Montreal Canadiens: Five Depth Wingers The Habs Could Sign as Free Agents

The Montreal Canadiens have not spent to the salary cap in years. If they continue to be careful with their money, here are five wingers they could sign in the offseason.

The Montreal Canadiens season is up in the air. Are they going to come back and finish the regular season schedule? Are they going to be included in a new format postseason that includes 24 teams? Are they done, stuck on the sidelines as only 16 teams get back to action? Is everybody done?

We have no idea at this point. We are just waiting to hear from the NHL what their plans are to continue the 2019-20 NHL season. It sounds like Gary Bettman and the league are not really considering shutting things down, so we will likely see at least 16 teams come back and play a playoffs this summer.

While we wait to figure out what the league is going to look like, we are looking ahead at some potential free agents the Habs could target this summer. Or, whenever the offseason arrives. I guess if the league is still playing in July and August, free agency could happen in September or October?

Anyway, today we are looking at some potential wingers the Habs could target whenever they are allowed to do so. The Habs are pretty well stocked at the NHL on the wings. That is, when everyone is healthy, and as we noticed this season, that was pretty much never. However, on a depth chart, they have Tomas Tatar, Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron on the left side. Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia and Arthur Lehkonen are playing on the right side. Nick Suzuki could find himself on the right wing as well, but he looks to be a budding two-way centre.

So, it wouldn’t make sense for the Habs to use their cap space to bring in a high priced winger. It is just not their biggest area of need, nor is it the most prudent way to build a team. What team won the Stanley Cup because of their depth on right wing? No one, it is always centres and defence, and both of those areas could use some renovations on the Habs roster.

We did also see this season that the Habs needed way more than just eight wingers to get through a season. Of course, there are always those naysayers that laugh and mock Marc Bergevin when he signs some depth pieces, but the Canadiens used 21 different forwards this season. Depth was a big reason they couldn’t keep up after a strong start.

Keeping all of that in mind. We are going to take a look at five soon-to-be free agent wingers that the Habs could target to add some depth to their roster this offseason (whenever that’ll be.)