The Montreal Canadiens enter a potentially busy offseason after narrowly missing the postseason. Before any heavy lifting is done, they need to take care of RFA’s like Joel Armia.
The Montreal Canadiens used their available cap space to their advantage when they acquired Joel Armia. The Winnipeg Jets were looking to move on from Steve Mason‘s contract and packaged him with Armia and a couple of late picks for low-level prospect Simon Bourque.
It was purely a cap dump by the Jets, and the Canadiens benefitted by adding Armia to their roster. He was an intriguing prospect at the time. A hulking forward at 6’4″ and 210 pounds, he had displayed soft hands and a scoring touch at every level outside the NHL.
The 25-year-old was coming in with one year left on his contract that carried a $1.85 million cap hit. After one season with the Habs, he becomes a restricted free agent and has deserved a slight pay bump from his current deal.
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Armia actually started training camp on the top line with Jonathan Drouin and Max Domi. He ended up playing most of the season with Jesperi Kotkaniemi as his center. The Finnish duo had a revolving door of left-wingers including Drouin, Paul Byron and the fan favourite Finnish line with Artturi Lehkonen.
Armia, like Lehkonen, seems to do almost everything well on the ice. He isn’t the fastest skater, but his intelligence and positioning are so strong they make up for any lack of speed. He is counted on to kill penalties, is great defensively, rarely turns the puck over and can cover for linemates mistakes.
However, at the end of the day, his offensive numbers just aren’t that impressive. Armia finished the season with 13 goals and 23 points in 57 games. His 13 goals were actually a career high and had him on pace for 19 if he was able to stay healthy for a whole season.
Armia certainly seemed to be playing better late in the campaign. He earned some powerplay time in the waning weeks and displayed the skills necessary to add that to his role next season. His hockey sense, ability to make a crisp, clean pass and quick release on his shot made him dangerous in the slot.
All in all, Armia was brought in for next to nothing. Montreal had to buyout Mason’s contract and are now on the hook for $1,366,667 next season. I can’t see him jumping into the top six, but Armia’s size, smarts and two-way play make him an exceptional third liner and a great fit with countrymen Lehkonen and Kotkaniemi.
He certainly deserves a raise heading into next season, but not a huge one. I could see Joel Armia inking a two-year contract with a cap hit of $2.5 million to stick around. The Montreal Canadiens are slowly turning into Team Finland, but that’s not a bad thing when you can put together a line of Lehkonen-Kotkaniemi-Armia.