by Michael Ham-Fan, Staff Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
MONTREAL, QC. — The Montreal Canadiens’ season came to an end with Tuesday night’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, in the sixth game of the series. The Canadiens lost their first three games to Tampa Bay before winning Game 4 and Game 5. The comeback fell short, but the Habs and their fans can be proud of the effort they put up this season.
Fans are upset, understandably so, but it is important to keep in mind that things can only go upwards from here, like it has been for the last couple of seasons.
The team’s core is still young with Carey Price, Max Pacioretty, P.K. Subban, Alex Galchenyuk, and Brendan Gallagher, 27 years old and younger. The Canadiens also have a deep prospect pool with the likes of Michael McCarron (68 points in 56 OHL games), Nikita Scherbak (82 points in 65 games), Brett Lernout (42 points in 72 games), Tim Bozon (63 points in 59 WHL games) and Charles Hudon (57 points in 79 AHL games). Theses prospects all had very impressive seasons and will definitely get a look at the upcoming training camp.
This team has gotten better every year ever since general manager Marc Bergevin took over, and I believe that his plan is on schedule. With the acquisitions of depth players like Brian Flynn, Devante Smith-Pelly and Torrey Mitchell near the trade deadline, it seemed to me that the GM determined that it wasn’t the right year to “go for it.” With that said, he also added defenseman Jeff Petry who turned out to be an integral part of the team. In my mind, Bergevin would have overpaid to get offensive help if he felt that the team was just a player away from the Cup.
But, he didn’t.
Therefore, it seems Bergevin considers that his team’s “Cup window” is open. With a little tweaking on offense, this team could be in a good state very soon. Although adding offense will certainly be on the Canadiens agenda this offseason, Bergevin must tidy up business with players on the current roster first.
What to look forward to in the off-season
The first contracts to work on will be the ones of Alex Galchenyuk, Jarred Tinordi and Nathan Beaulieu, who are restricted free agents. After that, I personally would like to see the Habs make a serious pitch to keep Jeff Petry on the team, who is an unrestricted free agent. Since his acquisition, he has shown to be an excellent asset for the team with his skating and his poise. In the playoffs, he has also displayed some offensive instincts on the power-play. He would be a perfect second-pairing defenseman who can fill in on the top pairing if needed. However, he is arguably the best defenseman available in the NHL this off-season, so expect a very high asking price.
Bergevin’s reign has been highlighted by his ability to build from within with strong drafting. There is another one coming, with the general manager and his team looking to add to an already deep pool of prospects. I will suspect that offensive players will be the priority for the Habs in this draft.
Then, on to free agency. While Bergevin doesn’t have the cap space to spend crazily, I think that he will try to add some immediate help skill-wise in his forward group. Players like Dale Weise and Brandon Prust can be effective in short stints in a season, but can not play in a top-6 role for an extended time (like Weise did this season.) So, the focus for me, would be to shore up the offense. It will definitely be a very interesting off-season, and I will follow it very closely and share my thoughts on every move they make.
All in all, as a Habs supporter, I am impressed with the effort they put out this season and I am very optimistic about their future in upcoming seasons. This team is not far from where they want to be.