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Never Too High, Never Too Low. What’s in Store for the Habs? Part Deux

J.D. Lagrange

By J.D. Lagrange, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

In the first segment of this article, we analyzed the Montreal Canadiens’ season thus far, highlighting the fact that they had gone through a hot streak and that more recently, they have struggled to put a consistent effort together, while allowing way too many goals in spite of some great performances by Sochi-bound goaltender Carey Price.

PENTICTON, BC. — We started looking at the team’s depth at the forward position, looking at each player and imminent prospect to help us narrow down where the most glaring needs were for the immediate future and for next season, so that the team can for one, get out of its current slump and for two, continue to progress for next year and years to come.

Let’s now have a closer look at the depth in the organization at the blue line, and we will then be able to jump right into find some potential solutions available to GM Marc Bergevin.

RIGHT DEFENSE

LEFT DEFENSE

While the team is fairly deep at that position with NHL level players and prospects ready or very close to being able to step in, there are none the less a few questions remaining, none bigger than the Russian tandem.

POSSIBLE OPTIONS

With the exception of the draft, which is a slow process, there are only two other ways for a GM to improve his team and those two are also a lot quicker. Knowing that Bergevin has said numerous times that you don’t build a contender through free agency, it would be somewhat surprising to see him wait to July to get a big fish, especially that the impact UFAs next summer are few and far between. Having said that, I can see him trading for a pending UFA as long as he doesn’t have to stray away from his plan to keep a majority of his prospects and/or draft picks. So which free agent(s) could answer a need in Montreal and who might be made available? Here is a list of more or less serviceable pending UFAs:
On defense

At forward

I can see the possibility of Bergevin going hard after Greene, Vanek, Stastny, Boyle and Thorburn but realistically, Boyle and possibly Thorburn are, in my opinion, the true possibilities on those lists.

That leaves the option of trading for players who are still under contract, some younger assets which falls more in the optic of what Marc Bergevin has been preaching since day one. The problem with that is the fact that trades like that are extremely complex, as we’re not only dealing with trade values, but with the salary cap’s ceiling and floor, as well as with the maximum number of 50 contracts dictated by the CBA. This mean that even in the event of agreeing to a three for one trade, or player for prospects, the GMs must look at the business aspect of the trade which definitely complicates things. The good news though is that with the new CBA, teams can keep up to 50 per cent of a player’s contract, which helps floor spenders and ceiling spenders alike. Here are some players Bergevin should, in my opinion, at least inquire about:

On defense

At forward

Oh I’m far from saying that all of those players (if any) are available, far from there, but picking up the phone and finding out is part of a GM’s job. Of course, the asking price for some of them would be outrageously high which would make any trade impossible. In other cases, if Bergevin sees enough value, he might be willing to overpay for one or some of them. In other instances, it would be a gamble but the price wouldn’t be too high. In the first two scenarios though, it would create a lot of controversy amongst the media and the fan base, but in most cases, it would make the team bigger and tougher to play against, which is the ultimate goal.

One trade could also lead to another, as we’ve just seen the Edmonton Oilers do. For example, if the Canadiens were to trade with Colorado for center Paul Stastny, we know that the Avalanche are in dire need of defensive help so perhaps a guy like Andrei Markov (and a prospect) could be very interesting for Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy. Perhaps the Habs could add a bit and get a tough cookie like Patrick Bordeleau at the same time. Bergevin could then turn around and trade with either Florida (Campbell) or New Jersey (Larsson) by offering one of Plekanec or Eller in another deal while doing everything in his power to re-sign Stastny, who will have at least have had a chance to see that playing in Montreal isn’t as bad as some made it in the past.

Don’t pounce on me too hard here, those are only examples and I’m likely out to lunch in my values as not two fans, two GMs see the same value in the same player(s), but that’s just a conceptual idea to show the type of change that could drastically change this team, shake up the foundation somewhat without emptying the cupboards.

Either way, the ball is in Bergevin’s court and I, for one, am hoping that he puts his stamp on this team and there is no reason to believe that he won’t pull the trigger before the trade deadline, as he did last year when he sent Erik Cole to the Stars in return for Michael Ryder and a third round pick (Connor Crisp). Will it be before or after the Olympic trade freeze?

Go Habs Go!

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