Montreal Canadiens: Sights set on college free agent Daniel Brickley

With Michigan State eliminated from the NCAA Hockey Tournament, the focus for Daniel Brickley is the NHL, and the Montreal Canadiens could be a destination.

The Montreal Canadiens have slowly added more and more youth to their system. The tryouts in Nikita Korostelev, Anthony Beauregard, and Johnny Austin are one thing, but players are getting contracts as well. William Bitten and Michael Pezzetta were finally given their ticket to the NHL with an entry-level contract in early March, and junior free agent Hayden Verbeek is the latest player to join the Montreal Canadiens ranks.

Will Marc Bergevin and the rest of Habs management stop there? Hopefully not. Signing free agents in some ways is like going through a draft. It’s never a guarantee, and once that player signs on the dotted line you hope they can pan out and play. Charlie Lindgren is a prime example of that working for the Montreal Canadiens as he’s displayed true starter potential after signing out of St. Cloud State.

As college seasons continue to wrap up, the opportunity to add more young talent is in clear view. One of the biggest names out there is Daniel Brickley of Minnesota State University. Unfortunately, he, along with his team, were eliminated in the opening bracket of the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament losing to Minnesota Duluth. The 22-year-old finished his remaining college year with 10 goals and 35 assists in 40 games as a defenceman.

The first thing that stands out for Brickley is his size. Standings at six-foot-three and 215 pounds, the Utah native has the physical prowess to play in the NHL. Additionally, his offensive production from the blue line can’t be overlooked either.

What you see here from Brickley (#8) isn’t a rare occurrence. He has the awareness to recognize when a play is about to start, disrupt it, and make use of his nifty wrister to generate for his team. Another example of this is at the 1:37 mark of this video as Brickley can throw pucks on the net to create rebound opportunities for his teammates.

Something to look for, however, may be that the defenceman has been given a chance to play with older players and was left off the scoresheet. Brickley saw five pre-tournament games for Team USA at last year’s World Hockey Championships. It’s tough to judge his future production based on that tournament as he was playing behind a lot of established NHL and had north of ten minutes of ice time once in those five games.

That being said, Brickley was still trusted with top-pairing minutes with Minnesota State all the way up until the team’s elimination.

The reason his name is a hot topic again is because of Bob McKenzie’s tweet on Saturday night. It looks like Brickley is ready to make a decision, and it’s come down to five teams.

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Unfortunately, it’s not public knowledge who those five teams are. You have to think all 31 teams have reached out to Brickley and his camp on a potential contract, but according to Elliotte Friedman, Ken Holland is making a push to acquire him. Additionally, a team like the Buffalo Sabres may have a big run at Brickley as they’ve seen what he can do first hand.

The defenceman was at Buffalo’s developmental camp in 2016 and former teammates with Casey Nelson. When asked about the choice to attend, Brickley said:

"He (Nelson) talked about the staff and how well he’s treated, how great the organization is. He talks great about Buffalo."

Nelson is a UFA with the Sabres, and may or may not resign, but the openings and opportunities on the team may be very enticing for Brickely. You may be thinking, “But Buffalo is a bad team,” and that’s true, but they’re also a team trying to trend upwards. Brickley may want to be part of that.

But speaking of teams who have had poor seasons, the Montreal Canadiens should and probably will be all in on Brickley. He has the tools to be a force on an NHL blue line and still has time continue to grow. Spots on defence are already locked up for next season with Shea Weber, Victor Mete, Jeff Petry, Karl Alzner, and Noah Juulsen. Some kind of trade could change that, but for now, there’s only one spot available in the top six.

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An opportunity to play has to be a large part of Brickley’s decision, so it’ll be interesting to see if Bergevin can make playing for the Habs the right choice for him. They are different players, but if the Montreal Canadiens manage to sign Brickley and he has a similar impact as Will Butcher, a 2017 college free agent, has been having with the New Jersey Devils, this can be the start of a solid offseason.