P.K. Subban
The glorious homecoming that no one wants. Can P.K. Subban really return to the Montreal Canadiens? Should he really return to the Montreal Canadiens? Yes and yes.
It is incredible how the mighty have fallen. Subban was electric ever since he entered the league as a Canadien, and even won the Norris Trophy for the league’s best defenseman in 2013. The fun thing is that it seems so long ago, but Subban is still on the contract he signed with the Montreal Canadiens in 2014.
So Subban is going to be a free agent, and he will not be drawing near as much attention or cash as he did in 2014. He has had a history of slew-footing opposing players lately, and was even booed off the ice against the New York Rangers.
Subban was never a great defender in his own zone, which is perfect for this situation. But in the past he always made up for it with absolutely incredible offensive play. He used to be able to predictably be able to put up 50+ point seasons, but hasn’t been able to break 20 points in the past 3 seasons with the New Jersey Devils. That is simply unacceptable since Subban still struggles in his own zone.
Sure, those New Jersey Devils teams were bad and there might be some faint glimmer of hope he could regain his form, but with my plan the Montreal Canadiens would also be bad this coming year, so it will be the perfect storm of bad to make Bedard a Montreal Canadien.
Okay, I know that most people will not have made it this far into the article. Most people will see the title and see the names on the slides and type up in the comments what a bad idea this is. And I get it. It will never happen, and it, with all due consideration should not happen. It would be flat out tanking, and Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton may never recover in the eyes of everyone that wants the Canadiens to be good next year. I probably wouldn’t have the nerve to pull it off in their position.
But its just fun to speculate. I mean, could you imagine a team with the top pairing of Ristolainen and Subban together? It would be the biggest tire fire in the entire league. And, of course, this wouldn’t even be a thought if next year’s draft didn’t look incredible. Any of Connor Bedard, Matvei Mitchkov or Adam Fantilli would be going first overall in this draft.
I guess I am just burned by Marc Bergevin and his endless re-tooling and maybe next year we can make the playoffs and do a Cinderella Run. Do you know why it has the name Cinderella Run? Because it is really rare to actually happen. Nothing that commonly happens gets a name. But that was what Bergevin was aiming for each year. He hit last year, but that was never going to last.
This would be clear self sabotage of the team and get everything messed up and pretty much everyone angry, but just think of how nice Connor Bedard would look in the bleu-blanc-et-rouge.
It will never happen. It shouldn’t happen. It is a bad idea. But I had fun examining the Ristolilac flower in full bloom between two stones, valiantly carving out its own existence against all odds. And next to it is the wilting head of a once glorious Peony Subbanii, whose bloom brought so much beauty yesteryear, but now is just a shadow of the beautiful flowerhead that once was.
So welcome to the Farside. Come Walk On the Wild Side. Its so much fun if you just loosen up a bit.