By Joce, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

It’s been a fairly busy summer for Habs’ General Manager Marc Bergevin as he managed to add three pieces to the puzzle he is building in hope for his team to become a Stanley Cup contender. First, he traded for heavyweight George Parros, then he signed unrestricted free agents Daniel Brière in hope to replace the offense lost in Michael Ryder, and also signed rugged defenseman Douglas Murray. The addition of Parros and Murray change the dynamic of this team, adding some much needed help for often targeted Brandon Prust.

PENTICTON, BC. — While Brière will take Ryder’s spot in the line-up, Parros has taken Colby Armstrong’s spot on the roster, and it appears like the forwards group is fairly set for next season.

Tomas Plekanec, Brian Gionta, Max Pacioretty, Daniel Brière, David Desharnais, Rene Bourque, Alex Galchenyuk, Brandon Prust, Travis Moen, Lars Eller, George Parros, Brendan Gallagher and Ryan White are pretty much guaranteed a spot on the Canadiens’ roster as it stands today. That’s a total of 13 forwards, although it remains to be seen if Gionta will be ready on time for the start of the season due to his second bicep surgery in two years.

Pushing the veterans, a mix of young prospects and young veterans will be ready to show what they can do if or when called upon, and they will all try to force GM Bergevin’s hand to keep them in Montreal. Under contract, the Habs have: Louis Leblanc, Mike McCarron, Christian Thomas, Sebastian Collberg, Joonas Nattinen, Patrick Holland, Steve Quailer, Michael Bournival, Tim Bozon, Charles Hudon, Sven Andrighetto, Stefan Fournier, Gabriel Dumont, Martin St-Pierre, Mike Blunden and newly signed rugged winger Nick Tarnasky. While there could be some surprises (remember a certain Brendan Gallagher), it is safe to assume that former first round pick Louis Leblanc, the last first round pick Michael McCarron, and young veterans Michael Blunden, Gabriel Dumont and Nick Tarnasky will receive a good long look.

On defense, the signing of Murray has created a bit of a log jam at that position but that’s not a bad thing as some competition does force players to perform at their peak in order to play. As it stands, it looks like the Canadiens’ defense will be composed of Andrei Markov, Josh Gorges, P.K. Subban, Francis Bouillon, Douglas Murray, Raphael Diaz and Davis Drewiske, at least until Alexei Emelin is ready to return in November or December from his knee surgery.

There are few prospects who will want to impress and show that they deserve to stay with the big club. Jarred Tinordi and Nathan Beaulieu both had an extended tryout at the end of last season and showed that they are not far from being able to have an impact at the NHL level. Greg Pateryn also had a few games with the Canadiens but he wasn’t quite as impressive as the other two. Other good prospects Morgan Ellis, Darren Dietz and Magnus Nygren will also try to catch the attention of the Habs’ brass at training camp.

There won’t be any surprises at training camp when talking about goaltending, as Carey Price and Peter Budaj will be with the big club unless one of them gets injured. There will be a nice battle for who will play for the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs and who will be sent to the ECHL Wheeling Nailers as Dustin Tokarski, Peter Delmas, Robert Mayer and Mike Condon will do battle.

Is Marc Bergevin done?

For while, it would have been easy to think that Bergevin was satisfied to start the season with only adding Parros and Brière, while giving his defense and his goaltenders a chance to have a better season than last year. But since the signing of Douglas Murray, creating a bit of a log jam at that position, especially considering how most had pencilled Tinordi to replace Emelin to start the season, the question can certainly be asked.

It’s no secret that Bergevin wanted to get bigger and aside from the Brière signing, he has done just that. But we also know that he would like to get bigger on his top nine forwards and that’s where the Brière signing, combined with the Murray addition, makes you wonder if there isn’t another reason to add such depth. Is he trying to pull a deal with some teams to acquire a big top nine forward?

I’ll be the first to say that I don’t believe in trade rumours on the internet, unless it comes from reputable sources such as Bob McKenzie, Darren Dregger or Pierre LeBrun, but we’ve heard rumblings that the Habs and Flyers were talking about Wayne Simmonds. We’ve also heard that the Capitals might consider sacrificing Troy Brouwer for a top four defenseman. We also know that there are teams above the allowed salary cap level who will need to make moves to get under it before the season starts.

Maybe Bergevin is done, and it’s very likely that he likes the depth he has created for his team in case of injuries over a long 82 games season. Or is he hiding something else that we are unaware of? Let’s face it, we haven’t had much time to get to know his style and how aggressive is can be. One thing is for sure is that there isn’t much time before training camp starts and hockey takes over the talk amongst hockey fans, even more between Habs’ fans. Stay tuned.

Go Habs Go!

En français: Canadiens : Est-ce que Marc Bergevin a terminé?