Montreal Canadiens: Marc Bergevin Wise at NHL Draft to Not Force Trade to Replace Shea Weber

The Montreal Canadiens headed into the busiest part of the offseason with a few things to take care of before training camp comes around.

The team will need to find a way to replace the departure of free agents Tomas Tatar and Phillip Danault as well as the depth up front that could be lost if Corey Perry, Joel Armia and Eric Staal all leave town.

Their biggest hole to fill is on the blue line though, where Shea Weber will miss the entire season on long term injured reserve.

General Manager Marc Bergevin had a few options that he could have acquired via trade, but he was very wise to avoid those deals. The Canadiens were rumoured to be interested in a handful of right defencemen that could step into a top four role and try to replicate what Weber brought on the ice.

The first right defenceman to be traded over the weekend was Rasmus Ristolainen. He has played his entire career with the Buffalo Sabres and has regularly scored at about half of a point per game. He is also a very large defender who isn’t nearly as physical as Shea Weber, but can use that size to win battles.

The problem is, though he puts up decent offensive production throughout his career, any advanced statistic would tell you he does a poor job defensively in his own zone. The Sabres routinely get peppered with shots when Ristolainen is on the ice. So, it wouldn’t have made senes to offer up a huge package of picks and prospects to get him. But that is exactly what the Philadelphia Flyers did.

The Flyers offered up a decent young defenceman in Robert Hagg, the 14th overall pick in last weekend’s NHL Draft and a second round pick next year. To match that, the Habs would have needed to include their first round pick this year, which was 31st overall, their second round pick next year, a decent defender like Brett Kulak, and something to make up the difference between the 31st pick and the 14th pick that the Flyers offered.

That would be like, next year’s first round pick. Or something else as exorbitant. For one year of a defenceman who struggles defensively. No thanks. Good job passing on that one Bergevin.

The next big name that could have possibly filled the void on right defence was Seth Jones. The Columbus Blue Jackets were certain to trade him when he said he had no intentions of re-signing with them following next season.

Jones was the 4th overall pick in 2013 and is a big, physical defenceman who can put up some offensive numbers. There is no question he would have been a target of the Canadiens, but Bergevin wisely bowed out at some point.

Jones was ultimately sent to the Chicago Blackhawks along with the 32nd overall pick for Adam Boqvist, the 12th overall pick, the 44th overall selection and a future first round pick.

If the Canadiens were going to match that offer, they would have needed to ship out their first round pick (31st), next year’s first round pick, their second round pick (63nd) and they still wouldn’t be close. Boqvist was a top ten pick not long ago and is blossoming into an offensive top four defender. To match that, the Canadiens would have to offer up Romanov, but Boqvist has more value than the Russian defender.

Maybe a package of Romanov, the Habs first this year, second this year, first next year and another top prospect like Kaiden Guhle would have given them a chance. Probably not though since the Blackhawks were able to offer the 14th overall pick which had a lot of value.

Whatever it would have taken to land Jones, or even Ristolainen, would have been too much for Habs fans to stomach. Thankfully, Bergevin was wise enough not to force a trade to fill that gap on right defence.

He will now have to turn his attention to the free agent market where Dougie Hamilton, Alec Martinez, Alex Goligoski and David Savard are options. They may not be quite as good as Seth Jones, but they won’t cost half the farm system to acquire.