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Montreal Canadiens Roundtable: Moving on to the NHL Draft and Free Agency

By Emmanuel D

MONTREAL, QC - JANUARY 07: General manager of the Montreal Canadiens Marc Bergevin speaks with the media prior to the NHL game against the Minnesota Wild at the Bell Centre on January 7, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Minnesota Wild defeated the Montreal Canadiens 1-0. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - JANUARY 07: General manager of the Montreal Canadiens Marc Bergevin speaks with the media prior to the NHL game against the Minnesota Wild at the Bell Centre on January 7, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Minnesota Wild defeated the Montreal Canadiens 1-0. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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NASHVILLE, TN – APRIL 06: Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Danny Murphy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Omar White: Being completely honest, I don’t think the Montreal Canadiens should use that cap space. Bergevin did a good job in not going crazy and making smaller-scale depth uses of the team’s salary. The Habs aren’t going to be in this cap utopia forever, and at the same time, you want to leave jobs on the team for the future to come up and produce.

Victor Mete should continue being the team’s top left-shot defenceman, Jesperi Kotkaniemi should get a bigger role as part of the centre depth, and you’d like to see Ryan Poehling steal a job at camp. The same goes for Noah Juulsen who made the team but ran into injury problems; you’d like to see him on the blueline in some regard as well.

Another thing to think about are future extensions. Eventually, these players who have been killing it on the Montreal Canadiens will need to be paid and committing big money to a single player could be risky unless Bergevin feels the team needs to win within the next two or three years.

But for argument’s sake, I believe Kevin Hayes would be a name worth pursuing. He’s a solid complimentary centre and does well when playing with those who know how to get in positions to score. At the same time, I don’t think it would cost the sun and the moon to get him from Winnipeg.

Boosting depth is where I would go, and if you look at the Habs fourth line for the majority of the year, it was made up of Michael Chaput and Kenny Agostino, depth players who Bergevin signed in free agency. Perhaps Brian Boyle could be an option on the fourth line. He brings that playoff-style flair that matches the Montreal Canadiens and is a good leader who Claude Julien would gravitate to very quickly.

Then again you have to ask yourself whether it’s worth it to break up the chemistry the top line has between Brendan Gallagher, Phillip Danault, and Tomas Tatar. At the same time, would you want another year of Kotkaniemi having to play fourth-line centre? I don’t think so. Bergevin does have to do his due diligence and be in on the top players like Artemi Panarin and Erik Karlsson given the immediate elite impacts each will have. But I’m strongly on the side of standing pat for another July 1st.

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