Montreal Canadiens: The future of Tomas Tatar and Jeff Petry
The Montreal Canadiens have upcoming decisions ahead, including how to improve the Laval Rocket, what to do with Tomas Tatar, Jeff Petry and Claude Julien.
1) Are the Laval Rocket ready to contend for a playoff spot and eventual championship?
Elias Laradi: At this present point and time, the Laval Rocket are coming close, but due to a lack of depth on the Montreal Canadiens roster, most of its good players are with the big club. Once Montreal figures out it issues and has a more stable line up that will give the opportunity to Laval to be a force in the AHL. Laval is still a great place for young players who start with the Habs but still need time to develop and grow to their full potential.
Sebastian High: I sure hope the Rocket can make the postseason in 2021. It has been far too long since the Habs’ AHL affiliate has been competitive, and I do actually believe that Laval will see playoff hockey next season. They should have solid goaltending with Cayden Primeau leading the charge and with one of Lindgren, McNiven and Demchenko taking the bulk of the remaining starts. While losing Alzner will be a huge relief for the Canadien’s Salary Cap structure, it will hurt the Rocket.
However, with Romanov’s arrival, Laval should gain a decent defenseman, whether it be Romanov himself or the player forced to vacate his NHL spot. With Josh Brook, Xavier Ouelette, Otto Leskinen, Gustav Olofsson, and one of Noah Juulsen and Cale Fleury, Laval’s blue line will be in good hands. The biggest turnover from this past season should be seen on offence, where the additions of Cam Hillis and Jesse Ylonen should increase the scoring threat. The return of Joel Teasdale should also not be discounted, and with Ryan Poehling and potentially Jesperi Kotkaniemi remaining in Laval, the makings of a playoff team are set.
Scott Cowan: History has shown us that the Canadiens AHL affiliates are never ones to look down upon. From the Calder Cup champion Hamilton Bulldogs in 2006-07 to a 2016-17 St. John’s IceCaps team that snuck into the playoffs on the last day of the season, the Habs farm teams have managed to make their name known multiple times.
While the Laval Rocket have, to say the least, struggled over their first 2 seasons, this year looked to be different, as the team was in a tight race for a playoff spot before the AHL season was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While I do believe the Rocket are in the perfect situation to make the playoffs should next season happen, I still think a championship is a few years away.
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Players like Cayden Primeau and Jake Evans give me hope for a bright future, but Joel Bouchard still needs some more consistent scorers for his team to truly succeed. While his team-first approach has helped the Rocket get this far, having players like Joseph Blandisi on the team for a full season would help.
Omar White: The Laval Rocket’s issues have generally been from their play in their own zone. In their first season, it was that in combination with taking too many penalties without having a proper penalty kill to fight them off or scoring to outweigh the deficits. All those issues came together in their second year when the Montreal Canadiens were pelted with injuries on which seemed like a weekly basis, and the organization didn’t have enough to fill in the holes in the midst of call-ups.
Thankfully the team now has a system that prioritizes offensive skill and has a better executed blue line to help offset the chances against. Goaltending has never been a massive issue, but Cayden Primeau playing the way he did this season is a sure-fire sign of hope down the line. What the team needs is star power that can remain on the roster for the full length of the season.
If it’s not Jesperi Kotkaniemi or Ryan Poehling next year, then perhaps Jesse Ylonen or Arsen Khisamutdinov bring that element of firepower to the team.
Laval was close this season and would’ve made it interesting down the stretch this season. They may have had a similar finish to their previous selves in the St. Johns IceCaps, who made the playoffs in the final week of the 2016-17 campaign. I believe their close to becoming playoff contenders, but anything after that will depend on the growth of the young talent and maybe some depth signings from Marc Bergevin.
2) Should Jeff Petry and Tomas Tatar be extended or traded?
EL: That topic was debated before this season trade deadline, and I honestly think the right move was made to keep them. Not just because Marc Bergevin envisions a playoff run next year but because they are both significant players on both sides of the ice.
Tomas Tatar is a goal scorer that averages 20 goals a year consistently, which is what the Habs need while Jeff Petry is a force on the blue line, not to mention the fact he is a veteran leader that can help younger defenseman. I personally think these two players should be extended long term, and I believe the only reason they were a topic of trade is because of the downward spiral Montreal was on.
SH: This, of course, hugely depends upon the amount of money each player will demand and for how many years; an educated guess may be 5×6.5 for Tatar and 4×7 for Petry. These figures are substantial and warrant a lot of thought. I doubt any decisions are made before the NHL Draft takes place since the Habs may get lucky with the addition of Jamie Drysdale, Marco Rossi or Lucas Raymond, which may make one of Tatar or Petry expendable.
If none of those players becomes a Hab, I would consider keeping Tatar and trading Petry. 40-point, defensively-reliable d-men are more valuable and harder to come by than 60-point wingers are, especially if that defenseman is right-handed. This is to say that Petry could fetch an extremely valuable package, and since he is a 32-year-old defenseman reliant on speed, I would be very tempted to sell high and not sign him to a risky contract. Tatar is three years younger than Petry and will be 30 when his current deal expires, which still gives him some good years of hockey beyond 2021.
He also has such amazing chemistry with Brendan Gallagher and Philip Danault, which is not something I would want to break up. If all goes well, the Canadiens could have Noah Juulsen and Cale Fleury manning the right side of the bottom two pairings, which would be facilitated by a slowly improving left side of the defence.
SC: Jeff Petry and Tomas Tatar are key members of this Canadiens team, and should be treated as such. With 61 points in 68 games this year, Tatar has proven to be one of the Habs best players, and Petry has gone from a solid offensive, 3rd pairing defenseman to a legitimate first pairing powerplay quarterback.
While both are entering the tail end of their careers as they enter their 30s, I still think they should be rewarded for how they’ve played for the team over their time here. I’m not certain that the Canadiens could get a ton for either player, as they’d most likely get a late 1st round pick, 2nd round pick, and 1st round pick prospect kind of return.
Bergevin has shown his refusal to fully embrace a rebuild, and in many ways, he doesn’t need to just yet. The Canadiens have all the pieces in place to be a solid team, they just need to develop better cohesion to make it work. In my opinion, Tatar and Petry are big pieces of that cohesion.
OW: This is a completely relative question and one that will reach a soft spot for Bergevin; therefore, I’ll approach my answer under the assumption that the Montreal Canadiens are heading to a finish outside of the playoffs next year.
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These are the only circumstances I can see the Habs considering moving either of them as Tatar and Petry help the team in their respective way. Tatar led the team this year in scoring for another 20-goal season while Petry was solid on defence carrying the load once again when captain Shea Weber had to sit.
If the Habs are trending downwards, I could see a scenario where Petry is signed while Tatar is traded. The defenceman is a key core player on this roster and has invested a lot of time with the organization. And although he is on the north of 30, players like Petry wind up having a longer shelf-life given how well his skating and overall mobility is. There’s also the fact that he’s a point-generating right-shot defenceman which doesn’t come around too often in the NHL.
The next generation in Cale Fleury and Josh Brook aren’t ready to take on the minutes Petry regularly does and in the event of injury. Not to mention, he would be a good compliment for Alexander Romanov as he learns the North American game and adjusts to the timing of the NHL. He’ll need a mentor for that, and Petry can fit that mould. The Habs have wingers coming which makes Tatar more expendable and position-wise, his role is easier to replace.
3) Is Claude Julien the problem, or is there a deeper issue?
SH: I am not Claude Julien’s biggest fan, but he is far from the whole problem. While replacing him may not hurt the Canadiens organization, I am not convinced it would result in drastic improvement.
OW: Julien has had his set of eyebrow-raising calls, but no, I don’t think he is the problem even though he’ll likely be the first causality of things go south next season. The fact that Habs fans were looking to a 20-year-old prospect to save the blue line is one thing, while the team still doesn’t have a game-breaker is another.
Montreal lost many games in different ways and for different reasons, this season and that can solely lie on coaching. If you watched every game this year, you can’t deny that the Montreal Canadiens didn’t try. They worked and, on several occasions, outworked the opposition, but one mistake wound up costing them. And the team would end up running out of time to correct said mistake and walk away with a loss.
There isn’t enough talent on this roster, and the general manager is deserving of the flack for that. It’s a deeper-rooted issue in the organization that has taken tiptoed steps to fix without a giant leap of an attempt. Bergevin can’t keep playing both sides of wanting to be a team that competes and wanting to be an organization that holds on to it’s prospects and gives them time to develop. It has to be one or the other as we’ve seen that retooling on the fly hasn’t worked.
EL: In the last 10 years, coaching duties have been split between two different coaches. Unfortunately, the reason being is that Montreal is in Quebec, meaning if you didn’t speak french, you wouldn’t be considered. I seriously think Montrealers need to move past that and get over the language war.
The real issue is your handicapping yourself by only looking at bilingual coaches hence why Montreal has not seen the full potential of a great NHL coach. We all remember when Randy Cunneyworth was coaching the team, and the city rioted, so I think once Montreal moves past that, they can actually look a real solid head coach. Recycling coaches is not the answer to become a good hockey team.
SC: Claude Julien has simply done his best with what he’s been given, and I feel shouldering the blame onto him is just unfair for a coach who has done a lot for this team. Bergevin is as much to blame as him, and some of the lesser successful trades and signings like Drouin for Sergachev and Karl Alzner haven’t helped matters for the Canadiens. In Boston, Julien had a powerhouse team in front of him and is now back to his humble beginnings in Montreal with a solid if weaker team.
Granted, his powerplay tactics devised by him and Kirk Muller haven’t been very successful, consistently slotting bottom-six wingers onto the first and 2nd pairings, but I think just saying he’s the problem doesn’t solve anything. It’s just putting the blame onto an easy scapegoat at times, the coach.
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While cases like Mike Babcock make sense, with Babcock having almost run a talented Maple Leafs team into the ground with his own arrogance, Julien is simply trying his best, While he should shoulder some of the blame, it should as much put on Bergevin and the assistant coaches.