Montreal Canadiens: Updated Roster and Lines After Free Agent Frenzy

Well, free agent frenzy truly lived up to its name this year so far, and not only for the Montreal Canadiens.

The Edmonton Oilers steered into the defensive skid by resigning defensive nightmare and offensive dream Tyson Barrie, signing straight-up nightmare Cody Ceci and re-signing a dinosaur in 39-year-old Mike Smith for two(!) more years in net; the Toronto Maple Leafs once again find themselves without a true #1 goalie after signing Petr Mrazek and took a risk in signing Josh Ho-sang to a Professional Try-out; Dougie Hamilton finds himself banished to the New Jersey Devils (remember the last time a big named d-man went to N.J.?) and L.A. badly overpaid for Phillip Danault, but at least he meshes well with their philosophy of not scoring goals very often.

It wasn’t a quiet day for Montreal, and the roster for Les Habitants looks quite different than it did at 11:59 a.m. this morning. The scoring is better, the forward depth is better, the defensive depth is better, and the goaltending stayed the same. I think that Bergevin’s work is not yet done. He has a penchant for the big, earthshaking offseason trade, and there can be some things shored up on the roster. Let’s look at what the Canadiens have to work with as of today.