Montreal Canadiens: Dominik Kahun Would Be Smart Value Add For Habs

The Montreal Canadiens still have a few million to spend. Dominik Kahun would be a smart, cheap addition.

The Montreal Canadiens have added a few pieces already this offseason. Jake Allen, Joel Edmundson and Josh Anderson have been acquired by general manager Marc Bergevin. This certainly makes the team deeper, but it might not be enough to have them compete with the best teams in the Atlantic Division.

Competing seems to be Bergevin’s plan, but how can he make the team better now?

The Habs are showing just about $4 million in cap space, so adding a big free agent like Taylor Hall or Alex Petrangelo was always going to be difficult to fit in. Someone from the next tier, like Evgeni Dadonov or Mike Hoffman could make sense, but would also lead to a depth piece like Brett Kulak or Artturi Lehkonen needing to be moved out.

Maybe the Habs will look to land someone a little cheaper. A player that can fit inside the top nine and add some scoring but also cost less than $3 million per season. This way, they could keep their current team, but also add another piece on top of the existing roster.

One player that could fit in well in the middle six would be Dominik Kahun.

The German forward has played the past two seasons in the NHL and put up some decent numbers. He had a point per game in DEL in 2017-18 before coming to North America to play for the Chicago Blackhawks. He played all 82 games for an underwhelming Hawks squad, and scored 13 goals and 37 points.

He was then traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Olli Maatta. He scored ten goals and 27 points in 50 games for the Pens before being dealt to the Buffalo Sabres for Evan Rodrigues and Conor Sheary. Kahun finished the season with two goals and four points in six games for the Sabres.

Kahun mostly played a third line role with the Penguins where almost all of his 27 points came at even strength, while not playing a whole lot of minutes. He scored 2.43 points per 60 minutes of even strength ice time, which puts him in fairly elite territory, tied with Sean Couturier and just ahead of Sebastian Aho and Jakub Voracek.

There is no question he knows how to contribute at even strength in a limited role. That might be all the Habs can afford at this point. Adding Kahun onto a third line with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Joel Armia or Paul Byron would give the Canadiens a third line that can take advantage of its competition and provide depth scoring.

Kahun is just 25 years old and has only been playing in North America for two years. So, there is reason to believe he can be even better next season than he has been. Also, he went unqualified by the Buffalo Sabres for some reason and played on three different teams in those two seasons, so he can’t be asking for a huge contract.

I’d love to see the Habs give him a two-year deal with a cap hit around $2 million. He could fit in perfectly on a third line and possibly reach 20 goals and 35-40 points without any power play time.

The Canadiens may not be able to fit a premium free agent into their current budget. But, they can find the right role player to bring offence from the third line and that player is Dominik Kahun.