A Winning Habit
Fansided

How the Montreal Canadiens Can Reform Their Defence

By Sebastian High

MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 04: (L-R) Phillip Danault #24, Shea Weber #6, Ben Chiarot #8, Carey Price #31, Brendan Gallagher #11 and Tomas Tatar #90 of the Montreal Canadiens stand for the national anthem prior to their game against the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Centre on February 4, 2021 in Montreal, Canada. The Ottawa Senators defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-2. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 04: (L-R) Phillip Danault #24, Shea Weber #6, Ben Chiarot #8, Carey Price #31, Brendan Gallagher #11 and Tomas Tatar #90 of the Montreal Canadiens stand for the national anthem prior to their game against the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Centre on February 4, 2021 in Montreal, Canada. The Ottawa Senators defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-2. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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ST LOUIS, MO – APRIL 22: Ryan Graves #27 and Devon Toews #7 of the Colorado Avalanche look to clear the puck against Tyler Bozak #21 of the St. Louis Blues in the second period at Enterprise Center on April 22, 2021 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
ST LOUIS, MO – APRIL 22: Ryan Graves #27 and Devon Toews #7 of the Colorado Avalanche look to clear the puck against Tyler Bozak #21 of the St. Louis Blues in the second period at Enterprise Center on April 22, 2021 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

A decent number of these woes can be relayed to the coaching of the team. The conservative strategies and try-not-to-lose attitude have had the opposite of their intended effect. While this article could easily devolve into a call for the firing of the entire management and coaching staff, I will try to pivot this into a more optimistic analysis of which players could be targetted by the team in the offseason to help remedy the issues apparent on the blueline.

Let’s start by establishing that this team doesn’t need an easy fix on defence. Ever since the unfortunate departure of Andrei Markov, the Habs blueline has lacked a left-shot defenceman that can play the modern game at a high level. The future certainly looks bright with Alexander Romanov, Jayden Struble, Jordan Harris, Kaiden Guhle and Mattias Norlinder in the pipeline, all of whom are extremely mobile left-defencemen suited for the modern game and with relatively high ceilings. But they remain a few years away from the NHL (with the exception of Romanov) and a good handful of years from making a significant impact at the NHL-level if they do reach their respective potentials.

For this reason, a true mobile top-pairing left-shot defenceman who excels in transition is what the Montreal Canadiens need the most. More and more of these defencemen are popping up in the league and they are proving to be the most effective in recent years. Look at Adam Fox, Cale Makar, Sam Girard, and Charlie McAvoy, all are under the age of 25 and are among the league’s top 15 or so defencemen.

The Colorado Avalanche is an interesting avenue for the Montreal Canadiens to explore this offseason. They are my favourites to win the cup and have a virtually perfectly constructed roster. They have one of the two best lines in the league with elite offensive talent, secondary scoring they can depend on, and a defensive corps built for modern hockey that is bursting at the seams with talent. The one downside of their defensive corps is the Seattle expansion draft.

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