Montreal Canadiens: It’s Now or Never

Carey Price

$10.5 per year. And I think he has made that worth it in big saves in this playoff run alone. The stick save on Jason Spezza, that cross-ice split save on Mark Scheifele, the glove stop on the 2-on-1 against Stone, the impossible save against Tuch.

These aren’t just saves or great saves. All of these saves are all world. The top 10 saves of the playoffs can all be filled with Carey Price saves, and it wouldn’t feel cheap. While he hasn’t exactly carried the team, as everyone around him has carried their share of the weight, but it is true that the team doesn’t get near this far without him.

And that is all well and good for this year, but how long can he keep this type of play up. There is no doubt that he will be amazing in the Cup Final, but what about next year. This regular season was not one to write home about for Price. In 25 games (32nd in the league), Price won 12 games, which is also 32nd in the league. But it is hard to judge his season just by those numbers, since the goalie that won the most amount of games, Andrei Vasilevskiy, played 42 games.

Price finished the regular season with a .901 save percentage and a 2.64 goals-against average. The .901 save percent was the second-lowest total in his career, behind 2017-18, the year where Montreal received the third overall pick and picked Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Taking away the goaltenders that played less than 10 games this season, Price wound up being 47th in save percentage. In goals against, Price was 23rd. Those are not close to what Price is being paid, which is the most of any goaltender in the league.

Now, the playoffs are a different story altogether. Price is just below Vasilevskiy in save percentage (0.936 to 0.934) and goals-against average (1.99 to 2.02). And they are both 1 and 2, except for goals against where Toronto goalie Jack Campbell is #1, but was eliminated in the first round.

And everyone knows that the playoffs are where they’re at, but you still need to succeed in the regular season to make it into the playoffs. Price finally got a steady backup in Jake Allen this year, who finished with similar numbers to Price, but is a prime suspect to be taken by Seattle. Is Cayden Primeau ready to be Price’s full-time backup? Can a Price that is another year older take Montreal into the playoffs?

Shea Weber

Shea Weber is 35 years old, 6’4″, 229 pounds and is as solid as a rock. Weber has earned his nickname of Man-Mountain, and it is not hard to see why. He is big, he plays big, and the playoffs perfectly compliment his skill set. In the regular season, Weber has to reign himself in, and he cannot fully throw his weight around without running the risk of getting into serious penalty trouble.

But in the playoffs, the refs don’t like to blow the whistle and call a penalty, and Weber is a bit freer to give out some of those punishing cross-checks in front of the net. He has never been the fastest and most graceful skater, but his speed and awareness and hockey smarts have helped him be one of the league’s top defenders.

Not to mention his skills as a leader. He isn’t the passionate and vocal leader of, say, an Alexander Ovechkin or P.K. Subban, but his calmness and focus towards the game puts him into the upper echelon of leaders and captains in the league. I think that it was a matter of time, Pacioretty trade or no, that Weber would be named captain of the Montreal Canadiens.

Weber has been a workhorse in both stature and work ethic. He has averaged over 20 minutes of ice time every season since 2008, over 90 blocks every season except for 3. It’s a similar story with hits, where he recorded over 100 hits in all but 2 seasons, and over 200 in 2010-11. He has finished top 10 in Norris voting for the best defenseman in the league in 7 years, top 2 in 2010-11 and 2011-12.

But enough praise, what is the downside? Weber is 35, which is strongly on the wrong side of 30, and Weber has struggled to play a full season. Weber missed 14 games this year due to injuries, 24 games due to a knee injury early in the 2018-19 season and 49 games in the 2017-18 season due to a foot injury.

Some of these injuries have been speculated to be career-ending. A bit of that is due to the huge contract he signed all the way back in Nashville 2012-13 for 14 years and just over $7.85 million. If you are good at math, Weber is under contract until 2026. That means if Weber retires, the Nashville Predators will be mired in millions of dollars in cap recapture penalties the like the league has not seen before.

Weber has been incredible this post-season run, even as many people speculate that Weber is playing injured, and they probably aren’t wrong. He can and will play through anything short of a broken bone in the Finals, but come the regular season, there is little hope that Weber can play most of the season, let alone all of it.

No team can afford their #1 defenceman to miss big chunks of the season, and to be fair, Weber is probably not the clear-cut #1 defender anymore, with the not-so-spring chicken Jeff Petry taking his place. And hopefully, not long into the future, we will see Alex Romanov high up in the roster, and it is just a matter of time for that really. But can Montreal repeat this performance with Weber still playing monster minutes in the future?

Corey Perry and Eric Staal

Both Corey Perry and Eric Staal play on Montreal’s “fourth” line. Perry has played less than 10 minutes in only one game of the playoffs so far, Game 7 against Toronto. Same story with Staal, who only played less than 10 minutes in Game 3 against Toronto. Now, Perry has slightly higher ice time stats because he does play on the powerplay, but both of those numbers are not nothing. To compare, Patrick Maroon on the Tampa Bay Lightning has only played over 10 minutes in a game 3 times this postseason.

Perry and Staal have been instrumental to Montreal’s success this postseason. Their line with Joel Armia has been a huge energy-gaining line for Montreal and has scored their share of goals. Perry has 3 goals and 9 points, which is good to tie Cole Caufield for third in team scoring this postseason. Staal has 2 goals and 8 points, tied with Armia who has 5 goals and 8 points. But even when they are not putting up points, they are grinding away on the opposing team’s defence, and usually end up with a pretty good scoring chance.

Now, both of these old folks don’t have a contract for this upcoming year. Perry was signed by Montreal in the offseason as a free agent for the league minimum, and Staal was one of Marc Bergevin’s trade deadline pickups. With a flat cap and the expansion draft coming, it is impossible to determine what Montreal’s lineup will look like next season. Perry seems like a player that could be brought back for a similar contract next year. He did have a good regular season on the fourth line with 9 goals and 21 points.

Staal is a bit of a different story. Coming over from Buffalo, Staal scored an overtime winner in his first game as a Hab, but struggled the rest of the regular season. Including that goal, Staal had only 2 goals and 3 points in 21 games and looked sluggish in those games. Staal is only 3 seasons removed from scoring over 40 points, and five seasons removed from a 42 goal, 76 point season. But Staal also costs substantially more, his last contract being for $3.25 million per year. If Bergevin can convince him to sign for a lot less, maybe he can stick around, but do you want to block a roster spot with the much older and potentially worse Staal?

And that is ultimately the question. Are there better options for that fourth line than Perry and Staal? I think that it is hard to argue against Perry. The offence was still there for Perry in the regular season, and he is a great leader for the team. With Jake Evans returning, either this series or next year, that will take out one of those two spots. Will Ryan Poehling be able to take that next step this coming year and take a spot? Sean Farrell had a fantastic season, but will probably need some development before taking the leap to the big leagues.