The list

Last night Gary mentioned he had a list of Canadiens players he considered untouchable. I was pretty surprised today when I asked for the list and realized he had actually carved it under his left foot so he could smuggle it out of the rehab clinic.

So here is the list.

• Angelo Esposito
• Steve Bégin
• Christopher Higgins
• Saku Koivu
• Andrei Kostitsyn
• Sergei Kostitsyn
• Tom Kostopoulos
• Alex Kovalev
• Maxim Lapierre
• Guillaume Latendresse
• Tomas Plekanec
• Bryan Smolinski
• Francis Bouillon
• Patrice Brisebois
• Mathieu Dandenault
• Josh Gorges
• Roman Hamrlik
• Mike Komisarek
• Andrei Markov
• Ryan O'Byrne
• Mark Streit
• Cristobal Huet
• Carey Price
• Mathieu Aubin
• Jimmy Bonneau
• Kyle Chipchura
• Andrew Conboy
• Matt D'Agostini
• Brett Engelhardt
• Jonathan Ferland
• Olivier Fortier
• Mikhail Grabovski
• Janne Lahti
• Corey Locke
• Ben Maxwell
• Duncan Milroy
• Max Pacioretty
• Ryan Russell
• Andrei Sidyakin
• Gregory Stewart
• Cory Urquhart
• Ryan White
• James Wyman
• Andrew Archer
• Mathieu Biron
• Mathieu Carle
• Cameron Cepek
• Jean-Philippe Côté
• Marvin Degon
• David Fischer
• Scott Kishel
• Konstantin Korneev
• Andrei Kruchinin
• Ryan McDonagh
• Phillipe Paquet
• Joe Stejskal
• P.K. Subban
• Nichlas Torp
• Pavel Valentenko
• Yannick Weber
• Alexei Yemelin
• Yann Danis
• Jaroslav Halak*
• Loïc Lacasse
• 
  
• Any pick except this year's 2nd.

Now I noticed three things about this list. First Angelo Esposito is on it. So maybe all is not well with Gary after all. I'm really not considering mentioning Esposito not being Habs property at this point. I could only imagine the consequences. Second I think Michael Ryder is the only Hab property not on it and finally there is a little star next to Halak's name.

"But Gary, you’ve basically put everyone but Ryder on that list."

"Indeed."

"So how are they supposed to make a trade for Hossa?"

"Well that's just it. I'm still working on that package. But look I put a little "*" next to Halak cause I might consider including him. See the way I look at it I have Ryder a 2nd and possibly Halak."

"That's it? I think I heard that somewhere else before."

"Yes, yes. But it's all about how you package it. I've been playing with it. Changing the order, removing or adding one name and I think I'm almost there."

"Well ok. Let me know when there's a breakthrough."

Sigh...