With school now back in session, and before training camps officially open next week, over the course of the next few days we’ll be bringing you up to date on how each of the seven Canadian NHL teams have spent their summers.
How I Spent My Summer series: VAN | EDM | CGY | WPG | TOR | OTT
Current cap space: $7.81 million
GM: Marc Bergevin
Head coach: Claude Julien
Assistants: Dominique Ducharme, Kirk Muller, Luke Richardson, Stephane Waite (Goaltending)
Unsigned players: Michael McCarron (RFA)
Signings/PTOs:
• Tomas Plekanec, one year, $2.25 million
• Matthew Peca, two years, $1.3 million
• Xavier Ouellet, one year, $700,000
• Simon Despres, PTO
Free Agent departures:
• Daniel Carr
• Ales Hemsky
• Logan Shaw
Biggest summer splash
On June 15 Bergevin pulled the trigger on a trade to bring 23-year-old forward Max Domi to the Canadiens from the Arizona Coyotes. In the process he sent former 30-goal scorer Alex Galchenyuk packing, which was a risky proposition considering Domi has a total of 36 goals over his 222-game career.
It wasn’t entirely shocking to see Galchenyuk traded after inconsistency in his play led to his name washing through the rumour mill on multiple occasions over the past two seasons. It was however surprising to see the third-overall selection from 2012 moved straight up in a one-for-one deal for Domi, who was drafted 12th overall in 2013.
Domi recorded only nine goals and 36 assists last season, but the Canadiens are hoping a fresh start for the Winnipeg native will inspire him to produce as he did in his rookie year, when he scored 18 goals and 52 points. A day after acquiring Domi, Montreal gave him a two-year, $6.2-million contract to prove he can make that happen.
“We saw this as an opportunity to improve our club in the short-term, medium-term and long-term,” said Bergevin after announcing the signing. “Max is a player who’s fast, who plays with a lot of energy, who moves the puck well, who has character, and, honestly, he wants to play in Montreal, which is important to us. He’s proud, and he wants to be part of the big family that is the Montreal Canadiens.”
Domi will be given ample opportunity to show it, with Bergevin seeing him as a top-six forward.
Other notable additions and subtractions
Owner Geoff Molson promised change at all levels of the organization after the Canadiens and their AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket, bottomed out in the standings of their respective leagues. The biggest ones he signed off on over the weeks that followed impacted the coaching staffs of both teams.
The process started in mid-April, when Rocket coach Sylvain Lefebvre was fired after six years of service.
Jean-Jacques Daigneault and Dan Lacroix were dropped from the Canadiens bench just 10 days later, with the club announcing Dominique Ducharme had been hired away from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Drummondville Voltigeurs.
“With Dominique, we are very confident that we hired an excellent coach, a man who proved himself at the junior level in the QMJHL,” said Bergevin.
He added that Ducharme’s work as head coach of Team Canada — where he earned a silver medal in 2017 and a gold medal in 2018 at the world juniors — was a key factor in the decision to promote him directly to the NHL.
On May 17, Joel Bouchard was lured away from his responsibilities as co-owner, president, general manager and coach of the QMJHL’s Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and brought on board to coach the Rocket.
Shortly after, Rocket assistant coaches Nick Carriere and Donald Dufresne were let go, and Daniel Jacob, who worked on Bouchard’s bench with the Armada, was hired.
On July 6, Alex Burrows retired from a 13-year NHL career and was promptly hired to fill the last vacancy on Bouchard’s coaching staff.
“Alex perfectly matches the profile we were looking for; in addition to being an exceptional individual, he is a very good communicator,” Bouchard said of Burrows’ addition. “His rich experience will be an invaluable resource and many players will be able to relate to the perseverance he showed throughout his career. I am thrilled we are able to add Alex to our group.”
Just three days after the Burrows hire the Canadiens announced they were thrilled to complete their NHL coaching staff with the hiring of Luke Richardson.
Richardson, who played more than 1,400 NHL games as a defenceman, served as an assistant coach with the Ottawa Senators and coached over 300 games at the AHL level, will be in charge of Montreal’s blueliners.
Other summer headlines
• Opportunity to draft a centre too good for Canadiens to pass up
Prolific winger Filip Zadina was there for the taking at third overall at this year’s NHL Draft, but the Canadiens passed on him and nabbed the consensus best centre available in Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
Taking the Finnish kid, who’s drawn comparisons to Anze Kopitar and Aleksander Barkov, was a wise choice for a team that’s been desperate to add quality at the position for the better part of two decades.
• Canadiens take advantage of cap space in trade with Jets
Bergevin had upwards of $17 million in cap space on June 30 and he used some of it to take goaltender Steve Mason’s hefty contract over and help the Winnipeg Jets clear up some much-needed room.
That favour netted the Canadiens forward Joel Armia and two draft picks, and all they had to give up was AHL defenceman Simon Bourque.
Mason’s expiring $4.1-million contract was bought out by the Canadiens a day later.
• Canadiens take patient, cautious approach to start of free agency
The repatriation of Plekanec and the signings of Matthew Peca and Xavier Ouellet marked a tame approach to free agency for Bergevin and the Canadiens.
• Time for Canadiens GM Bergevin to level with fans
A headline that was inspired by the discovery Bergevin had for two weeks concealed news that the team’s best defenceman, Shea Weber, had gone in for a routine right-knee scope on June 19 and come out with a surgically repaired meniscus that will keep him on the sidelines until mid-December.
• Canadiens and fans should be happy with Danault deal
Second-line centre Phillip Danault was signed to a team-friendly, three-year, $9.25-million contract on July 16.
Considering Montreal’s lack of depth at the centre position, the 23-year-old, arbitration-eligible Danault had some leverage in negotiations. Had he used it, he might have been able to squeeze a bit more money — and perhaps another year of security — out of the deal.
The Canadiens and their fans should be happy he didn’t.
Danault said he was pleased to avoid an arbitration hearing a couple of days ahead of his summer wedding.
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Key questions heading in to training camp
There are a lot of them, but one of the most relevant ones to ask is how this team, which finished 28th overall in the standings last season, will rebound after having gone through very little change in the off-season?
On top of that, how will the Canadiens navigate starting the season with several key players sidelined?
Weber, who means as much to the Canadiens on the ice as he does off it, is irreplaceable.
Paul Byron, who scored 20 goals and added 15 assists last season, was given a six-month timeline to recuperate from right-shoulder surgery on April 18. That means he’s missing camp and is doubtful for the first three weeks of the regular season.
And forward Andrew Shaw, who had 10 goals and 10 assists in 51 games last season, isn’t scheduled to be back until a week after Byron. He underwent left knee surgery on April 25.
Perhaps some of the team’s young players such as Artturi Lehkonen, Charles Hudon and Nikita Scherbak can help the Canadiens overcome Byron and Shaw’s short-term absences, but who will supplant Max Pacioretty’s scoring if he’s traded in the coming days?
The captain managed to score at least 30 goals in five of six seasons before potting only 17 in 2017-18. A rebound to form would almost surely make him the highest-scoring Canadien this season, and it seems unfathomable that Bergevin can make a trade prior to the end of camp that will bring a player back who would be that productive.
With Pacioretty’s contract set to expire at season’s end — and with the team having already made its intentions clear by attempting to move him to the Los Angeles Kings earlier this summer — leverage in trade talks isn’t exactly on Bergevin’s side.
And yet, cutting bait ahead of the season might still be the path the GM chooses to go down because if this situation is left unresolved it will become a bigger distraction with each day he stays put.
In an ideal world, the main questions heading into camp would revolve around the optimism that comes with starting a new season, the prospects who threaten to steal spots on the main roster, and the strides young pros have made to become impact contributors. But Bergevin said he expects this team to compete for the playoffs, and all of the issues listed above are going to make that a near-impossible task to achieve regardless of how those types of questions would be answered.
Of course, the most important question heading into camp is: Will Carey Price, who’s entering the first year of an eight-year, $84-million contract, bump his save percentage up from .900 last year to .925 or better this year?
If he doesn’t get to that level, none of the other stuff matters all that much.
What Vegas is saying about the Canadiens…
According to Oddsshark.com, the Canadiens have 50/1 odds of winning the 2019 Stanley Cup.
Only the Vancouver Canucks, Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes were given worse odds.
The Carolina Hurricanes, New York Islanders and New York Rangers are also all listed at 50/1.
