Montreal Canadiens: Marc Bergevin’s Five Best Free Agent Signings
Ilya Kovalchuk – 1 year, $700,000
The Montreal Canadiens were floundering in 2019-20. A solid start was wiped out by a couple of separate eight game losing streaks. Morale was low and pretty much all hope was lost for the season before Christmas.
Marc Bergevin found a way to breathe new life into the Canadiens lineup when he signed Russian winger Ilya Kovalchuk to a league minimum contract. Kovalchuk had his previous contract with the Los Angeles Kings terminated and became an unrestricted free agent in the middle of the 2019-20 season.
He stepped into the Habs lineup and quickly found chemistry and started putting up points. His overtime winner against the Toronto Maple Leafs in late January gave the Canadiens a brief glimpse of hope that they could reel in a division rival and actually make the 2020 playoffs. Of course, the regular season schedule would be wiped out by the global pandemic and the Habs would have to settle to be the 24th seed in the Qualifying Round.
Before that, Kovalchuk was traded to the Washington Capitals for a third round draft pick. He scored six goals and 13 points in 22 games with the Canadiens in his brief stint in the province of Quebec.
That draft pick would be traded to the St. Louis Blues for goaltender Jake Allen. The Fredericton, New Brunswick native filled in admirably for the Canadiens when Carey Price was injured this season and helped the team reach the postseason.
Corey Perry – 1 year, $750,000
Bergevin has not been a general manager that goes looking for the big fish in free agency very often. He is usually content to tinker in free agency and build the team through piling up draft picks and also making shrewd trades.
He does like to add depth pieces throughout the lineup via free agency and one of those depth parts really took on a big role this season.
Corey Perry was signed just before training camp began this season and was brought on for the league minimum for just one season. It was a fairly modest contract for a player that won a Hart Trophy once upon a time, but Perry has brought tons of value to the Canadiens in this current playoff run.
He was placed on waivers to begin the season and was stuck on the taxi squad at the start of the season. He finally got a chance after missing a handful of games and he hasn’t allowed the coaches to take him out of the lineup since. He plays a depth, fourth line role but he finds ways to contribute anyway.
The veteran right winger played 49 games this season and scored nine goals and 21 points. He has been even better in the postseason, not only from a leadership and experience point of view that is immeasurable, but he also has nine points in 18 postseason games.
Alex Radulov – 1 year, $5.75 million
When Bergevin signed Alex Radulov on July 1, 2016, the Russian winger had played almost all of the previous seven seasons in his home country. He had some experience in the NHL with the Nashville Predators, but it had been a long time since he played at the highest level in the hockey world.
Bergevin didn’t take an enormous risk because he stuck to a one year deal, but the $5.75 million cap hit was a bit of an eyebrow raiser.
As it turned out, Radulov was worth every penny and would have been a bargain if he was signed for a few more years. He played just the one season in Montreal, but he scored 18 goals and 54 points in 79 games and was the perfect complement on the same line as goal scoring left winger Max Pacioretty.
The Canadiens lost in the first round of the 2017 postseason, but Radulov was one of the few Habs skaters who showed up every night. He had seven points in the six game series loss to the New York Rangers and played with an infectious intensity every night.
Ben Chiarot – 3 year, $3.5 million
Ben Chiarot was a bit of an unknown in the hockey world when the Canadiens signed him to a three year contract. He flew under the radar on a Winnipeg Jets team that also had Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba and Josh Morrissey on the back end.
He has since proven he is more than capable of playing big minutes in the NHL. For the second consecutive season he is playing his best hockey in the playoffs and he is a physical force that wears down the opposition over the course of a playoff series.
Chiarot essentially took Karl Alzner’s spot in the lineup when he showed up for the 2019-20 season and, unfairly to him, there were a lot of comparisons made between the two defenders early in Chiarot’s stint with Montreal.
The 30 year old has proven any doubters wrong with his physical, steady, defensive game and ability to face the toughest competition in a playoff series and keep them off the scoresheet while leaning heavily on them in battles.
Tyler Toffoli – 4 years, $4.25 million
There is no question that the best free agent signing that Bergevin has made has been the acquisition of Tyler Toffoli. The former Los Angeles King and Vancouver Canuck has been excellent all season long for the Canadiens.
The winger signed a four year contract with a cap hit of $4.25 million on the third day of free agency in 2020. It was an offseason where not many teams were spending big money and Bergevin was able to swoop in and get the 2014 Stanley Cup winning forward at a bargain of a price.
Toffoli had career highs of 31 goals and 58 points back in 2015-16 with the Kings. He nearly matched that goal total when he scored 28 in just 52 games for the Canadiens this season. His contract already looks like a steal.
Next. Now or never for Habs. dark
He continued his terrific play in the postseason and is a big reason the Canadiens are in the Stanley Cup Final right now. Toffoli could have made twice as much money this season and would have been worth every dollar.