Marc Bergevin has been one of the busiest general managers in the NHL this off-season, and it’s arguably been his best off-season since joining the Canadiens in May of 2012.
It started in early September with the acquisition of backup goaltender Jake Allen from St. Louis, and then a couple weeks following that, he got defenceman Joel Edmundson from Carolina.
A lot has happened since my last post, which was on off-season preview that I put out on September 16th, so let’s take a look at what’s been going on.
It started by re-signing goaltender Michael McNiven to a 1 year, 2 way contract worth $700,000 at the NHL level, and $75,000 at the AHL level.
Then, their busiest day came on October 6th, the first day of the NHL draft. It started with the contract buyout of veteran defenceman Karl Alzner, after his contract didn’t work out. He signed a 5 year contract with Montreal on July 1st 2017. Here is a breakdown of his buyout, which will last four years.
- Year 1: $3,958,333
- Year 2: $1,958,333
- Year 3: $833,333
- Year 4: $833,333
Later that day, the Montreal Canadiens traded forward Max Domi, and a third round pick (78th overall) to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for forward Josh Anderson.
The buyout of Alzner and Domi being traded were two things I predicted in my off-season preview.
Then, in the evening of October 6th was the first round of the NHL entry draft, while rounds two through seven were held on October 7th. Here is a list of who the Canadiens selected with their 8 picks.
- 1st round (16th overall): Kaiden Guhle – D – Prince Albert (WHL)
- 2nd round (47th overall): Luke Tuch – LW – USNTDP (USHL)
- 2nd round (48th overall): Jan Mysak – C – Hamilton (OHL)
- 4th round (102nd overall): Jack Smith – C – St. Cloud Cathedral (USHS-MN)
- 4th round (109th overall): Blake Biondi – C – Hermantown HS (USHS-MN)
- 5th round (136th overall): Jakub Dobes – G – Omaha Lancers (USHL)
- 7th round (171st overall): Alexander Gordin – RW – SKA-1946 (MHL)
On October 8th, the Habs re-signed defenceman Noah Juulsen to a 1 year, 2 way contract worth $700,000 at the NHL level, and $125,000 at the AHL level. They also signed recently acquired forward Josh Anderson to a 7 year contract worth $38.5 million dollars ($5.5 million AAV).
The next day, the Canadiens made a pair of signings. They re-signed defenceman Victor Mete to a 1 year contract worth $735,000. They also re-signed defenceman Xaiver Ouellet to a 2 year, 2 way contract. The first year will see Ouellet make $725,000 at the NHL level, and $425,000 at the AHL level. The second year he will make $750,000 at the NHL level, and $425,000 at the AHL level. He will have a guaranteed salary of $475,000 in 2021-22.
On October 12th, the Habs went out and made a big splash in free agency. They signed forward Tyler Toffoli to 4 year, 17 million dollars ($4.25 million AAV).
A couple days later, Montreal signed a pair of players to contract extensions that will kick in for the 2021-22 season. They signed goaltender Jake Allen to a 2 year contract extension worth $5.75 million dollars ($2.875 million AAV).
Then they signed the heart and soul of the Canadiens, Brendan Gallagher, to a 6 year contract extension worth $39 million dollars ($6.5 million AAV).
Finally, on October 20th, the Canadiens signed their 2020 first round pick, Kaiden Guhle, to a 3 year entry level contract worth $2.775 million dollars ($925,000 AAV).
Going into this off-season, general manager Marc Bergevin mentioned he had a checklist of four needs he wanted to address and he achieved all four of the Canadiens needs. Here they are:
- A backup goalie: Jake Allen.
- A top four defenceman: Joel Edmundson.
- A power forward: Josh Anderson.
- A goal scorer: Tyler Toffoli.
To finish off this post, let’s take a look at what I think the Canadiens lineup will look like on opening night for the 2020-21 season.
Forwards
- Drouin/Suzuki/Anderson
- Tatar/Danault/Gallagher
- Lehkonen/Kotkaniemi/Toffoli
- Byron/Evans/Armia
Defence
- Chiarot/Weber
- Edmundson/Petry
- Romanov/Mete
Goalies
- Price
- Allen
Scratched/On the bubble: Noah Juulsen (D), Cale Fleury (D), Ryan Poehling (FWD).
As Claude Julien said in a conference call with the media last week, he doesn’t plan on numbering his lines, he’s happy he has four strong line he can roll with night in, night out.
Thanks again to everyone who’s been reading and sharing my blogs over the past several months, I appreciate it.
-Cooper.