Martin St. Louis has options on how to use new Canadien Noah Dobson

Montreal Gazette

2 days ago

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Now that the Canadiens have acquired defenceman Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders the question is how will they use him?
Head coach Martin St. Louis will definitely have some options with a top four on the blue line that now includes Dobson, Lane Hutson, Mike Matheson and Kaiden Guhle. Dobson is the only one of those four who shoots right.
The third pairing — unless more moves are made before the start of next season — will likely have Alexandre Carrier, who shoots right, playing with either Arber Xhekaj or Jayden Struble, who both shoot left.
'I'd leave that to the coaching staff how they want to do it,' general manager Kent Hughes said after acquiring the 25-year-old Dobson from the New York Islanders in exchange for the 16th and 17th overall picks at Friday night's NHL Draft, along with 23-year-old forward Emil Heineman. 'But I think you've got an elite puck-moving defenceman with some size (6-foot-4 and 200 pounds) and range in terms of how he defends.
'I may have my own ideas, but they're probably not as relevant as Marty's once you get behind the bench,' Hughes added about how Dobson might be used. 'So I wouldn't want to kind of speak for him. But, obviously, we gave up a lot and signed him for significant money, so we're expecting him to play a pretty big role for us.'
Dobson, who could have become a restricted free agent on July 1, agreed to an eight-year, US$76-million contract with an annual salary-cap hit of US$9.5 million.
St. Louis could decide to play Dobson with Hutson — another offensive-minded defenceman — or put him with Guhle, who is more of a defensive, physical defenceman. Whatever St. Louis decides, the addition of Dobson should cut down on the ice time Hutson and Matheson logged last season. Matheson led the Canadiens with an average of 25:05 of ice time per game — which ranked seventh in the NHL — while Hutson was second on the team with 22:44.
Dobson, a native of Summerside, P.E.I., finished last season with 10-29-39 totals in 71 games to go along with a minus-16, while averaging 23:16 of ice time per game on an Islanders team that was hit hard by injuries. The previous season, he had 10-60-70 totals and was plus-12 with 24 of his points (including one goal) coming on the power play.
Hughes said he had been on the phone almost all his waking hours over the last three weeks speaking with general managers from other teams and learned this week Dobson could be available. He spoke with new Islanders GM Mathieu Darche and received permission to speak with Dobson's agent about a new contract.
Hughes noted the Canadiens did a lot of homework on Dobson, watching video of him in action and speaking with people about his character and how he would fit in the locker room. Hughes added the Canadiens had been accumulating draft picks over the last three years to put themselves in a position to pay what was needed to get a player like Dobson if he became available. Hughes also pointed out it's not often a player with the skill and experience of Dobson becomes available at age 25 with the ability to sign him through the prime years of his career.
'I wouldn't describe Noah as an overly physical defender,' Hughes said. 'I think he defends with his feet and with his reach and range.
'His ability to retrieve pucks and kind of spring the offence for us was a big piece,' Hughes added. 'We see how Lane's done that for us this year. We're confident … we did a lot of homework on him. (Spoke with) a lot of people that have coached him.'
Now it's going to be St. Louis's turn to coach Dobson and he definitely has some interesting options for how to use him.