by Corey Desormeaux , Managing Editor, All Habs Hockey Magazine

OTTAWA, ON – Everybody breathe, Alex Galchenyuk has signed.  Thursday evening, the last remaining Canadiens free agent signed a two-year deal worth $5.6 million that will account for $2.8 million against the cap for the next two seasons.

The bottom line is that this is a reasonable cap hit for a top-six forward.  After setting career high numbers statistically, Galchenyuk was awarded with a two-year bridge deal that will allow him to prove his abilities in hope of a big pay day.  Alex will once again become a restricted free agent at the end of the 2016-17 season at the tender age of 23, but with arbitration rights.

Fans need to remain excited about Galchenyuk at 21 years old.  He’s had three seasons in the NHL (his first was the lockout year) and has improved statistically in each them.

Season	Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points
12-13	48	9	18	27
13-14	65	13	18	31
14-15	80	20	26	46

Galchenyuk has also improved at 5vs5 play.  I’ve eliminated the 2012-13 shortened season as Galchenyuk’s minutes were sheltered and his deployment was more favourable compared to the last two seasons.

Season	Goals per 60	Assists per 60	Points per 60	iCorsi per 60
13-14	0.62	0.77	1.39	11.11
14-15	0.84	0.95	1.79	12.39

Of note is Galchenyuk’s ability to setup goals.   In the 2013-14 season at 5vs5 Galchenyuk had the first assist on 80% of his assists and 70.5% throughout the 14-15 season.  But how does that compare to the Habs top centremen?

Season	Galchenyuk % of first assists	Desharnais % of first assists	Plekanec % of first assists
13-14	80%	68.1%	53.8%
14-15	70.5%	47.82%	68.4%

Galchenyuk can dish the puck, and can dish it well.

Alex has also seen success on the powerplay ranking second amongst Habs forwards in points per 60 minutes on the powerplay (players that average at least a minute per game) with 3.84.  In fact he led all Canadiens forwards in assists per 60 minutes on the powerplay and tied Pacioretty for second amongst Habs forwards with 11 powerplay points.

He is a strong skater with the smoothest hands on the Canadiens.  He can be flat-out deadly with the puck on his stick whether he has space or not.  The best part is he only getting better.

Too Many Forwards?

Is it just me or do the Habs have too many forwards?  It’s been widely reported about the backlog and depth on the defensive side of the ice, and what Bergevin may or may not do to get Pateryn and Tinordi regular ice-time.  But what about the Canadiens forward group?

Teams typically carry 13 forwards, so let’s take a quick look at a hypothetical line-up.  Please rest assured that this is not what I would do but what I think Therrien could do:

Pacioretty – Desharnais – Gallagher

Galchenyuk – Plekanec – Semin

De La Rose – Eller – Kassian

Weise (typically RW) – Mitchell – Smith-Pelly

That leaves Flynn as the extra forward.  Note that Weise would be playing the left wing instead of the right wing, something Therrien doesn’t like to do.

As many have written about, including myself, there are a few AHL forwards that could be ready to make an impact on the Habs next season.  Some of the names include Christian Thomas, Daniel Carr, Charles Hudon, Michael Bournival and Sven Adrighetto.  You can bet that if one of them is lighting it up it may force Bergevin to make a move with his current roster to make room for one of the forwards to come up to the big club.  Internal competition is a positive thing and training camp is going to be extra fun to watch this year.

It’s crucial to point out that Thomas, Andrighetto, Carr and Bournival all become restricted free agents at the end of next season.  Will the Habs brass let them play out their season in the AHL in hopes to negotiate lower wages or will they want to see what each of them can do at the NHL level first?

Free Agents

The Canadiens have a few unrestricted free agents after next season, including Dale Weise, Alexander Semin, Tom Gilbert and most notably Tomas Plekanec.  Restricted free agents include the names I listed in the previous section, Kassian, Smith-Pelly, Tinordi, and Tokarski (colleague Blake wrote a great piece here about Dustin and his future).

All that to say, Bergevin will be busy and some key decisions will be made with the team already feeling a bit of pressure being so tight against the cap (about $3M of cap space left).  Will he be tempted to trade one of the above?

If I had to put my money on one of the names being dealt, I would put my money on Plekanec.  I’m assuming many of you will say that Desharnais should be the man on the move.  I agree with you to an extent, but hear me out.  For starters, Desharnais can be an effective player in the right role and his cap hit of $3.5M is tolerable.

Plekanec’s value is much higher than Desharnais’.  Tomas had a very successful season offensively last year, and I would argue in that in large part it’s because of the defensive role that Lars Eller has become so successful at.  Plekanec used to be relied on heavily as a shut-down centreman, but with Eller in the mould Plekanec has taken a more offensive role.  Do the Habs need him as an offensive threat if Galchenyuk is ready to play centre?

Trading Plekanec would open up room for Galchenyuk to move to centre.  If the Habs feel that Galchenyuk is ready for his role as a centreman, Plekanec makes sense as the player to move.  As mentioned earlier, the Habs have a plethora of forwards that could slide into the second line winger role. That would leave the lines looking something like this:

Pacioretty – Desharnais – Gallagher

Thomas/Carr/Hudon – Galchenyuk – Semin

De La Rose – Eller – Kassian

Weise – Mitchell – Smith-Pelly

All this to say, the Montreal Canadiens love Plekanec and the feeling is mutual and so it may be possible to negotiate a reasonable cap-hit to keep him around.  I would argue however, that this would continue to slowdown the growth of the young talent Montreal has, especially Galchenyuk’s growth as a centreman.

Plekanec is a leader on the team and was bred through the Canadiens system.  It would be tough pill to swallow to see him go but the timing may be right with an expiring contract coming and a possible decline in production coming with age.

Cap Hit of Top Six

I just wanted to point out to all of you that the Canadiens have solidified their top six and they don’t pay a single player over $5M.

Let’s say the Habs start the year with the following in their top-six:

Pacioretty – Desharnais – Gallagher

Galchenyuk – Plekanec – Semin

They’ll be spending $20.65M on those six players.  Did give you a sense of what this means, take a look at three Eastern Conference top teams…

Pittsburgh Penguins – $36.9M

New York Rangers – $27.7M

Tampa Bay Lightning – $27.4M

The Habs are lucky to have some of their top tier forwards on reasonable contracts.

What do you think of the Habs forward group and will Galchenyuk get a chance at centre next season?