Montreal Canadiens: A Look at the 3 GM of the Year Finalists

Joel Edmundson

Could you imagine this Canadiens’ team without Joel Edmundson? Similar to Toffoli, Edmundson has slotted in perfectly into Montreal’s defence corps.

Edmundson was becoming a free agent in the offseason, but Bergevin did not allow that to happen, sending a fifth-round pick to acquire Edmundson and sign him before everyone else. And sign him, Bergevin did, to a 4 year, $3.5 million contract. Edmundson is 27 now and will be 31 once the contract expires.

Montreal had “The Trident” last year, consisting of Shea Weber, Jeff Petry and Ben Chiarot, so named because all three were fantastic in the bubble playoffs and ate up huge minutes. There has not been much of a difference these playoffs, but that there is a new stabilizing force to turn The Trident into a Quadant, Joel Edmundson.

It is always hard to measure the effect of a defensive defenceman. You can look at points, where Edmundson has 3 goals and 13 points in 55 games, but Edmundson has never been a point scorer, with 85 points in 392 regular-season games. In plus-minus, Edmundson was one of the best in the league with +28. Mikko Rantanen led the league in plus-minus with +30, and Leon Draisaitl, Devon Toews, and Mackenzie Weegar tied with +29. But to be fair, each of the teams that the players were playing within the regular season was much better than the Canadiens

Edmundson averaged 20:03 minutes this year, which is the most he has averaged other than 2017-18 where he averaged 20:44. In this playoffs, Edmundson stepped it up and averaged 22:35. We will never know how this run would have gone down if Joel Edmundson was not a part of the team. But it is hard to think that Jeff Petry’s injury would have gone so well if it weren’t for Edmundson.

As a big, physical, defensive defenceman, Edmundson fits the rest of the Canadiens’ defence to a tee and has come up huge for them in the playoffs.

Josh Anderson

One of the biggest trade splashes of the offseason was Bergevin trading Max Domi and a third-round pick for Josh Anderson. Domi was seen as having more value, with only one year being removed from a 72-point season, and many fans were disappointed in his return.

But Josh Anderson is a one-of-a-kind player. He is big, fast and skilled. There are definitely some durability and consistency issues, but when he is on, there is not an NHL player like him. He makes drives to the net look like an everyday occurrence, and there is very little opposing D-men can do from stopping Anderson from getting to the net.

Anderson started great in a Canadiens’ uniform, 12 points in 19 games in his first two months. But when he is hot, he is very hot, and when he is cold, he is very cold. Everyone knows of his 11 games pointless streak to end the year, and his startling lack of scoring in the playoffs, having scored only one goal and no assists through the first two series. He has looked better recently, especially his heroic two-goal game in Game 3 against Vegas, and we can hope that this will be a turning point for his post-season.

Early in the year, it was looking like a steal for Bergevin, as Anderson racked up the points, while Domi floundered in Columbus. But, by the end of the day, Domi and Anderson finished the season with the same amount of points. At the end of the day, Anderson is a more valuable player to the Canadiens. Anderson is a player that can create his own offence. Domi is a very skilled and creative player, but he creates offence for others, and Montreal simply doesn’t have the finishers to complement Domi’s playmaking ability.

Michael Frolik

Frolik was a small signing in the offseason and did not impact much this year, but he was a good depth signing and insurance for the forward corps. It just so happened that Montreal did not have many injuries to the forwards.

Frolik brought some more Stanley Cup-winning pedigree, having won the Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks. Frolik only played 8 games with the Canadiens, but the first game he played was at the end of March. That is a long time off of the ice, and he registered no points, but only was on the ice for 3 opponents’ goals. That is not bad for a league minimum guy just filling in for injuries.