The Montreal Canadiens head into this offseason with some clear holes on their roster. The most glaring of those needs is down the middle, where the team has lacked any sort of depth at center for many years. The team has tried Jonathan Drouin and Alex Galchenyuk in the role, but neither seem perfectly suited to handle big minutes at the position. Drouin will likely be tested there again, but many have suggested that the Canadiens go out and use their ample cap space to go free agent hunting. John Tavares is the obvious first choice if he reaches July 1st without a contract from the New York Islanders, but others like Paul Stastny, Joe Thornton, Tyler Bozak or even Derek Ryan could all bring some level of improvement to the team.
There is also the trade market, where names like Ryan O’Reilly, Sam Bennett, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and others are still floating around. The Canadiens will obviously look to upgrade, but they also have to be extremely careful in who they acquire, and how much—or perhaps more importantly how long—they pay them.
Even if they do nothing, Montreal will likely be a better team in 2018-19. Shea Weber and Carey Price should return with some modicum of health, while Drouin will have a full year of experience under the spotlight. Victor Mete, Noah Juulsen, Nikita Scherbak and Artturi Lekhonen could all take steps forward to become impact players, and the team owns the third-overall pick in this year’s draft. There’s no guarantee that a player like Filip Zadina would be able to step right into the NHL and contribute, but the Canadiens will obviously be able to add an elite prospect to the mix. The temptation of supplementing these players with some free agent help will be there, but it could just as easily backfire for the team.
Last summer the Canadiens handed out a five-year deal to Karl Alzner who, while not a disaster on the ice, failed to live up to some lofty expectations. While logging more than 20 minutes a night, Alzner wasn’t a shutdown defensive presence like many had hoped and now looks slightly overpaid at $4.6MM. Drouin didn’t quite live up to expectations either, though there is no reason to doubt that he has another gear ready for next season.
If anything can be learned from the Alzner contract, it’s that the Canadiens have to be careful not to fall into the trap of paying the best player available like he’s the best player at the position. Last year’s free agent market was remarkably thin, and while this season looks to have a better group, any of the names mentioned above are far from sure things. Even Thornton, who will go down as one of the league’s all-time great setup men, isn’t the same first-line center he once was.
Montreal heads into next season with plenty of cap room, but with Price’s eight-year $84MM extension just kicking off they must be extremely careful with their finances. With Weber’s long-term deal still on the books and eventual extensions due to a handful of young players, there is a clear danger of putting the team in a cap squeeze by handing out multiple big-money contracts. Even Tavares, who will likely command something between $10-12MM per season, could potentially put the Canadiens in a tough spot despite his obvious skills. Every team that has two highly paid superstars ends up shedding young talent to keep the salary structure balanced, and if Tavares and Price aren’t enough to lead the team to victory they could be in trouble.
Next season’s salary cap is expected to be somewhere between $78-82MM, giving the Canadiens somewhere around $17MM in cap space to spend this summer. That’s enough to be players in the market, but they shouldn’t be going all-in without some careful consideration. Otherwise they could find themselves in an even worse situation at this time next year, even if the results on the ice improve in the short-term.
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I’m hoping the Habs exhaust all trade options before free agency. Outside of Tavares(who’s going to cost a ton), there are no appealing options. Stastny would be nice but a lot of people are expecting him to land a 5 year deal and he’s just not worth that kind of commitment. Landing O’Reilly and buying low on a Sam Bennett or targeting a Nick Bjugstad would probably be the best use of the teams cap space and trade assets.
I’ve been waiting on Sam Bennett to blossom (as I have him in my salary cap keeper pool). Year after year I am disappointed.
Tavares makes the Habs dangerous as they would have that #1 center, #1 D man, and #1 goalie that most successful teams have. Drouin on the wing ideally.
They can have Giroux and cash for Galchenyuk and the third overall.
I can’t see Tavares going to Montreal. Who are you going to play with him? Drouin? Gallagher? That would be a step down for Tavares to play with their wingers. He has a great line with the Islanders and the Habs can’t match that. If he was to leave the Islanders, St. Louis would make more sense because the Blues could play him with Tarasenko. He is a thousand times better than any winger Montreal has.
If they don’t trade him, Pacioretty is on par with Tarasenko in terms of goal scoring ability. The Canadiens actually have a good group of wingers that’ll get even better if they add 2 centres. Gallagher, Drouin, Pacioretty, Galchenyuk and Byron plus Nikita Scherbak is as talented offensively as you can ask from a winger(whether he becomes consistent enough to stick is another question). After Tarasenko and Schwartz, the Blues winger depth drops off considerably. They have some really nice prospects on the horizon but there’s zero guarantee those guys will be in the NHL next season or even live up to their potential.
With all that said, we’re not even in June yet and a lot can and will probably change.
Galchenyuk & Drouin have been chronic underachievers in their careers thus far. Galchenyuk may need a fresh start & Drouin’s work ethic has never matched his talent. He relies too much on his talent & doesn’t put the needed work in. They haven’t proven anything. Byron isn’t on par with Lee & Bailey & neither is Gallagher. Pacioretty is the only quality winger they have that is proven & there is a good chance he is traded.
You mention Drouin and Galchenyuk as chronic underachievers but then praise the poster boy for underachievement Josh Bailey? It took Bailey 10 seasons just to finally produce and I don’t think it’s much of a coincidence he did so in a contract year. I firmly believe he Jason Blake’d the Isles. Fact of the matter is Galchenyuk has the same number of 50 point seasons as Bailey and is still 5 years younger. And Brendan Gallagher just had a 30 goal season while spending most of his minutes on a defensive shutdown line next to an over-the-hill Tomas Plekanec and an offensively struggling sophomore Artturi Lehkonen. And he did most of his scoring at even strength to boot. As for Drouin, you obviously didn’t pay attention if you say he doesn’t put the work in. That may have been true in Tampa, I don’t know. But what I do know is that according to all the Habs beat reporters, Drouin was constantly the first one to arrive and last one to leave. He put in the work and tried to be that #1 C, the results just weren’t there as a whole. With that said, when he was finally moved back to the wing in March, he started scoring again.
It’s absolutely no secret the Canadiens have severely lacked quality centres for two decades. Now imagine for a second what Bailey and Lee would do without Tavares. Zero chance Bailey tops 50 points these past 2 seasons and I highly doubt Lee hits 40 goals. Now imagine if Drouin wasn’t playing out of position and was next to a superstar like JT. Or Pacioretty. Or Galchenyuk. Or Gallagher. Not exactly hard to imagine them putting up similar(or better in Pacioretty’s case) numbers than Lee and Bailey.