What do the Montreal Canadiens have to play for?
By Omar L
Contracts
The Montreal Canadiens have three restricted free agents on their active roster and three unrestricted free agents (not including Kovalchuk).
The biggest amongst all six, regardless of the grouping is Max Domi. Can Domi move the needle and reach the $8 million many foresaw him making after the end of last season? Being pushed to the wing in favour of Nick Suzuki hasn’t been the best look but Domi has the chance to perfect his craft along the wall.
He’s a shooter who has had his shooting rates decrease this season. There has been an improvement from his performance in November and December but is less puck coming from Domi’s stick. At the same time, he’s making last season look more and more like an outlier, especially considering how his PDO has fallen back to normal.
PDO is a stat that tracks how lucky or unlucky a player or team is based on how they deviate from 1.000 (or 100 depending on your metric). Domi’s PDO was at 1.039 at 5v5 and is now down to 1.01. Ironically, the last time his PDO was that high was in his first NHL season with the Arizona Coyotes putting up 18 goals and 34 assists.
This looks more stable than his previous year of dominance which could hint at the 24-year-old being a 50-60 point player which will affect how much he makes in his next deal. Domi has that to play for.
Other restricted free agents include Victor Mete, who has seen his role fall from what it was to start the year, and Nick Cousins. The Montreal Canadiens should be heading into a place where they give their young players in Laval depth spots in the forward lines. Cousins will need to show what he can bring to the organization on a yearly basis to warrant a commitment there.
Next. The Habs Cap Won't Last. dark
Some of these individual storylines can make the rest of the year an interesting one if they pertain to you. However, there is the possibility of the Montreal Canadiens catching lightning in a bottle and pushing the pace of the Eastern Conference. Regardless of the route, every person in the organization has something to perform for. And the most important who I didn’t mention until now, may in fact be Marc Bergevin.
Advanced stats from Natural Stat Trick.