Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot, Joel Edmundson, Jeff Petry, Alexander Romanov, Victor Mete, Claude Julien, Marc Bergevin, Brett Kulak
ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — The Canadiens unexpected postseason appearance drew attention to the play of Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and their potential for upcoming years.
It also brought to light that the bottom half of the defensive core needed to be upgraded. “Our [defensive] core getting a little deeper is definitely something that I’d like to see,” said Claude Julien on August 26th.
The team’s depth would have been in a better position if they would have been in the playoff race at the time that the season was paused in March. Once Montreal’s playoff chances became virtually impossible in February, Marco Scandella was traded to the Blues. It’s unlikely that Marc Bergevin would have made that move if the team was still in the hunt for a spot.
On September 12th, the Canadiens traded a fifth round draft pick to the Hurricanes for pending unrestricted free agent Joel Edmundson. Four days later, the two sides reached an agreement for a four-year contract. Bergevin said that Edmundson filled the team’s need of adding a defenseman with size.
Projected Pairings
Edmundson’s addition should strengthen Julien’s second and third defensive pairings. These are the pairings that I think the coach would set if the regular season started today:
“I like the fact that our [defence] has gotten bigger, stronger, but also there’s still good versatility there, there’s some good puck movement from our group. That should definitely help our transition game,” Julien spoke about his defensemen.
“[Edmundson] is going to be someone on our back end that just adds to that tough to play against mentality. When you’re looking at our [defence] now, I don’t think there’s going to be a single forward group in the league that’s excited to come and play our team,” added Brendan Gallagher about the team’s back end.
Can Chiarot Repeat?
I procrastinated as long as I can, but I owe Ben Chiarot an apology. When he signed with the Canadiens as a free agent ahead of the 2019-20 season, I may have written that he wasn’t an upgrade to Jordie Benn, and that he was an overpaid third pairing player.
Chiarot ended up playing on the first pairing for most of the season with Shea Weber, and was on the team’s first penalty kill unit. I think he did a respectable job in that role, however I feel that ideally he should be playing on a second pairing.
Let’s hope for the Canadiens sake that my mea culpa won’t jinx Chiarot’s performance during the 2020-21 season.
Edmundson and Petry matched up
In order to be completely transparent, I have to admit that I didn’t really need to think hard about the second pairing. When Edmundson met the media after signing his contract extension, he did say that Bergevin spoke to him about playing with Petry.
“I tend to play well with a guy that’s more on the defensive side of things, it gives me the ability to get up in the play. I want to be up in the play, I want to make a good breakout pass, so I think playing with a guy that’s more defensive minded makes it a little bit more easier for me to read off,” said Petry when asked about the different style of his defensive partners.
Edmundson is a physical, shutdown defenseman, who is tough to play against. “I’m a fun guy in the dressing room. For myself, just going out there being physical, being that presence , you won’t find that in the analytics, something that the stats don’t really show, and that’s what I can bring to the team,” Edmundson described his contribution. It looks like the general manager targeted a defenseman that would allow Petry to play at his best.
Romanov’s Debut
The Canadiens usually have a tendency of managing expectations when fans get excited about a prospect. There’s no need for management to add any extra pressure on the shoulders of the young players. It’s not the case for Alexander Romanov.
Even though he was deemed by the National Hockey League (NHL) as ineligible to play in the bubble, the organization used one of their limited spots to have Romanov travel with them to Toronto to practice. The objective of that decision was to get the 20-year old to get familiar with his new organization.
“He still has to make the team. But the reason we’re anticipating and predicting that he’ll make the team is that he was dominant in those two World Junior Championships,” said Julien when asked about Romanov. I’m not a gambler, but if sports betting is part of your favourite activities, I would suggest placing a bet that Romanov begins the season with Montreal.
“Also, he’s played professionally in the KHL for two years; he’s a guy who has quite a bit of experience. He has the size to play in the NHL, he has all the assets. I’m going to be honest with you, I’d be surprised if he didn’t start the season with us, given everything we’ve seen of him so far. Listen, we had the chance to see him during the playoffs with the group of players he was practicing with, you could see he’s a strong guy, he’s ready, and he has experience with players of that caliber. It’s part of our job to anticipate and evaluate a player, but for the moment, I would say it’s more likely than not that we see him with our team.”
Right Defense
Figuring out the name to plot in on the right side of the third pairing was the toughest task of this exercise. I give the edge to Victor Mete as he held the role during the post season, however I wouldn’t place bet on it.
Mete didn’t have much success in that role in the playoffs, and it was reflected by his playing time. During the regular season, he averaged 16:00 of ice time , and in the post season, he was the least used defenseman averaging 12:30 of ice time.
Mete hasn’t played regularly on the right side since the juniors. If he struggles, Edmundson has experience playing on the right side. “Throughout my career, I have always seem to be one of the guys that can play on my off-hand side. I feel like I can hit a one-timer pretty well, and it’s worked out. I feel comfortable on either side, obviously more comfortable on my left hand side, but I can always hop around, it’s not a big deal to me,” said Edmundson.
In this scenario, Brett Kulak would be the seventh defenseman, and as a result Cale Fleury would start the season in Laval, and would be joined by Noah Juulsen and Xavier Ouellet if they clear waivers.
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By Chris G., Senior Writer
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