Montreal Canadiens: 7 Talking Points on Eric Staal, Cole Caufield, Lines, Jesse Ylonen

2. Cole Caufield

Another week, another Caufield talking point. The 5’7″ sniper played, in all likelihood, his final collegiate game on Friday against Bemidji State, who upset the Wisconsin Badgers in the first round of the NCAA tournament 6-3. If it weren’t for Caufield, however, Wisconsin would have likely only scored one goal, if any; he notched the primary assist on Wisconsin’s first goals and scored the following two himself.

This brought his season tally to 30 goals and 52 points in just 31 games, which puts him in a league of his own in NCAA 21st Century goal-scoring.

Oh, and here’s the first of the two goals Caufield scored on Friday, it was a beauty:

With the conclusion of Wisconsin’s season, Caufield is now free to sign his entry-level contract, which Marc Bergevin insinuated would occur in the next few days during his presser on Saturday. This is exciting news, while it is not yet evident if Caufield will see NHL action this season or if he will simply develop in Laval with Joel Bouchard, Caufield will almost certainly be a mainstay in the Habs’ lineup by the start of next season and will likely be the team’s best pure goalscorer right off the bat.

With the Eric Staal trade, the Habs are now right up against the Cap ceiling with just $523,547 of projected cap space according to CapFriendly, which would make signing Caufield a rather tight squeeze, especially considering the performance bonuses Suzuki and Kotkaniemi will get, which would then cut into next season’s cap. This means that the Habs might need to make one more trade to shed some salary.

3. Trade to come?

Bergevin explicitly said that the team has no dead-weight contracts a few weeks ago and that he would not pay a draft pick/prospect to get rid of a player. He also explicitly said that the Habs would almost certainly not make any significant trades this season, which he proceeded to do 24 hours later.

The Habs’ cap situation is very tight at the moment and shedding a contract would go a long way in alleviating that pressure. The obvious player to try to offload would be Paul Byron, who carries a $3.4 million cap hit for another two years after this season and is already being pushed out of the team’s starting lineup. I think it would be better to offload him now, while he’s still playing games, rather than trading him when he’s stapled to the press box.

Byron was a great third liner for multiple seasons with the Habs, and could likely still be quite serviceable in that kind of role, the fourth line just isn’t for him. He has passed through waivers twice in the past month and a bit, which would indicate that Montreal will certainly need to add an incentive for any team to take him on.

Ottawa seems like the perfect fit as Byron grew up there, they have tons of cap space and they could use his veteran presence and speed. As I mentioned in talking point #1, this year’s draft is a crapshoot and the class is extremely weak, so this would be the year to give up a pick to gain cap flexibility in the short and medium-term. I suspect a 3rd would get it done, but if it needs to be Tampa Bay’s 2nd, that’s fine.

Other options to clear up cap space for this season include trading away Artturi Lehkonen, who certainly has value for a prospect or left defenceman at a lower cap hit, and trading away Jordan Weal for any draft pick. This second option would really just offer the Habs a little more wiggle room, but the squeeze would remain tight for the season, which is why I am partial to offloading Byron.

4. Potential Forward Line Combinations

Considering the rather limited options of topics to write about this week given the whole postponement of games due to COVID, this seems like a good opportunity to do some spitballing and put on my coach’s hat. If I were the Habs coach, and it’s a good thing I’m not, the forward lines I would put together once Caufield and Staal become available would resemble this:

Drouin – Suzuki – Anderson

Tatar – Danault – Gallagher

Toffoli – Kotkaniemi – Caufield

Perry – Staal – Armia

This would leave Byron and Lehkonen in the press box (if I were GM as well, Byron would have already been traded), and I would give Lehkonen at least one game a week to keep some legs fresh, he could replace Perry, Armia or Caufield on any given night.

I like this lineup because it keeps winning elements this team has built while also infusing some scoring. It should also be noted that at 5v5 the top 3 lines would be absolutely interchangeable. Suzuki has hit a slump in the past month, but he has played his best hockey between Drouin and Anderson, and the line as a whole is nearly as dominant in xGF% as the Gallagher line, which is saying something.

I would also keep the TDG line intact. As I just mentioned, they dominate possession and scoring chances and are pretty much the perfect dependable second line. They can log heavy minutes and create momentum.

Kotkaniemi has excelled this season he playing with goal-scorer-extraordinaire Tyler Toffoli. Both players perform best together rather than apart, so I would glue the two together in the lineup, night in, night out. I like the idea of placing Caufield on this line for three main reasons:

1. This would become the team’s goalscoring line and could benefit from easier competition than the other top-9 lines.
2. Caufield could learn from Toffoli, who excels at finding empty spaces in the offensive zone to score his goals, something Caufield has done throughout his career.
3. Kotkaniemi would have a legitimate sniper on his line and Caufield would play with the best playmaker he’s had since Hughes (Toffoli scores a bunch, but he’s not a sniper).

Remember when the Habs had a blisteringly-fast fourth line? That wouldn’t be the case here. This fourth line would play a big, gritty game and contribute offensively, which the small and quick fourth line didn’t. Armia and Perry are 6’3″ while Eric Staal is 6’4″. Staal scored 19 in 57 last season (20-goal pace), Armia scored 16 in 58 (20-goal pace) and Corey Perry has notched 6 in 24 this year with the Habs, which is also a 20-goal pace.

5. Potential Defensive Pairing Combinations

Alright, let’s keep this spitballing going! The defence is a bit more in limbo than the forward corps, given that Ben Chiarot is still out for over a month. That being said, I still have some ideas about the defensive pairings I would like for the time being. Of course, if I were GM as well I would make a big splash for a puck-moving defenceman to play with Weber, but in this scenario, I’m only the coach, so let’s roll with what the team already has:

Kulak – Petry

Mete – Weber

Romanov – Edmundson

I stated a week or two ago that I would like to see Mete with Weber, given that Edmundson-Weber has not been good, at all. Mete is far from the ideal partner for Weber, that would be Matthias Ekholm, but he is the best fit next to the captain currently on the team. This arrangement of pairings would also enable a more balanced use of all defencemen, the Petry pairing would be the unquestionable first, but the other two could eat similar minutes at 5v5.

I can see the argument of swapping Edmundson and Kulak here, and I really do like the Edmundson-Petry pairing, but Kulak-Petry has simply been formidable through the past few seasons. Kulak truly plays like a top-3 defenceman when paired with Petry.

Romanov-Edmundson would be a very entertaining and potentially highly-effective pairing. According to NaturalStatTrick, the two have only played 16:25 together, but in that span, the Habs scored 2 goals and allowed none, controlled 67.35% of the shot attempts and 64.31% of the expected goals. The sample size is less than miniature, but given the fact that their placement together in my defensive combinations was mainly due to the chemistry on the top two pairings, this is promising enough to roll with.

Chiarot’s return would likely mess this all up since I would want to separate him from Weber, but for the time being, these combinations would be about as good as they could get considering the defensive corps, in my opinion.

6. Jesse Ylonen

Unless Cole Caufield plays some games with the Laval Rocket this season, Jesse Ylonen will be the most skilled player to lace ’em up for the Habs’ AHL affiliate in 2020-21. The Finnish right-winger has surprised quite a few fans who may have written him off after some struggles in the Finnish Liiga in the past two seasons.

In his first 19 games in North America, Ylonen has accumulated 7 goals and 14 points, which is tied for 1st in team goals and is second in points; and he only turned 21 in October. His shot has been on full display on the Rocket powerplay, he has scored three one-timers from the left circle in the past week and his release is simply *chef’s kiss*:

This kind of vision for soft ice and especially a one-timer as quick as this makes Ylonen one of the premier forward prospects in the organization; he has a shot at cracking the Habs’ roster in training camp next season. Another right-wing goalscorer, whatever will the Habs do with such an abundance of this resource?

According to Joel Bouchard, Ylonen has also made huge strides in his offence-to-defence transition game and his playmaking has been better than advertised. Ylonen has been playing a complete and offensively-dynamic game for the Rocket and is showing night-in, night-out that he is a significant part of this team’s future.

7. Other notable Laval players

Alright, let’s finish off this week’s 7 talking points with a quickfire round. Ryan Poehling has shown phenomenal progression this season and has proven that he still has middle-6 NHL upside. He has matched his stat-line from last season of 5 goals and 13 points in half the games; it took him 36 last season and only 18 this time around. He has gained a lot of confidence and is playing with a whole lot of heart and power, great news for the Habs. Here’s a phenomenal backhand secondary assist:

Another former-top-prospect that has made a real resurgence this season is Josh Brook. Following a phenomenal 75-point campaign in the WHL in 2018-19, he struggled in Laval last season, putting up only 13 points in 60 games to go along with disappointing defensive play. This season, he has played far more aggressively on defence and has hugely improved his gap control. He has also improved offensively, notching 9 points in 17 games.

Another defenseman that has had a great season would be Otto Leskinen. The 24-year-old Finn has been Laval’s best defenseman, vastly outperforming Xavier Ouellet, who got the call-up to the Habs’ roster when Chiarot went down with his injury. Leskinen has been great on the powerplay and steady in transition and defensively, he has certainly added a consistent dynamic quality to his game that had only been seen in spurts last year. He has 12 points in 19 games, a point total that is tied for first in the AHL amongst defensemen.

The Laval Rocket have been the best team in the AHL’s Canadian division and they are bursting at the seams with NHL prospects, they are not being carried solely by AHL veterans. Cam Hillis, who remains a good Habs’ prospect has been held out of the starting lineup for all but two games, and he has not been battling any injuries. The Rocket have been a joy to watch and the future of the Habs certainly looks bright!

All statistics sourced from EliteProspects.com unless otherwise indicated.