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New York Times
16-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Canadiens offseason primer: Trade candidates and free agents who fit Montreal's rebuild
Montreal Canadiens management made it clear from Day 1 that this season was about collecting information. The desire to be in the mix, to play meaningful games, the playoff appearance — all of it was to collect information and identify the long-term holes that require filling. That day, general manager Kent Hughes began a new phase of the rebuild centred on team-building, not simply indiscriminate asset acquisition. Advertisement The Canadiens acquired one player over the season, Alexandre Carrier, in one of the NHL's most impactful trades of the season. It filled a glaring hole and tangibly changed the team's fortunes. Now Hughes and Jeff Gorton hope to do that again this summer, perhaps even two or three times. The season served its purpose in several ways. The Canadiens got their meaningful games, but the holes that need filling also became glaringly obvious — perhaps never more so as in the third period of Game 5 against Washington. Needing an offensive spark, Montreal coach Martin St. Louis played Jake Evans with Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovský, moving Nick Suzuki over to play with Ivan Demidov and Alex Newhook. Evans is very good, but he should never have to be the source of an offensive spark. In addition to adding a second-line centre — ideally a left shot — to play behind Suzuki, the Canadiens could use another veteran right-shot defenceman to replace David Savard; a replacement for Christian Dvorak as a left-shot, penalty-killing bottom-six centre; and, as Gorton suggested last week, some more toughness and competitiveness. Last season, on average, it took the top 10 teams in the league 2.2 years to go from missing the playoffs to earning 100 points. The Capitals just did it in two years. The fact that the Canadiens made the playoffs this season, therefore, would put them on the clock. It is vitally important they don't look at it that way. The Capitals did it in two years because they had a tremendous offseason where they filled the same holes the Canadiens need to fill this offseason: a second-line centre (Pierre-Luc Dubois) and a right-shot defenceman in the top four (Matt Roy). But the Capitals' collective age creates urgency to win now. The Canadiens' window is not yet open. And they must act in kind. Advertisement 'I think when I said (last year) 2024 would be a big summer, I also said 2025 would probably be bigger,' Hughes said last week. 'And I would assume that will continue to be the case, meaning each subsequent summer, until we arrive and we feel like we've got a team that's capable of competing every year for a Stanley Cup. 'I think we can all agree, although we took strides, we're not there yet.' Therefore, as we go through the holes the Canadiens need to fill, it is important to keep in mind they don't necessarily need to fill all of them this summer. The Canadiens have a surplus of draft picks and prospects — and nothing else. So, when it comes to trades, Montreal is likely to barter with teams that need those things. In that sense, not much has changed from last year at this time. If you look at the prospect pool rankings from The Athletic's Scott Wheeler, a good place to start is with the teams towards the bottom of the list who are not competitive and recognize it. That gives us four teams the Canadiens could potentially do business with: the Boston Bruins (No. 30 on Wheeler's list), the New York Islanders (No. 25), the Pittsburgh Penguins (No. 20) and the Philadelphia Flyers (No. 18). The Flyers' ranking does not account for Matvei Michkov because he was on the NHL roster. They also have three picks in the first round and four in the second round of June's draft, so that takes them out of this mix somewhat. Their prospect pool is about to be flush. So, that leaves the Bruins, Islanders and Penguins. Each has players who could interest the Canadiens, and each needs what the Canadiens have in surplus. We can start there. But first, a bit of perspective. In 2020, Wheeler wrote that the Canadiens had the second-best prospect pool in the NHL. He provided analysis on 15 prospects and another six whose seasons were cut short due to injury. Five years later, how many of those 21 players play for the Canadiens? Two: Caufield and Jayden Struble. Only four others – Jordan Harris, Alexander Romanov, Ryan Poehling and Noah Juulsen – were NHL players this season. Advertisement Consider that with the current crop of prospects, instead of thinking a player is untouchable. The purpose of prospects is to add players to the NHL club, where there are only 23 spots. Whether that spot is filled by the prospect himself or by a player that prospect helped bring in, the goal is the same. The reality is that most prospects don't make it, and the Canadiens have so many prospects that they could not possibly expect to have them all make the team. But the beauty of prospects is that they are attractive to other teams as home-run possibilities, more so than draft picks, because there is more information to work with. So, with that out of the way, let's look at our three prime trade partners for the Canadiens. Boston Bruins Morgan Geekie is listed as a centre and is a restricted free agent, but he is also a right-shot. He played far more at right wing this season, opposite David Pastrňák on the top line, and scored 33 goals. But he's not an ideal second-line centre target. Geekie's centre for most of this season, however, was Pavel Zacha, a left-shot who put up 47 points but had 59 and 57 points in his two previous seasons. He has two years left on a contract that pays him $4.75 million a year. He is 6 feet, 3 inches and 206 pounds. He won 53.2 percent of his faceoffs this season and 54.8 percent last season. He can kill penalties and play on the power play. The Bruins' view of the future is unclear, but when you have Pastrňák and Charlie McAvoy in their primes, a full rebuild doesn't make a whole lot of sense. However, a bit of a retool is clearly in play here, and if Zacha can bring in a decent draft pick and a prospect with two years left on his contract, that would make a lot of sense for the Bruins to at least consider, even if it would mean dealing with the hated Canadiens. I'm not sure Zacha should be the Canadiens' top target to fill that No. 2 centre role, but they could do worse. The Bruins have Elias Lindholm signed long-term and could add a centre of the future with the No. 7 pick in this draft, though the thought of also nabbing one of the Canadiens' picks at Nos. 16 or 17 should be tantalizing. There is perhaps no team that should be more desperate to add futures than the Bruins. Advertisement Well, except maybe … New York Islanders The Islanders have a new general manager coming, and it would be hard for any rational GM to look at that roster and not see the need for some version of a rebuild. Bo Horvat is 30 and signed for six more years at $8.5 million a year — a big ticket and a player unlikely to be worth that when the Islanders come out of whatever version of a rebuild they choose. But he should be worth it for long enough to justify the Canadiens making a run at him. Horvat is tremendous in the faceoff circle from the left side, excellent in the bumper on the power play and plays a solid, 200-foot game. He scored only three power-play goals this season, but it was his first year with fewer than 10 since 2020-21. He would be an excellent complement to Suzuki, a fellow London, Ont., native he has skated with in the summer. It would be difficult to find a better fit for the Canadiens' second line right now than the consistent 50-to-60-point scorer. Just imagine what Suzuki would do with some protection behind him in the lineup. What Suzuki has accomplished is the equivalent of a slugger batting third in the lineup and hitting 40 home runs with a slap singles hitter batting cleanup behind him. The only blemishes on Horvat are his age and his contract's length. But he would provide the Canadiens with an immediate solution to the second-line centre issue. Perhaps three or four years down the line, he could transition to more of a bottom-six option who by that point, with the rate the salary cap is rising, would be marginally overpaid for that role. If the new Islanders GM is desperate to shed money – as most new GMs are – the acquisition cost should be somewhat mitigated by that contract. Noah Dobson, a restricted free agent who is one year away from unrestricted free-agent status, is another player to watch. The acquisition cost here would be astronomical and would not be limited to futures, but if he's available in a trade, Dobson would be a phenomenal addition to the Canadiens' core as a top-pair right-shot defenceman. But his next contract will be a whopper. Advertisement Pittsburgh Penguins If Sidney Crosby tells the Penguins he is not interested in a rebuild and wants to finish his career elsewhere, and if one of his desired locations is Montreal, then the Canadiens are in a prime position to offer the Penguins what they need. And they should do so, even though Crosby will be 38 in August and has only two years left on his contract. If Crosby wants to do right by the Penguins and allow them to collect the kind of assets he should attract, he wouldn't be doing that by insisting he wants to play in Colorado, Dallas or Florida. Building an offer around the No. 16 or 17 picks, or both, is something the Canadiens are uniquely capable of offering in this scenario. The Canadiens shouldn't do anything stupid in terms of what they pay to get Crosby, but sometimes, just sometimes, vibes are worth chasing. This would be an incredible culture-building opportunity, and perhaps in the second year, Crosby could help drive the Canadiens to the fringes of contender status. Just imagine the residual benefits of Demidov getting to play his first two full NHL seasons as Crosby's winger. That said, this remains extremely unlikely. I remain unconvinced the Canadiens will look to address their second-line centre hole through unrestricted free agency. They would need to see an open competitive window to go after a significant UFA addition, and they are not there yet. So even if the Florida Panthers' Sam Bennett makes it to free agency, as great a candidate to fill that hole as he would be, it would be surprising to see the Canadiens enter that highly competitive bidding war. Same goes for a top-four right-shot defenceman such as Aaron Ekblad, Bennett's teammate. Hughes has always been clear that contracts with big money and big term are appropriate when the benefit you get in the front half of the deal outweighs the burden you will get in the back half. In other words, if a big UFA contract pushes you from Cup contender to Cup favourite, you can live with the pain later in the contract. Though the Canadiens took a run at Jonathan Marchessault at the opening of free agency a year ago, it was a run with a bigger average annual value and less term and less total money than Marchessault ultimately got from Nashville. It was a sign Hughes and Gorton did not feel they were ready to make what they knew to be an irresponsible offer to reap the immediate benefit, and there is no sense they feel any more ready to do that this year after five playoff games. Advertisement Then, there is also this comment from Hughes last week regarding the talent developing in the AHL that has relevance to the team's approach in free agency. 'If we go sign a bunch of guys to four-year deals, there's a bunch of guys in Laval saying, 'What the hell just happened? My spot's gone.' And then it becomes much harder to show up at the rink the next day or the next season in Laval,' he said. 'These are things we need to be mindful of in how we do things.' That doesn't mean the Canadiens can't do some shopping on July 1, but I would aim for more of a third-pairing type on the right side on a short-term contract, someone who could directly replace Savard's role, and someone who could fill Dvorak's role centring the third line. There's also the need that Gorton said they would address one way or another. 'Compete is really the biggest thing, making sure we have people who are comfortable in a playoff environment to play in all situations,' Gorton said last week. 'There's really nothing we won't look at to try and improve it.' So, with those three needs in mind, here are five potential UFAs I would target for the Canadiens, in alphabetical order. Cody Ceci, RD, Dallas Stars Ceci's analytics have never been good, but coaches continue trusting him, and general managers continue acquiring him. This season, he played the toughest matchups for San Jose before the Stars got him with Mikael Granlund at the deadline. Despite a much stronger defence corps in Dallas, Ceci continued facing difficult matchups. Much like Savard, there is something about Ceci that appeals to coaches and gains their trust, and he has a long history as a penalty killer. Ceci will be 32 in December and is coming off a four-year contract that earned him $13 million. Radek Faksa, C, St. Louis Blues Faksa would fill two needs at once: the left-shot, faceoff-winning, penalty-killing replacement for Dvorak and the team's competitiveness. Faksa won 57 percent of his faceoffs this season, including 56.1 percent shorthanded, and formed a solid line for the St. Louis Blues with Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker that was particularly effective in the playoffs, outscoring the Winnipeg Jets 6-0 at five-on-five and controlling 59.11 percent of expected goals in just under 63 minutes together. The physical nature of that line was a big part of its success. Advertisement Faksa has never had a lot of offence to his game – his career high of 33 points last came seven years ago – but he's eaten a ton of defensive zone starts throughout his career and has 86 career playoff games under his belt. Trent Fredric, LW, Edmonton Oilers A heavy, hard-shooting winger who spends more than his fair share of time in the offensive zone, Frederic would add some bite to the fourth line to replace Joel Armia, though Frederic is not a proven penalty killer. He has some scoring touch, with 18 and 17 goals his previous two seasons before an injury cut his regular season short at eight goals this season. Nick Perbix, RD, Tampa Bay Lightning Perbix played sheltered minutes in Tampa Bay this season, but last season he faced a much stronger calibre of competition, played just over 17 minutes a game and did a decent enough job. He's never had a significant role on either special-teams unit, but the Lightning have never needed him to do that. A sixth-round pick by the Lightning out of high school in 2017, Perbix is completing his second contract at age 27 after a year in the USHL, four years at St. Cloud State and a one-year entry-level contract. He's been an unspectacular but solid NHL defenceman and appears to have some room left to grow in a different environment as a late bloomer. The Lightning's tight cap situation might spring him free. Brandon Tanev, LW, Winnipeg Jets Tanev is 33 but plays a physical game and has killed penalties for a long time – he was on the Seattle Kraken's top PK unit this season and has been on the Jets' second unit in the playoffs. He is a playoff-type player who can help a fourth line in the regular season enough to get him to the time of year where he's most effective. This all might seem a bit jumbled and without direction, but that is largely because the Canadiens' offseason has a lot of variable elements. But one overriding principle is that their playoff appearance won't disproportionately shape the Canadiens' offseason approach. The playoff appearance may have sparked a desire to boost the team's compete level and toughness, but Hughes tempered that by noting the Canadiens already have young, big players with the tools to be physical who could develop organically. Advertisement That is what is tricky about the Canadiens' rebuild. They remain one of the youngest teams in the league and will likely get a bit younger next season. And they need that youth to blossom in a winning environment, hence the need to add some veteran help this offseason to at least offset some departures. But a big swing this offseason is likelier to happen via trade than via free agency, and the Canadiens remain very well placed to make an attractive offer to a team looking to build for the future that has pieces that are more geared toward the present. The Canadiens are not solely geared toward the present right now, but they are moving steadily in that direction.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Canadiens React to NHL's Announcement on Coach Martin St. Louis
This season, the Montreal Canadiens surprised the league by earning a playoff berth for the first time since 2021, finishing with a 40-31-11 record and 91 points. The team clinched the final wild-card spot in the East on the last day of the regular season. Advertisement From December 3 onward, they posted a 32–18-8 record, climbing up the conference standings and with a .621 points percentage. Montreal, the youngest team in the playoffs, also went 26-14-8 after Christmas. All of that earned head coach Martin St. Louis a nomination for the Jack Adams Award on Friday, something the Habs reacted to with a message on X. 'Head coach Martin St-Louis has been named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award! 🏆' along with a photo of the coach next to the trophy. St. Louis is just the sixth Canadiens coach to be nominated for the award since its inception in 1973–74, and the first since Guy Carbonneau in 2008. Advertisement Only Scotty Bowman and Pat Burns have won it while with Montreal. St. Louis also becomes the first former Hart Trophy winner to receive a Jack Adams nomination. Hired initially with no prior coaching experience, St. Louis took over from Dominique Ducharme midway through the 2021-22 season and officially became head coach that summer. St. Louis reached his 100th career win on Feb. 4 in a game against the San Jose Sharks. Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis (rear) reacts on the bench at PPG Paints LeClaire-Imagn Images The other two Jack Adams finalists are Scott Arniel of the Winnipeg Jets and Spencer Carbery of the Washington Capitals. Arniel guided Winnipeg to its first Presidents' Trophy with a 56–22–4 record, the league's best. Advertisement Carbery led Washington (51-22-9) to second overall in the standings and ultimately eliminated Montreal from the playoffs, beating the Canadiens 4-1 in their first-round matchup. Related: Sidney Crosby, Connor Bedard Not on Canada's Initial Roster for IIHF World Championship Related: NHL Delivers First Official Update on Maple Leafs-Panthers Series
