Habs Acquire Lang, Re-sign Brisebois

It was a busy day for the Montreal Canadiens as they made two big moves to strengthen the club and make a serious run at the Cup.

First up, GM Bob Gainey announced that the Habs acquired Robert Lang from the Chicago Blackhawks for a second-round pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft (acquired from Toronto in the deal that also brought in Greg Pateryn, in return for Mikhaïl Grabovski on July 3, 2008).

Robert Lang, 37, will be entering his 15th NHL season in 2008-09. Last season, the centreman played 76 games with the Blackhawks, recording 54 points (21 goals, 33 assists), posting a plus-9 rating and serving 50 penalty minutes. It was the eighth consecutive season in his NHL career in which he recorded 50 points or more.

Since breaking into the NHL back in 1992-93 with the Los Angeles Kings, Lang played 875 regular-season games in the NHL, recording 635 points (234 goals and 401 assists), including 77 powerplay goals. He was also assessed 358 penalty minutes. In his NHL career, he played for Los Angeles, Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington, Detroit and Chicago. His most productive season was in 2000-01 when he recorded 80 points (32 goals, 48 assists) in 82 games with the Penguins.

Then Gainey announced the re-signing of veteran defenceman Patrice "Breezy" Brisebois to a one year contract.

Brisebois, 37, rejoined the Canadiens as a free agent on August 3, 2007. During the 2007-08 season, he registered 11 points (three goals, eight assists) and 26 penalty minutes in 43 games with the Canadiens, averaging 16:49 minutes of ice time per game. He also participated in 10 playoff games, recording six points (one goal, 5 assists).

Patrice spent the first 14 seasons of his career in a Canadiens uniform. He played two seasons with the Colorado Avalanche in 2005-06 and 2006-07. The Montreal native took part in 947 career regular season games in the NHL, totaling 402 points (93 goals, 309 assists).

Definitely two big time announcements. Though of course not the big time announcement that most of Hab fans are waiting for. You know the one that involves a certain big tall veteran indecisive Swede? You can probably figure out who I'm talking about. If not, you've probably been living under a rock this summer, which I hear is the new hot vacation destination.

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McCabe Shipped To Florida

The much anticipated trade involving Bryan McCabe to the Florida Panthers has finally become official.

The Leafs have shipped the overrated and overpaid defenseman as well as a 2010 4th round draft pick to the Panthers in exchange for much better and much cheaper d-man Mike Van Ryn.

The long rumoured deal was held up while the Panthers waited for the Leafs to pay a $2 million bonus due to McCabe on Sept. 1.

Offense was hard to come by for McCabe in 2007-08, as he scored five goals and added 18 assists in an injury-plagued campaign that saw the St. Catharines, Ontario native miss 22 games with a broken hand. He also became a scapegoat for Leaf fans after committing some high-profile defensive blunders, including an own-goal in overtime to hand the Buffalo Sabres a victory early in the season.

McCabe will join former Leaf teammates Wade Belak and Chad Kilger down in Florida. Hey, maybe they should consider re-naming the Panthers to the Land of the Misfit Leafs.

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Doing Business With The Enemy

Has hell frozen over? Are monkeys flying? Are pigs flying out of various people's butts?

I ask this because bitter rivals, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs have made a trade. It's the rarest of rare to see these two teams work together and get something done. It would be like if the Red Sox and Yankees made a trade in baseball. Perish the thought!

The Habs traded German forward Mikhail Grabovski to the Leafs for the rights to 2008 fifth round pick Greg Pateryn and a second round pick in 2010.

"Mikhail had tremendous success at the most recent World Hockey Championships," said Fletcher in a statement. "He has great upside and we will look for him to contribute for us right away at the centre position."

It was rumoured on internet message boards that Grabovski would head to the Leafs as compensation if Montreal was able to sign Mats Sundin. When that didn't happen by July 1st, Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher got on the phone and tried to figure out another way to land Grabovski.

Though he is pretty unknown to Leaf fans, as a devoted Habs fan I have of course seen Grabo play many times both in Montreal and in Hamilton. Fletcher was right in his statement that he does have tremendous upside. But he's pretty far away from making any sort of an impact unless he's playing in the AHL. He's speedy but makes a lot of bad passes, and is very physically weak and gets pushed off the puck very easily.

The one thing I do like about this trade is that Montreal got more for Grabovski in Pateryn and a 2nd round pick than they did when they traded Cristobal Huet back at the deadline. Oh trusty Leafs. Always making bad moves and overpaying for things.