Habs Management Pulling Off Savvy Trades, Cap Wizardry

Mar 26, 2014; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Anaheim Ducks defenseman Bryan Allen (55) skates during the warmup period against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome. Anaheim Ducks won 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

Over the past few weeks, GM Marc Bergevin has twice traded away a declining, unproductive forward in exchange for a veteran defender. Travis Moen for Sergei Gonchar. Rene Bourque for Bryan Allen. The positives of these trades are obvious; Cap space cleared up for next year, blue line depth, veteran leadership, and roster spots opened for deserving young forwards. The down side may not have hit you at first, but now the question has been raised; What happened to handing the torch over to the young defense prospects? These trades mean less NHL ice time for the young Jarred Tinordi and Nathan Beaulieu – and perhaps even another long stint in Hamilton for both. Some claim this will further stunt their development, but maybe it just buys them more time.

Bergevin is ensuring himself quite a lot of cap room to work with in the off-season. With Allen and Gonchar’s contracts coming off the books at seasons’ end, assuming neither is re-signed, $8.1 Million would be freed up just like that. Moen and Bourque would have carried a combined cap hit of $5.183 Million through next season. Bergevin has proved not only to have an excellent track record for trades, he has emerged as a great cap manager as well.

You can never have too many defensemen. Injuries are inevitable in today’s NHL, and good managers know that. Under Begrevin, the Habs have always been sure to stock up on surplus defensemen. Depth is one of the ingredients to ensuring successful seasons and long playoff runs. Not counting Beaulieu, Tinordi, and other call-ups from Hamilton, the Canadiens now have seven defensemen that can help bolster their roster for the remainder of the year. All seven are proven NHL players capable of holding down a roster spot for an extended period. The Gonchar and Allen acquisitions help maintain a healthy, productive rotation on the blue line.

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Allen and Gonchar also help replace the veteran leadership that was lost when Gionta and Gorges left the team prior to the start of the season. Sergei Gonchar has 1261 games of experience in his NHL career. At 40 years old, he may be a little slower, but he knows how to play the game and will prove a valuable mentor to the team’s younger defensemen. Bryan Allen has played in 716 NHL contests and can similarly teach the youngsters a few things.

These recent acquisitions yield a prototypical offensive defenseman and a model stay-at-home defender with a ton of experience between them. They should also bring a lot of leadership into the room.

Finally, the main positive of these trades is that the team essentially did not lose anything in acquiring two good, depth defensemen. Travis Moen is easily replaceable in the line-up and the loss of Rene Bourque and his baggage is really more of a gain. The Canadiens have arguably been better without Bourque on the roster and there are plenty of players who already fill the checking forward role better than Moen was. Shipping out those two forwards ultimately opened up permanent roster spots for Jiri Sekac and Michael Bournival (when he gets healthy). As I have argued before, Sekac and Bournival are way better options than Moen and Bourque. Sekac has clearly demonstrated this point since regularly playing on a dynamic third line. Ultimately, since Bourque and Moen have been gone, the Habs have played better hockey. So it would be hard to make the case that anything bad has come out of these trades. Unless of course, your name is Jarred or Nathan.

Nov 20, 2014; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price (31) and teammate Sergei Gonchar (55) during the first period against the St. Louis Blues at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

The one drawback that some may point to is that bringing in all these surplus defensemen means we’ll be seeing less of Beaulieu and Tinordi. After Canadiens management signaled that space was going to be made for the youngsters this year, Habs fans may be confused over the recent acquisitions. It is telling that Gonchar and Allen seem to be perfectly suited to the roles Beaulieu and Tinordi were supposed to fill, respectively. Do these developments signal management has lost confidence in the kids? Perhaps. Marc Bergevin has made it clear before that roster spots have to be earned on this team. We have seen plenty of mistakes out of both youngsters this year. With the two of them completing their two-way, entry-level contracts at season’s end, they are running out of time to establish themselves as top 6 D-men.

I’m not too worried. At least if the kids are in Hamilton, they’re playing top minutes. Injuries will happen and there will be call-ups. All this situation does is force the young guys to compete for a spot while sheltering them from too much pressure, too fast. Beaulieu and Tinordi were given opportunities to grab roster spots and did not perform up to standard. The Habs brass merely seems to be hedging its’ bets by bringing in reinforcements. These trades simply presented too many benefits for Canadiens management to turn them down. They are smart moves that help the team in the long and the short term and they just force the kids to work harder. I still wouldn’t be surprised to see either young defenseman on the roster come playoff time. There’s lots of hockey left to play.