Slightly used hard man for sale, still feared, no reasonable offers refused. Inquiries should be directed to B. Gainey, Bell Centre, Montreal, Que.
Yup, Georges Laraque says he's on the trading block, assuming the Canadiens can find a taker for the $3-million remaining on the three-year contract he penned in the off-season.
“I haven't asked for a trade, but with my salary and the way they're using me, I'm definitely expecting it. The coach has told me he doesn't like tough guys, he said I'll be in and out (of the lineup) until the end of the season,” a dejected Laraque said after practice today.
The Montreal-born enforcer has suited up for just 25 games this season – missing a long stretch with back and groin problems – and has accumulated a meagre two assists to go along with 47 penalty minutes.
He has dropped the gloves only a handful of times, and has been a healthy scratch in each of Montreal's last two games – both wins.
And Laraque clearly doesn't plan to go quietly.
“If I'm not important to the Canadiens, I will be for another team,” Laraque told a gaggle of reporters, adding “it's very frustrating, it's the first time in my career that I've been left out of the lineup while I'm healthy . . . if the Canadiens had told me I would be in this type of situation, I certainly wouldn't have come here.”
Laraque is a firm fan favourite, and was hyped as the missing element in a notoriously soft team when he signed as a free agent, but he's clearly not feeling loved anymore.
Nor is rugged forward Steve Begin, who has been a healthy scratch for the team's last five games.
Begin met with general manager Bob Gainey on Tuesday to discuss his future and told La Presse that “if the Canadiens don't see me in their plans, that he'll give me a chance to help another team. I'm in the last year of my contract and would like to show over the last 20 games that I can still play in the NHL.”
Also on the subject of tough guys, gritty minor-league call-up Gregory Stewart – who has effectively taken Begin's spot – was sporting the beginnings of a promising shiner from his tussle with Vancouver's Shane O'Brien on Tuesday.
O'Brien was slapped with an instigator penalty for punching Stewart, who had his head turned, in a board-side melee in the first period of Montreal's 3-0 win.
It was a borderline cheap shot, but Stewart had no complaints.
“I was getting ready to punch (Canuck forward Alex) Burrows in the head, so seeing as I was going to cheap shot another guy, that's just karma I guess,” said Stewart, who plays summer hockey with O'Brien.
