Dynasties have cornerstones and being a part of the growth and development of those corner stones deepens the roots of the fans that follow them. Imagine being a Bulls or Packer fan on the road to one of their respective storied dynasties. Imagine being able to witness the progression to legendary status of Icon’s such as Jordan and Vince Lombardi?
However modern day dynasties are different from versions of the “Les Glorieux “ Montréal Canadiens or “Showtime” Los Angles Lakers of the past. In an era where salary caps, free agency and amateur drafts are the biggest components to building a winner, maintaining that stature can seem short lived.
Identifying the nucleus players to a franchise is key to building a modern day dynasty. The 2009-2010 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks are a great example of labeling their core players from the start and building around them as a key to success. While the 09-10 Blackhawks are a great example, they are not exactly a dynasty rather a strong team with an excellent nucleus of young talent. The model that the Canadiens must seek to emulate is the blue print of one of the most iconic franchises in North American pro sports; the New York Yankees. Yankees management were able to identify a core of players and road them to five World Series championships.
“All four players (Posada, Rivera, Jeter, Pettitte) were drafted or originally signed by the Yankees and played together in the minor leagues. By the end of the 2000s, they were the only remaining Yankees from the late 1990s Yankees dynasty that won four World Series championships in five years. All four players were also on the Yankees' active roster in 2009, when the team won its fifth World Series championship in the past 14 years. Three members of the Core Four (Jeter, Rivera and Posada) played together for 17 consecutive years, longer than any other similar group in professional sports. Andy Pettitte had a break in his "service time" when he played in Houston for three seasons, before returning to the Yankees in 2007.”
What the Yankees management did was what every successful franchise should use as a blue print to success. They locked up their young stars (with the expectation of Pettitte stint in Houston) placed faith in their abilities and constructed a team around them, which resulted in championship success.
The Canadiens now have a similar opportunity to lock up a core of four players with “star” pedigree and place faith in them long term. This in effort to reconstruct the type of success of the Yankee’s core four. Those four players are Lars Eller, Carey Price, Max Pacioretty and Montreal’s flashiest player since Guy Lafleur, P.K Subban.
The difficulty with executing the same plan in Montreal is being able to maintain the course of the plan during the growing pain stages. We can all remember players such as Mikhail Grabovski, Sergei Kostitsyn and Francois Beauchemin who showed signs of productivity. The issue was they were not given the time to grow and were shipped out of town for marginal returns. Now we can argue that those players did not come into Montreal’s system with the same type of high draft choice “Pedigree”. Canadiens fickle fans can cause a quick trigger pull by management. At season’s end Eller, Price and Subban will become restricted free agents. In reality if the Canadiens see these three as key pieces to this franchise going forward they should expect long term contracts that show that. If and when this is completed the other parts of the team become interchangeable. Meaning some players who may have been productive assets to the team can be traded or let go via free agency in order to keep the nucleus intact (IE: Dustin Byfuglien with Chicago after their Stanely Cup win) . This issue has already come up with Carey Price during Jaroslav Halak’s historic playoff run. Many thought Carey would be the odd man out. The eventual trade that brought Lars Eller into town was a key move in identifying a “Core player” by management. This shows a key example of a player (Halak) short term outperforming a key member of a franchise (Price). By sticking by your nucleus players this type of move only strengthens the long term success (Selling high on Halak and acquiring a key young talent in Lars Eller).
The Yankees model is truly one that if followed correctly can become a very successful plan in building a dynasty in today’s NHL. Can Montreal follow the blueprint and be on its way to a few Stanely cup parades? That’s hard to say but in the meantime we can compare New York’s four to our hopefuls.
No one can argue that Jeter is the biggest star in the core four in New York. Some could argue that Subban is the most likely of Montreal’s four to become a superstar.
Can Subban become a record breaking legend like Jeter? Will see. But if Nike endorsement deals are any indicator PK is well on his way. Nike wanted to make Derek Jeter the face of Nike baseball through their Jordan Brand. It seems given PK’s already two big commercial campaigns with Nike that they may be looking to make PK the face of Nike hockey brand.
Mariano Rivera-Carey Price
In many ways baseball closers can be seen just like hockey goalies. The last line of defense. The last player to face when looking for a win. The player who thrives under pressure and can save a team when it really matters. Mariano Rivera will go down in history as perhaps the greatest closer of all time. Every fan in Montreal hopes that Carey will finish his career with the same type of legacy.
To date the only two players who did not always play for their respective teams. Also Andy Pettitte was the member of the core four to appear in the least amount of all-star games. Perhaps the unsung hero of the four. Maybe the same will eventually be said of Lars Eller. To date it seems that while the potential to be just as dominate as the other members of the Montreal four is there. It seems likely that Lars might end up being the least decorated member of the Canadiens core.
The warrior. The player that every team needs in crunch time. Posada has always seemed like a leadership type that came to play when it really mattered. Pacioretty seems to play his best hockey when the team really needs it. Posada brought key elements to the offense and defense of the team something Montreal hopes Max can also bring. While Posada may not have been the team captain he certainly was the emotional leader of his ball club, Pacioretty seems like the type to become the same type of player. After the Chara incident Pacioretty seemed like a vocal leader and the type of player that loves to shine during adversity.
“The New York Yankee’s Core Four where able to enjoy five championships also won 7 AL pennants and 11 AL East championships for the Yankees. Furthermore, the four have led the team to 15 postseason appearances in their 16 seasons with the Yankees during their time together.”
Can Montreal’s four do the same? Only time will tell.
Bonus: This is still a sports collectors blog so here is a look at some stuff I got at Festifan from MTL's Four.
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