
hear it. I'm definitely excited to hear what the
reasoning is."

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/34604762/winnipeg-jets-strip-blake-wheeler-captaincy-use-collection-alternate-captains

The thing is, even when Gallagher isn't scoring, he's providing the Habs with something valuable. He'll be overpaid throughout his contract but that guy bleeds red, white and blue. For an organization that doesn't have the best track record of enticing players to stay, that is worth a lot. Nothing but a role model and fan favorite for years. The guy can do no wrong here except for be more expensive than he's worth. There are worse things to have than that IMO.

He's going to bounce back this year easily and should still be good for a couple more years barring any major injury. If he starts to be really bad in the final few years of his contract, then so be it. I think all Habs fans can live with that.

Wheeler may be the better player and has a shorter, albeit more expensive contract, but I still would gladly keep Gally.


On a side note, I think removing the C from Wheeler was the absolute wrong way to go about it. Either you leave Wheeler captain or you trade him. There is no in between. They should have moved both Scheifele and Wheeler this off season. Now not only does the team look better on paper, two of their best players are clearly not motivated to perform in the slightest anymore.

Jets should, and would, probably be the team to decline, based on what each player contributes on ice and how much term is left on their respective deals.

as a habs fan, i would probably do this deal. saving galagher cap hit for 3 years is huge. i think gallagher can bounce back a bit, but with his playing style, im not sure he will be able to keep up in the last few years of his contract with all the injuries he had and more to come. also you can probbaly trade wheeler next year retained and get a decent piece back. i love gally, but lets be real, he his not part.of a winning future for the habs imo.

Bowness said he waited to speak to the players to make the decision. It’s not up to scheifele what happens with the leadership core. It’s the coaches decision. That line of thinking is exactly why the room got to where it was when Maurice was running the show. Wheeler and scheifele had waaaaay to much control over what was going on. Bowness needed to take that control back. There’s obviously something going on in the room that after discussion with players he felt it was right to strip wheeler of the C. He talked about other players being on a level playing field in terms of leadership and the ability to speak in the room. That wasn’t there when wheeler and scheifele ran the show. We saw guys like Ehlers, Connor, Morrissey and stastny speak up at the end of the year about the lack of accountability and respect on the team. It’s pretty clear to me something needed to change.

Clearly the jets tried to move wheeler this summer, no one would take him so he’s back. At that point you can’t have him stay captain after almost trading him in the offseason. There was clearly a mutual desire to head their separate ways, sort of awkward for him to come back and be the captain.

Wheeler said it himself, wearing the C was at times a burden on him, I think you see a bit of a rejuvenated wheeler this year.

Pretty obviously Winnipeg says no. Montreal needs to pay a pretty hefty price to dump Gallagher.