Montreal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin had himself an active offseason and seems to be pretty much done, except for maybe a small cap dump, here are my grades for each of his moves.
For the sake of transparency, I will tell you straight away that I am a really big fan of the Canadiens’ offseason. I am among the many “Partisans” who have never before been this optimistic for a Habs season. I have been a fan of the team since the 2010 Halak/Cammalleri run, but have only been a die-hard, watch-every-game-I-possibly-can fan since the 2014 Price run.
And since that 2014 run, things have never looked anywhere near as promising for the Canadiens heading into a season as they do right now. The Habs were able to add some size and some scoring to their forward corps, some size and experience to their defence and some actual quality to their backup goaltending position.
Last year, I graded the Canadiens moves throughout the first week of free agency, and I will do a similar thing today, but will this time encompass every significant move of the entire offseason and will briefly analyze the draft. Without further ado, let us start with the acquisition of a (more than) competent backup goaltender.