The Montreal Canadiens re-signed Jeff Petry and it pretty much guarantees that they will give up a defenceman to Seattle.
The Montreal Canadiens came out of the last round of expansion pretty much unscathed. Will all due respect to Alexei Emelin, and the Habs could have used him in 2017-18, but many teams had it far worse than the Habs.
The Florida Panthers somehow gave up Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault. The Anaheim Ducks lost a great young defenceman in Shea Theodore. The Columbus Blue Jackets gave up William Karlsson and first and second round picks so that the Golden Knights would take on David Clarkson’s contract. The Minnesota Wild lost Alex Tuch and Erik Haula so they could keep Matt Dumba.
Anyway, the list goes on and on. The Habs losing Emelin who was quickly traded to the Nashville Predators wasn’t the end of the world.
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But, the Canadiens have a deeper team now. Are they going to lose a better player when the Seattle Kraken are welcomed into the league following the 2020-21 season? The expansion draft rules are the same, meaning the the Habs can protect 7 forwards, 3 defenceman and 1 goaltender.
With Jeff Petry re-signing earlier this week, it pretty much guarantees the Canadiens are going to lose a defenceman.
The roster can change between now and the expansion draft, but unless there are massive acquisitions at forward, the Kraken will be taking a blue liner.
The Canadiens are allowed to protect seven forwards and would likely keep Tomas Tatar, Jonathan Drouin, Phillip Danault, Brendan Gallagher, Max Domi, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and either Paul Byron or Joel Armia. If they are not going to re-sign a pending UFA like Armia or Tatar, then they wouldn’t be protected, but wouldn’t be that attractive to the Kraken either.
On the blue line, the Habs will have a much more difficult time deciding who to protect. Petry needs to be protected because he has a no-movement clause. If you think Shea Weber won’t be protected you don’t know who is running this team. That means the Habs have to pick one of Ben Chiarot, Joel Edmundson, Victor Mete, Cale Fleury, Brett Kulak or Noah Juulsen to shield away from the Kraken.
Chiarot and Kulak would be entering the final year of their contracts, so I doubt they are protected. Edmundson just signed a four-year contract so Bergevin will definitely consider protecting his newest asset. But that would allow the Kraken to pick their favorite from a trio of young defencemen. Do the Habs want to let Seattle pick from Mete, Fleury and Juulsen?
Maybe the Habs protect Mete instead of Edmundson. There will be a lot of defensive defencemen available and many of them won’t cost $3.5 million like Edmundson.
A lot will depend on the upcoming season, whenever that’ll be. A great season from Edmundson would mean he is protected. A breakout offensive punch from Mete would ensure he stays in Montreal. Health and solid play from Juulsen could make him the third defender protected.
It will be a tough decision for the Habs, but it is one they don’t have to make until after next season. Of course, if Bergevin wants to make this decision easier, he could just sign Alex Pietrangelo next week and protect him as well as Weber and Petry….