Hickey: Centres, penalty killers focal points of Canadiens' off-season
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The more valuable of the two UFAs is Dvorak and he's the least likely to return. As the players cleaned out their lockers, Dvorak said he enjoyed his time in Montreal, but he also framed his experiences in the past tense.
He's valuable because, in addition to killing penalties, he was the team's top centre in faceoffs and, as a lefty, he offers a balance to righties Nick Suzuki and Jake Evans. He also led all Montreal forwards with 74 blocked shots. But Dvorak had a cap hit of US$4.45 million and retaining him would require his accepting a deep hometown discount.
Armia, who leaves the impression that someone with his size and strength should produce like the first-round (No. 16 overall) draft choice he was in 2011, has begun negotiations with the Canadiens and the question is how much of a cut he's willing to take from his US$3.4-million cap hit.
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Global News
15 hours ago
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