Jun 30 Montreal Canadiens Sign Forward Mike Cammalleri, D-Man Hal Gill

The Montreal Canadiens announced the signing of former Calgary Flame Mike Cammilleri to a 5 year $30 million contract.

While yours truly likes the deal as Cammilleri has been a proven scorer, putting up 39 goals and 43 assists last season and averaging just under 30 goals in the last 4 seasons, he still is not the Imposing, hulking forward Gainey claimed to be looking for. Let's just put it this way; both Cammalleri and Gomez would have had absolutely no problem seeing "eye to eye" with Saku Koivu, if Koivu would stay in Montreal.

The advantage with 27 year old Mike is that he can play both left wing and centre, depending on the Habs' needs, which we will know more and more as the week wears on.

Hal Gill, a Huge 6 foot 7 inch, 250 pound bruising defenseman should have absolutely no problem filling the skates and position of Mike Komisarek. Not known for his scoring, Gill was one of the main reasons in the Stanley Cup Finals that the Red Wings had problems entering so easily into the Penguins zone as he helpes to shut down a team that had no problems scoring goals throughout the playoffs.

Gill, not known to be the most fleet of foot, is a big, stay at home defenseman who's NHL 10 year career has him at Plus-69 and he will be a calming force on the blue line and take the pressure off the likes of fellow veterans Markov and Hamrlik.

Gill's contract is said to be that of 2 years, $ 4.5 Million total.

The Habs have as of yet, only sent us the Mike Cammileri announcement. Please read on for their official version.

 MONTREAL (July 1st, 2009) – Montreal Canadiens General Manager Bob Gainey announced today the signing of forward Mike Cammalleri to a five-year contract (2009-10 to 2013-14). As per club policy, financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Last season, Cammalleri, 27, ranked 2nd in scoring with the Calgary Flames with 82 points in 81 games (39 goals, 43 assists). He served 44 penalty minutes and averaged 17:33 minutes of ice time. Cammalleri, who ranked second in the NHL with 19 power-play goals, also led the Flames with 6 game-winning goals.

The Richmond Hill, Ontario native will be entering his 7th NHL season in 2009-10. He played a total of 364 NHL career regular-season games with Los Angeles and Calgary, recording 287 points (132 goals, 155 assists) with 214 penalty minutes.

The 5’9’’, 185-pound forward was selected in the 2nd round by the Kings, 49th  overall, in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.

Tags: Calgary Flames \ habs \ Hal Gill \ Mike Cammalleri \ Montreal Canadiens \ NHL \ pittsburgh penguins \ sign \ UFA \ Unrestricted Free agents