Habs and Desharnais Should Part Ways this Off Season
Examining the reasons Habs and Desharnais should part ways whether through a trade or buyout
David Desharnais has been a lightning rod for criticism throughout his career with the Habs. Last season the undersized center was given ample opportunity by coach Michel Therrien to create offense but simply couldn’t produce.
It’s actually head scratching to understand why Therrien gave so many chances after Desharnais repeatedly couldn’t create much on the score sheet. He was consistently used on the teams top power play unit or given opportunities with the teams top scorers like Max Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk but Desharnais failed generate consistent production.
Much like the Habs roster as whole last year, David Desharnais started out well but around the end of November his production plummeted. In his first 22 games Deshasnais had 7 goals 10 assists for 17 points. In the remaining 43 games he played in, Desharnais had 4 goals 8 assists for 12 points.
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It would seemingly appear that Desharnais and the Habs would be best to part ways at this point. Desharnais could also be the odd man out of a very crowded depth chart with Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec, Lars Eller, Torrey Mitchell, Brian Flynn, and Phillip Danault showing capabilities up the middle. There are some options for the team to shed the contract of David Desharnais.
Buyout
Desharnais has 1 year left on his current contract with 3.5 million dollar cap hit. So if the Habs were to buyout Desharnais it would leave the team a cap hit of 1.17 million over the next two seasons. The buyout option gives the Canadiens an additional 2.33 in cap space this off-season.
The Habs could use the cap relief as they try to pursue free agents in the off-season. They need to try to improve on their woeful scoring from last season and with the amount of quality free agent potentially on the market, that extra 2.33 million in cap space could go a long way to helping that.
Trade
Desharnais does possesses some qualities that other teams may value in terms of his style of play. He has been able to provide some depth to the Habs power play in seasons past. Desharnais is a good passer who can control the puck down low using his small stature to give him a low center of gravity creating extra time to find open shooters.
Due to his lack of production and inconsistency his return value in a trade won’t be much. However, getting any value will help the team out. If they can find a trade partner it will eliminate the 1.17 million buyout penalty and could give the Habs the full 3.5 million in space.
So who would be wanting to take on Desharnais contract? Currently the Arizona Coyotes are 18 million dollars below the cap floor. This could be a scenario where the Coyotes, or a team like the Coyotes, would take on a one year contract for a late round pick help reach the cap floor.
Next: Canadiens Lower Salary Cap Complicates Off Season
Final Thoughts
I feel that the Habs and Desharnais would be better off parting ways. If absolutely no one will take the contract of Desharnais than I would use the buyout option. There seems to be so many other centers on the Habs depth chart who can match and/or exceed Desharnais’ production.
However, Michel Therrien and Marc Bergevin have been very loyal to Desharnais especially this past season. Ultimately, I think that the Habs will keep him on the roster for 2017 and bank on him rebounding in the final year of his contract.