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

By Sebastian High

MONTREAL, QC - OCTOBER 17: Paul Byron #41 of the Montreal Canadiens and Eric Staal #12 of the Minnesota Wild skate against each other during the second period at the Bell Centre on October 17, 2019 in Montreal, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - OCTOBER 17: Paul Byron #41 of the Montreal Canadiens and Eric Staal #12 of the Minnesota Wild skate against each other during the second period at the Bell Centre on October 17, 2019 in Montreal, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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ST LOUIS, MISSOURI – JANUARY 24: Eric Staal #12 of the Minnesota Wild poses for a portrait ahead of the 2020 NHL All-Star Game at Enterprise Center on January 24, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI – JANUARY 24: Eric Staal #12 of the Minnesota Wild poses for a portrait ahead of the 2020 NHL All-Star Game at Enterprise Center on January 24, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

1. Eric Staal

One day after telling the media that the Canadiens’ roster was more or less set for the season due to cap constraints, Marc Bergevin acquired Eric Staal from the dumpster fire that is the 2020-21 Buffalo Sabres. The 36-year-old had scored just 3 goals and 10 points in his 32-game stint in Buffalo, but still scored more goals than either Taylor Hall or Jack Eichel, everyone is struggling on the Sabres.

Staal is also just a season removed from scoring 19 goals and 47 points in 66 games, which would have placed him top-3 on the 2019-20 Habs in both categories. I like this trade a lot. The Habs have had an abundance of draft picks for the past three seasons and still have 12 this year. The team can only have 50 players under contract, so there’s no point in drafting 15 players every year and lose two-thirds of them after three years for nothing.

To add to this, the 2021 draft is not only a crapshoot due to the lack of games played by prospects this year, but the class is, by all accounts, one of the weakest of the 21st century. Draft picks this year have far less value than they normally do.

Staal is a pure rental, expect him to either retire or sign in Minnesota in the offseason, where his family still resides. But for these final 25 regular-season games and for the playoffs, Staal will provide the Canadiens with a lot more flexibility down the middle, he will be able to play up and down the lineup and put up some good offensive numbers.

He’s certainly not a faceoff specialist, hovering around 48% these past few years, but he will likely start out as the best 4th line centre in the Canadian division if not the league. This is very much a low-risk, high-reward trade, best-case scenario, Staal picks up at the 20+ goal, 50+ point pace from last season while mentoring the young Canadiens centremen and bringing playoff experience for a run.

Worst case scenario, he doesn’t fit in and plays a bit lazily as he did in Buffalo, putting up meagre offensive numbers, but the Habs would still only have given away two lower-round picks in an extremely weak draft.

I would quite like to see Staal get some powerplay minutes while playing around the half-wall and using his one-timer. Wouldn’t it be a bit surreal to see Corey Perry, Shea Weber and Eric Staal on the same powerplay unit?

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