Montreal Canadiens: Players From Quebec That Habs Will Target

The Montreal Canadiens, even more than many other teams will try and target some local talent to join the squad.

You see this with many other teams, like when Jason Spezza, Joe Thornton and Wayne Simmonds all joined the Toronto Maple Leafs. Or like Jack Eichel eventually signing with the Boston Bruins. Players from out west often prefer to play out west and many from the east coast would like to live in the eastern time zone.

While not every team has a lot of local flair, it’s long been tradition in Montreal that someone on the Canadiens team would be a local.

That’s why it made many headlines in May when Phillip Danault was knocked out of the lineup. With Jonathan Drouin also out of the lineup at the time, the Canadiens played their first game in over a century with no players from the province of Quebec in the lineup. With Danault likely leaving town, you can guarantee the Canadiens will target some locals today when free agency begins.

You can agree with the sentiment or not, it doesn’t make it any less likely to occur. There will be players from Quebec signing with the Canadiens today. Like who? Let’s start with the most likely.

David Savard

The Saint Hyacinthe native just won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning, skillfully setting up the winning goal in the final game. He’s a very good defensive defenceman who shoots right and can help out on the penalty kill. He doesn’t score much, but would play plenty of hard minutes for the Canadiens.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet has been reporting for a couple of days that this is basically a done deal and they just have to wait until 12:00 PM EST to make it official.

Cedric Paquette

It has also been widely rumoured, though it seems less concrete than Savard, that Cedric Paquette will be joining the Canadiens. The Gaspé Quebec native most recently played for the Carolina Hurricanes but came through the Lightning system. He won a Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2020 and would provide valuable depth minutes for the Canadiens by winning face-offs and killing penalties as a fourth line centre who earns a million dollars or so.

Mathieu Perreault

The Winnipeg Jets forward is from Drummondville, Quebec and would be a solid fit on the Canadiens current roster. He is a very versatile player and though you would rather have him on the wing, he can pretty much play anywhere in the lineup. He scored 19 points in 56 games last season with the Jets and is an absolute thorn in the side of his opponents. He has the skill to play on a second line for a while but the battle, compete and physicality to fit in on a fourth line as well.

Derick Brassard

The native of Hull, Quebec has put together a fairly lengthy NHL career. He was the 6th overall selection in the 2006 NHL Draft and has played 905 regular season games. He was once a high scoring centre, and though he hit a bit of a wall with the Pittsburgh Penguins three years ago, he bounced back nicely as a depth winger with the New York Islanders and Arizona Coyotes over the past two seasons. He had 20 points in 53 games in Arizona this season and could move all around the bottom six, playing centre in spot duty when needed.

Jason Demers

A teammate of Brassard’s last season in Arizona, Demers played third pairing minutes while putting up just four assists in 41 games. The Dorval born Demers could be a number seven guy on the Canadiens blue line but his days as regular NHL defender might be behind him. Still, the Habs could use a veteran number seven defenceman so it’s a long shot but maybe he signs a one year deal for $800,000.

Alex Chiasson

Once a very highly regarded prospect and part of the package that went to Ottawa in the Jason Spezza trade, Chiasson settled into a depth role with the Edmonton Oilers lately. The Montreal native has great size at 6’4″ and 208 pounds but there isn’t a great fit for a depth right winger on the Canadiens roster right now.