The expansion draft is over. The picks have been made. There were some shockers, like Domi being passed over in Columbus or James van Reimsdyk in Philadelphia. And depending on who you ask, Montreal Canadiens Carey Price not being selected by the Seattle Kraken was a surprise.
I know that everyone likes to live in their bubble of likemindedness, but there were quite a few people that thought Seattle should take Carey Price. And it wasn’t just anyone. Trusted sources said that Seattle was seriously debating on whether they would take Price or not.
And yes, it did seem unlikely that the Kraken would take the risk of so much money ($10.5 million for 4 more years plus an $11 million signing bonus this year), and also take a goalie that is older and has had injury problems in the past. Especially when the goaltender market for the expansion draft looked deep and wide. But the Canadiens also didn’t exactly have the best options to pick other than Price.
Shea Weber has a contract that might be worse than Price just due to his older age and more extensive injury problems ($7.85 million for the next five years), Jonathan Drouin missed a good chunk of the year for personal reasons and has no timetable for return, if he ever does. That leaves veteran forward Paul Byron, unrestricted free agents that the Kraken can take a run at anyways due to their wealth of cap space in Phillip Danault and Tomas Tatar, and depth defence in Brett Kulak and Cale Fleury.
Seattle took the best choice in Fleury, a young physical defenceman who could slot into the third pairing right away for Seattle, or be flipped for a good number of picks if need be. Not a blue chip prospect in any way, but a guy that has 41 games experience with the Canadiens and will only be getting better. From the slim pickings that Bergevin gave the Kraken, it was the best pick that they could make.
But it didn’t always look that way. Ask anyone a month ago who was being selected, and the almost unanimous decision was Jake Allen. Heck, even when Allen was traded for and resigned in the offseason, most people took this as an expansion pick move. But Allen played great, and is one of the bigger reasons why Montreal made the playoffs despite Price’s inconsistent play and injuries.
I will admit that the news of Carey Price’s potential injuries did seem to come at an opportune time, I do not believe that it was just a ploy to dissuade the Kraken from picking Price. He was definitely not playing up to his high standards in the Final against Tampa. He wasn’t bad, per-se but was not as good as he was against Toronto, Winnipeg and Vegas. It could have been fatigue, as many thought, but it also could be about nagging injuries to his knee and hip. We just don’t know for sure.
Ditto with Shea Weber, but everyone knew before the expansion draft that Weber would be banged up after the Canadiens playoff run, but no one expected it could be this bad. But it did allow Bergevin to protect the other Clydesdales, Chiarot, Petry and Edmundson. When everyone thought that Montreal would lose either one of their very important top 4 defenders or their back-up goalie, Bergevin managed to keep both.
It was not without risks. Carey Price was and remains the face of this franchise, until Caufield and Suzuki come into their own and take the league by storm. Drafted in 2005, Price is the longest tenured current Canadien, Montreal’s most winning goalie in franchise history, Vezina Trophy winner and Hart Trophy winner. Seeing Price go for nothing may have been sweetened by all of the cap space, but would still sting for many fans that have been enamoured by his play for over a decade now.
And what you know you have is always better than what could be. Sure, Montreal would have been able to go after a big fish in free agency or trading using that cap space, but the problem is getting a player of that calibre. You don’t want to spend north of $7-8 million on the next Jeff Skinner or Loui Eriksson, and top end talent doesn’t usually come for free. You are fighting against 31 different teams, including one that has gobs of cap space to work with now.
It saves the team from having to bring in another goaltender to back up or share the starting crease for Allen. Montreal’s defensive prospect depth will be able to make up for Fleury’s absence. It is a loss, and might be a big one in the coming years, but the emergence of Alex Romanov and the competition of Brook, Fairbrother, Norlinder, Guhle and Struble could bring out some diamonds that can replace Fleury’s production.
Ultimately, there is nothing to be upset with the way that Bergevin handled this expansion draft. It was similar to last expansion draft, where the Vegas Golden Knights took Alexei Emelin, who was flipped for picks and out of the league the year after. We will have to see how he handles the coming offseason to pass judgement on Bergevin’s season as a whole. But if he handles it as well as he handled this expansion draft, the Montreal Canadiens will be in good hands.