Montreal Canadiens Rumour: Habs Still Looking For Goal Scoring Winger
The Montreal Canadiens were pretty quiet on day one of free agency. Will day two provide more fireworks?
The Montreal Canadiens were very busy leading up to free agency. They added Jake Allen, Joel Edmundson and Josh Anderson via three separate trades leading up to the NHL Draft. Once the draft arrived, the team made a few more minor trades involving picks.
Then, free agency arrived yesterday and things got pretty quiet around Montreal. They re-signed young defencemen Noah Juulsen and Victor Mete to small contracts for next season.
Maybe Bergevin just couldn’t find any more players whose first name starts with J and last name ends with N to trade for? (Thanks the heavens he didn’t sign Jack Johnson.) Maybe he thinks his team is ready to compete? Or, maybe he is still waiting to hear back from a big fish?
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That could be true, if rumours that surfaced on twitter this morning have any truth to them. Reports from TSN Montreal suggest that the Habs are still in one Taylor Hall and the star winger would be willing to listen to a long-term contract offer from the team. Also, the Habs remain interested in signing Mike Hoffman, but the goal scoring winger is being patient at the moment.
Just now on @TSN690, @TheFourthPeriod - Taylor Hall would consider #Habs if they came with a long-term deal, but other teams are ahead right now. Also Dave - MTL is in on Hoffman, but Hoffman is willing to be patient right now.
— Matthew Ross 🎙️✍️🇨🇦 (@MatthewEvolves) October 10, 2020
That is David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period linking Hall and Hoffman to the Habs at the moment. It would make sense, if the Habs intend on competing this season, that they are looking for a goal scoring winger.
Hall if coming off a 16 goal and 52 point performance in 65 games with the New Jersey Devils and Arizona Coyotes last season. He won the Hart Trophy as league MVP just two years ago when he scored 93 points for the Devils. He would immediately slot into the team’s top line and onto their first power play which could use some help.
Hoffman has been a relatively quiet goal scoring machine in his career. He played his first full season in 2014-15 and hasn’t scored less than 22 goals in a season since. He played the past two years with the Florida Panthers and had 65 goals and 64 assists for 129 points in 151 games. He has a cannon of a shot and a great one-timer that makes him a weapon on the power play. He would fit in perfectly on the Canadiens top power play unit, giving them huge one-timer options on the left side with Shea Weber and the right side with the left shooting Hoffman.
One hurdle that the Habs will have to leap over in signing an impact forward is the salary cap. The team is currently showing about $4 million in cap space on capfriendly.com. Fitting Hall into that would be difficult. It might come at the cost of trading a player like Jonathan Drouin.
Fitting Hoffman in wouldn’t be as difficult. He will still likely command $5.5 million or so on his contract, but if the Habs were to trade a depth piece like Artturi Lehkonen or Brett Kulak it would clear enough room.
After acquiring Jake Allen, Joel Edmundson and Josh Anderson, I was worried Marc Bergevin would continue his alphabetical trend and sign Jonathan Ericsson or Johan Franzen. Maybe Joe Thornton will play fourth line centre? Or Johan Larsson?
Maybe he regrets trading Jordie Benn? Or he wants to make Jonathan Drouin feel more comfortable? Or he is mad he missed out on Jonas Brodin? Or… it was just a coincidence that three straight players he traded for had names that start and end with the same letter?
Next. Mete signing gives team plenty of internal competition. dark
Probably that one. Which keeps Taylor Hall and Mike Hoffman as options. If the Canadiens are looking to compete in 2020-21, they sure could use another 30 goal threat in the top six. Finding a way to make room for Hall might be tricky, but adding Hoffman would give the Habs an incredible power play weapon and a new leading goal scorer.