- The Laval Rocket, the AHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens, have signed forward Brett Stapley to a one-year AHL contract for the 2022-23 season, the team announced (link). Stapley, 23, was a seventh-round pick by Montreal back in 2018 and recently finished up his fourth season at the University of Denver. The North Vancouver, BC native had a solid college career, capped off by a breakout 2021-22 with 18 goals and 25 assists in 41 games. With the Canadians in a full rebuild, if Stapley can have a strong transition from college to the professional ranks, he may still have a chance to break into the NHL.
Canadiens Rumors
Brandon Davidson Signs In KHL
After seven NHL seasons and 180 games played, defenseman Brandon Davidson has signed a two-year contract with Kunlun Red Star in the KHL, per the league.
The writing was on the wall for Davidson who, at age 31, spent the entirety of the 2021-22 season in the AHL for the first time since 2013-14. A member of the Buffalo Sabres organization for the past two seasons, Davidson was an alternate captain for the AHL’s Rochester Americans last year and had six points in 23 games. Davidson last played in the NHL on March 16, 2021, in a game against the New Jersey Devils.
A 2010 sixth-round pick of the Edmonton Oilers, Davidson had made a home for himself in the mid-2010s as a stable seventh defenseman for the Oilers, Montreal Canadiens, and New York Islanders. He remained entirely in the NHL from 2015-16 until the 2018-19 season, where he was sent to the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs for a brief stint as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks organization. He’s yet to play a full NHL season since.
Davidson is still decent minor-league depth and could very well get two-way offers or AHL deals when his KHL contract expires in 2024.
Dmitri Kostenko Loaned To Kunlun Of The KHL
- Canadiens prospect Dmitri Kostenko has been loaned out for the upcoming season as Spartak of Russia’s MHL announced that they’ve loaned the 19-year-old to Kunlun of the KHL. Kostenko was a third-round pick of Montreal in 2021 (87th overall) and spent most of last season in Russia’s second-tier league, the VHL, picking up 14 points in 40 games. Kostenko also suited up in seven games with Spartak at the junior level, recording nine assists.
Morning Notes: Price, Monahan, McMorrow
The Montreal Canadiens would like a healthy Carey Price to be leading them onto the ice every night. But since that’s not a possibility right now, taking the entire year (and perhaps the rest of his career) off might actually be the best option for the team. Eric Engels’ latest column for Sportsnet examines the Price situation, his current injury status, and how his absence actually might benefit the team in the long run, thanks to the salary cap system.
In it, he also suggests that the Canadiens’ competitive window likely won’t be until 2025, at which point even a healthy Price would be 38. Even if it happened sooner than that, the veteran goaltender’s time leading Montreal is all but over.
- With Sean Monahan undergoing his own hip surgery earlier this year, Canadiens fans were wondering whether he would even be ready for the start of the season, after acquiring him yesterday. The veteran center is hoping so and told the media that he’s already back on the ice four times a week preparing for the season. He feels healthy and ready to “play hockey again at a high level.” While the Canadiens landed a first-round pick for Monahan already, if he can reclaim any sort of semblance of his former self, they may be able to flip him for even more.
- The Denver Pioneers are having a good week, and it continues with the commitment of top prospect Brendan McMorrow. The 16-year-old will be joining the U.S. National Team Development Program this year, with his sights set on the 2024 draft and a freshman season at DU in 2024-25. So much for the second-round pick that the Spokane Chiefs used on the young forward in the 2021 WHL US Prospects draft.
Breaking Down The Sean Monahan Trade Conditions
Seeing conditional draft picks get dealt is commonplace in this day and age. However, the stipulations on them are usually easy enough to understand. Whether it’s a third-round pick dropping down to a fourth if a player doesn’t play enough games for their new team, or a second-round pick upgrading to a first if the team in question wins the Stanley Cup, the conditions on trades are sensible, at least for the majority of the time.
The Montreal Canadiens seem to buck that trend, though. Starting with some lengthy conditions on the Christian Dvorak trade prior to last season, the Canadiens have agreed to an even more complex (and frivolous, depending on who you ask) set of conditions on the 2025 conditional first-round pick that they acquired today from the Calgary Flames, along with Sean Monahan. So much so that it’s worth its own post, with reference drawn from CapFriendly’s posting and reporting on the topic.
There are three possible umbrella scenarios that could determine which draft pick Montreal actually receives:
Scenario 1: If Calgary’s 2024 first-round pick falls between 20th and 32nd overall, Montreal can elect to receive Calgary’s 2024 first instead of their 2025 first.
Scenario 2: Calgary receives the 2025 lottery-protected first-round pick sent to them by the Florida Panthers in the Jonathan Huberdeau trade.
Scenario 3: Calgary does NOT receive Florida’s 2025 lottery-protected first-round pick.
Scenario 1
This is easily the simplest and potentially most likely scenario if the Flames are still rolling strong two years from now. If Montreal opts to swap out an unknown 2025 first-rounder for a late 2024 first-rounder, then the trade tree ends and Montreal receives no additional compensation.
Scenario 2
Now, things get complex with the addition of Florida’s 2025 lottery-protected first-round pick. In the event that both the Flames’ and Panthers’ 2025 first-round picks are NOT in the top 10, the Canadiens will receive the better of the two selections.
However, if the Flames’ 2025 first-round pick is a top 10 pick and the Panthers’ pick is not, Montreal is guaranteed to receive the Panthers’ pick. If the opposite is true, Montreal will receive Calgary’s selection.
Scenario 3
This is the most unlikely yet most complex scenario. If Florida’s 2025 first-round pick ends up as a top-ten choice, they’ll retain the pick and send their 2026 first-rounder to Calgary instead. This has two possible implications for Montreal:
If Calgary’s 2025 first is NOT top 10: Montreal will receive Calgary’s 2025 first-round pick, and, if Florida’s 2025 first-round pick is not top ten, but was transferred to another team due to prior conditions AND is a better pick than Calgary’s, Montreal will also receive Calgary’s 2025 fourth-round pick as compensation.
If Calgary’s 2025 first is top 10: If Calgary’s 2025 first-round pick is first overall, Montreal will receive the better of Florida’s and Calgary’s 2026 first-round picks AND Calgary’s 2025 third-round pick. If Calgary’s 2025 first-round pick falls between selections 2 through 10, Montreal will receive the pick.
All in all, if the reported conditions are correct, the Canadiens have the potential to receive one of the following five outcomes:
2024 Calgary first-round pick
2025 Calgary first-round pick + potential 2025 Calgary fourth-round pick
2025 Florida first-round pick
2026 Calgary first-round pick + 2025 Calgary third-round pick
2026 Florida first-round pick + 2025 Calgary third-round pick
Carey Price Not Expected To Be Ready For Season; May Not Play At All
When the Montreal Canadiens made the trade for Sean Monahan earlier today, some wondered whether it meant that Carey Price had not responded well to his rehab work. After all, the Canadiens are well over the cap if Price was going to be healthy enough to play this season.
That does not appear to be the case. Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes announced that Price will not be ready for the start of the season and there is a chance he does not play at all. News on the goaltender’s knee has been “discouraging” and Hughes does not currently see a path through rehab to Price playing this year.
The team will have more information when Price undergoes his medical at training camp but as of now, they seem to be preparing for life without him. Monahan’s addition pushed them nearly $6MM over the cap ceiling, though he too is unlikely to be ready for the start of the year. The former Calgary Flames forward underwent hip surgery earlier this year and Hughes expects him to be back at some point in November.
That will mean at least $16.8MM on long-term injured reserve to start the year, as the Canadiens use their cap space and financial might to acquire future assets.
Price has four years left on the eight-year, $84MM contract he signed in 2017, though a huge chunk of that has already been paid over the first half of the deal (and this year’s signing bonus).
As frustrating as it may seem for Canadiens fans, the possibility of Price never playing again may actually benefit the organization in the long run. The 35-year-old goaltender has come nowhere close to performing up to the level of a $10.5MM cap hit over the last several years, save for the incredible performance in Montreal’s cinderella run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.
Since he signed that massive extension, Price has recorded a .908 save percentage in 203 regular season games, posting a 91-86-24 record in the process. A huge reason for those struggles has been injuries, which have cropped up all over his body after so much time in the net.
While surgery remains an option to try and get his knee back to a level where he can reclaim the crease, there’s no telling how his body would react to that kind of an operation at this point or whether he’d be able to perform at even an NHL level, let alone his own previous mark. With over 700 regular season games played, Price currently ranks 27th all-time, and is even higher (21st) on the wins list.
In the meantime, Jake Allen and Sam Montembeault will serve as the Canadiens’ tandem, with restricted free agent Cayden Primeau still to sign.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Montreal Canadiens Acquire Sean Monahan
After news broke that the Calgary Flames will be signing Nazem Kadri, the obvious move to clear cap space was trading away Sean Monahan’s contract. That will be the case as Monahan is headed to the Montreal Canadiens.
Given Kadri’s reported $7MM cap hit, the swap represents just a $625K cap increase for the Flames, who were on the hook for the final season of Monahan’s seven-year, $44.625MM contract. Moving from Monahan to Kadri will cost them more than that though, as Calgary is sending a conditional 2025 first-round pick to the Canadiens in order for them to take the whole contract. Montreal will send future considerations (nothing) back.
The reason the trade took so long to work out is the set of conditions, which are some of the most complicated the league has ever seen.
- If Calgary’s 2024 first is pick 20-32, Montreal has the option to take that pick (must decide before draft starts).
- If Florida’s 2025 first transfers to Calgary (from the Matthew Tkachuk trade) then:
- If Calgary and Florida’s 2025 firsts are both outside the top-10, Montreal will receive the earlier one OR
- If Calgary’s 2025 first is inside the top-10 and Florida’s is not, Montreal will receive Florida’s
- If Florida’s 2025 first does not transfer to Calgary then:
- If Calgary’s 2025 first is not in the top-10, Montreal will receive it AND
- If Florida’s 2025 first is not in the top-10, it has been transferred to another team, and is better than Calgary’s 2025 pick, Montreal will receive Calgary’s 2025 fourth-round pick
- If Calgary’s 2025 first is in the top-10, Montreal will receive it UNLESS
- If it is the first-overall selection, Calgary will retain the 2025 first, and Montreal will receive Calgary’s 2025 third-round pick, and the better of Calgary and Florida’s 2026 firsts.
- If Calgary’s 2025 first is not in the top-10, Montreal will receive it AND
For the Canadiens, who are trying to orchestrate a full rebuild under new general manager Kent Hughes, going after Monahan is a no-brainer. Adding a premium future asset for nothing more than a year of wasted cap space is exactly how you move things along, even though they will have to make some adjustments if Monahan is healthy enough to play after hip surgery earlier this year.
“Healthy enough to play” seems to be the operative phrase in Montreal right now, as their cap situation could vary wildly depending on the status of Carey Price. If the veteran goaltender is placed on long-term injured reserve again, the team would have some added flexibility. If he does play, it will be interesting to see how the Canadiens fit Monahan in.
Regardless, this is likely not a competitive year for the Canadiens, even though they’ve added some young talent, meaning they can take on salary without any real risk. In fact, should Monahan prove healthy enough, he might even be a nice deadline chip for the team to re-sell. While he is cost-prohibitive at his full cap hit, a retained Monahan for the last part of the season could be an attractive target for contenders looking to add some depth.
Canadiens Make Changes To Video Coaching, Scouting
The Montreal Canadiens aren’t done re-shaping their organization under the new management of Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes. Today the Canadiens announced that longtime video coach Mario Leblanc is stepping down from his role, and the video coach of the AHL Laval Rocket, Daniel Harvey, has been promoted to Leblanc’s former role. The Canadiens did also say that Leblanc would “remain involved” in the organization, continuing to work within the scope of hockey operations. His specific responsibilities are unclear. Leblanc has worked in the role of video coach for a quarter of a century and is one of the longest-tenured faces in their organization.
In a move that came a bit more quietly, former Florida Panthers scout Billy Ryan was named Director of Player Evaluation in Montreal, as reported by Arpon Basu and Marc-Antoine Godin of The Athletic. (subscription link) Ryan has worked as an amateur scout for the Panthers since 2015-16. Per Basu and Godin’s reporting, Ryan ran the Panthers’ 2020 draft when they were between scouting directors, guiding them to the selections of center Anton Lundell 12th overall and current Canadiens prospect Emil Heineman in the second round.
Looking Back At The First Round Of The 2005 NHL Entry Draft
On this date 17 years ago, the first round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft was held at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa. It was the league’s first major event since the lockout that cost them the entire 2004-05 season ended just over a week prior, and considering the draft’s top prize, there was added intrigue.
With the lack of regular-season standings to determine the draft order, the league implemented a snake draft system to make things more equitable for teams in later rounds that didn’t fare so well in the draft lottery. One team that did fare well that night, though, was the Pittsburgh Penguins, who cemented a 15-plus year run of success by drafting future captain Sidney Crosby with the first overall pick.
Five players selected that night went on to appear in at least 1,000 NHL games, including Crosby. One was 2022 Stanley Cup Champion Jack Johnson, taken third overall by the Carolina Hurricanes. Johnson never played a single game for Carolina, though, as he was traded the following offseason to the Los Angeles Kings along with defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky in exchange for defenseman Tim Gleason and center Eric Belanger.
Johnson wasn’t the only player from the first round to play meaningful games for the Kings, though. The team selected two-time Stanley Cup champion and future captain Anze Kopitar with the 11th overall selection. Another thousand-gamer was selected directly after him when the New York Rangers picked defenseman Marc Staal 12th overall, while Johnson’s teammate on the 2022 Avalanche, forward Andrew Cogliano, was selected 25th by the Edmonton Oilers.
One name from that night who could still join the 1,000-game club was St. Louis Blues selection and current Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie. Taken 24th overall, he only needs 100 more appearances to hit the mark.
Future Stanley Cup-winning skaters weren’t the only future legends drafted that night, though. Two of the greatest goalies in recent memory were drafted that night, with the Montreal Canadiens selecting Carey Price with the fifth overall pick and the Toronto Maple Leafs selecting Tuukka Rask with the 21st overall pick, of course prior to trading him to the Boston Bruins the following season.
Just three players selected that night, all taken within four picks of each other, would never make an NHL appearance. Slovak forward Marek Zagrapan, drafted 13th overall by the Buffalo Sabres, played just three years in the organization with two different AHL affiliates, scoring 20 goals there just once. At 35 years old, Zagrapan is still active, playing the 2022-23 season in the French Ligue Magnus.
Directly after him, the Washington Capitals took Canadian defenseman Sasha Pokulok with the 14th overall pick. The first overage player taken in the draft, he’s arguably the biggest bust of the night. He never spent a full season in the AHL, bouncing up and down between there and the ECHL for four seasons after turning pro in 2006. He failed to make a notable impact in Europe, too, only lasting one season in the DEL (2010-11) before floating around various lower-level leagues in Eastern Europe and Quebec.
Lastly, there’s Canadian winger Alex Bourret, taken by the Atlanta Thrashers at 16th overall. A short but strong power winger, Bourret had a very successful junior career in the QMJHL that just didn’t translate. His North American career fizzled out quickly after a strong start in the AHL, but after being traded twice (first to the Rangers, then to the Coyotes), he had just 14 points in 48 AHL games during his final season there in 2008-09.
Montreal Canadiens Hire Stephane Robidas
The Montreal Canadiens have added another coach without much experience, hiring Stephane Robidas as an assistant for Martin St. Louis’ staff. General manager Kent Hughes explained the move:
We are very lucky to have someone of Stephane’s caliber join our coaching staff. His recent experience as an NHL player, and his outstanding hockey background, will be excellent assets for the development of our players. Stephane perfectly matches the profile we were looking for in a candidate. In addition to being an exceptional individual, he is a very good communicator, and I believe that players will relate to him because of that.
Notably, though he has no experience as an NHL coach, he did serve as director of player development for several years with the Toronto Maple Leafs. That experience with young players is going to come in handy with the rebuilding Canadiens, along with his familiarity with the organization. Robidas was a seventh-round pick of Montreal back in 1995 and made his NHL debut with the club before moving on to several other teams.
It’s something of a trend now for the Canadiens to hire a coach out of minor hockey, as Robidas spent last season behind the bench of the Magog Cantonniers, the same QMAAA team that he and his son Justin Robidas played for. Justin was a 2021 draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes and spent last season captaining the Val-d’Or Foreurs.
While his son is just trying to start on his hockey journey, Stephane can look back at an NHL career that lasted more than 900 games. The right-shot defenseman was even invited to an All-Star Game and participated in the World Championship for Canada on three different occasions.