Habster’s take:
The Bryan Smolinski signing allows the Canadiens to replace Radek Bonk and add more offense at the same time. My only concern is if Gainey signed Smolinski as the second line center which would be a mistake in my opinion. His production has declined over the years due partly to his lower ice time, age(35) and changing role. Smolinski is a good two way center and is a good face off guy so using him to replace Bonk makes more sense. We can only hope that Gainey has another deal set up in the near future (via trade or UFA) which would address the lack of another offensive minded center to help Saku Koivu.
See TSN player profile on Bryan Smolinski:
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/?id=358&hubname=nhl
http://www.canadiens.com/eng/news/redirect.cfm?sectionID=habsNewsDetails.cfm&newsItemID=6000