Armia showing Canadiens he could be more valuable to them than on trade market

TAMPA BAY — It was halfway through the first period of Saturday’s seesaw affair against the Tampa Bay Lightning when Joel Armia committed a turnover coming out of his own end. He had a good breakout opportunity ahead of him but chose to go for a lateral pass that was picked off and brought right back towards the danger zone for the Montreal Canadiens.

It was Armia who ultimately kept it out of there, though. It was Armia who wrestled the puck back, and Armia who picked it clean off a Tampa stick and sent it up the ice to help preserve the 1-0 lead he himself had earned the Canadiens.

Then he went back to Montreal’s bench and did something he struggled most to do over his last two years of mostly underwhelming hockey.

“Just wiping that off the memory and going out for the next shift,” the 30-year-old Finn said after the game ended in a 4-3 shootout loss for the Canadiens. “That’s one big thing I’ve done better with this season. That’s probably the biggest thing.”

It’s a considerable mental shift that’s led to the most consistent hockey Armia has offered since the run the Canadiens had to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.

That doesn’t change the reality he’s a complete product at this point, a player who has already been defined by his 483 games of NHL experience, and one who’ll likely never score at the rate his talent should enable him to.

And that’s why scouts, who have watched Armia going back to his selection as a first-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 2011, aren’t about to go gaga over this three-month stint and run to their general managers to suggest he’d be worth paying a ransom for ahead of next week’s trade deadline — especially with a $3.4-million salary on a contract that only expires at the end of next season.

But this recent sample, which isn’t exactly small, is reason to believe Armia has finally unlocked something that will enable him to at least earn his money with the Canadiens.

Some fans would rather see him dealt immediately, to see the Canadiens cash in on whatever limited value they can redeem just to get his contract off the books. But the team is aiming to be much more competitive next season, and he can help them do that if he keeps playing as reliably as he has. And that’s probably worth more to them than paying part of his salary and accepting a middling pick to watch him play elsewhere.

They’d have not seen it going that way at the start of this season, when they waived Armia and sent him to the AHL. They probably wouldn’t have seen an uptick in his play coming, either, when they dropped him back down two weeks into his recall in mid-November.

But what the Canadiens have seen since bringing Armia back into the fold at the end of that month is a player they have needed and one they really might need moving forward.

“He competes every night,” said Kaiden Guhle of his six-foot-four, 216-pound teammate. “He’s so good down low, and when you see that, he brings energy to our team. We call him ‘The House.’ Love watching him work guys down low and win his puck battles, and it definitely brings energy to our team whenever he’s on, and he’s rarely ever not on.”

That’s something Guhle wouldn’t have been able to say with a straight face a year ago, but something that absolutely rings true right now.

Armia deserves credit for making it so.

He took his demotion like a true professional, worked his tail off in the minors and never sulked, and did something else that’s been fundamental to him rediscovering his best self and deriving some much-needed joy from the game.

Armia didn’t go into any type of detail about the work he’s done with Canadiens mental performance coach Jean-Francois Menard, but did say he’s talked to him “a lot” and that he feels “glad it’s working.”

Scoring goals has helped, too.

The one the big Finn opened up this game with was his 11^th of the season, which is fourth most on the Canadiens. He used it to build on the confidence that’s seen him impact several other aspects of play — strong work on the penalty kill, for example — and continue to provide something the Canadiens have needed to remain in games of late.

“He’s been a big part of it,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “We’ve been very competitive here for a while, and it’s everybody. You can’t have any passengers.

“Army’s been playing great, and it’s nice for him to get rewarded, but there’s a lot of other things on the ice that he does that doesn’t end up on the scoresheet.”

Again, they are things the Canadiens can’t willingly sacrifice for pennies on the dollar just to clear up cap space.

They have a top line that gives them optimism for next season. They have a player in Alex Newhook, who’s proving he can play in the top-six, and Kirby Dach, who’s expected to return from injury and carry a second line that could be bolstered in the off-season. So, Armia joining impressive linemate Joshua Roy in the top-nine would help the Canadiens more if he could just continue to do what he’s done over the last few months.

There’s hope he can.

“I think for me, Army’s in a good place mentally,” said St. Louis. “He fought that the last year or two. I think he’s in a really good place mentally, and you can see that in his body language, his every-day attitude, his enthusiasm…”

It’s been a long road for Armia to travel to arrive here. In the past, he tortured himself over the smallest mistakes. He disappeared for shifts at a time as he lost himself in his negative thoughts, and his game spiraled from there.

But Armia has turned that around and is committed to making sure it stays that way.

“I’m still learning to play more relaxed mentally,” Armia said, “but for sure, (the work he’s done) has been helping me this season.”

It showed again early on Saturday. Just as it has over 38 other games he’s played since the end of November.

And if Armia continues to show that over the final 21 games of the season, he’ll only open up more options for the Canadiens, including the one where he stays and helps them be the team they want to be next season.