Canadiens: Three Easy Steps to Contend for Connor Bedard

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The Montreal Canadiens have the best odds of winning the 2022 NHL Draft Lottery. While that would be great for the franchise going forward, it is the team that wins the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery that will see their fortunes turn around immediately.

Whoever earns the right to draft Shane Wright first overall this July should be jumping for joy. He is a terrific prospect, a great two-way centre with size that can fill nets with pucks and scored 94 points in 63 games for the Kingston Frontenacs this season.

If the Canadiens land the top pick at the Draft Lottery on Tuesday night, that would be fantastic news. Wright could step right in to the lineup next season and would slot in right behind Nick Suzuki to form a great one-two punch for a decade or more.

But a year from now, Connor Bedard will be drafted first overall and he is just on another level. Bedard is just 16 years old, but he scored 51 goals and 100 points for a Regina Pats team that didn’t even make the playoffs in the WHL. He won’t turn 17 until July so he was one of the most dangerous offensive players in the WHL this season while being four years younger than many players in the league.

He is, without hyperbole, the greatest hockey prospect to come along since Connor McDavid. A year before being drafted, McDavid scored 28 goals and 99 points in 58 games on a terrific Erie Otters team. That gives McDavid a slightly better points per game, but also a much lower goals per game than Bedard at the same age.

So, teams are going to be lining up to try and land Bedard with the top pick. Having just finished last overall, the Canadiens should be among those teams. They can be, quite easily I might add, if they just follow these three simple steps.

Apr 21, 2022; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports /

Canadiens have to Trade Jeff Petry

The first thing the Habs need to do in order to contend for Bedard next season is to move out Jeff Petry. If he was about to continue playing like he did to start the 2021-22 season, keeping him would be a pivotal part of the tank.

However, Petry really turned his game around in the second half, and looked like the calm, savvy, two-way threat that we have come to know. He increased his points per game each season he wore the Habs sweater until this most recent one.

Then he got off to an abysmal start. He was forthright in saying his family was living in Michigan and it clearly impacted his game on the ice. He requested a trade early in the season so he could spend more time with his young family, but with his poor play no one stepped up with a good enough offer.

Petry struggled to just two points in his first 28 games of the season. After Martin St. Louis arrived as head coach, Petry finished the season with 21 points in his final 28 games. That’s a 62 point pace over a full season, showing he still has that offensive edge to his game.

So, if he stays, he will play top pairing minutes and help the team win. If he goes, he could attract a high draft pick or a really good prospect who could help the team down the road. The benefit being, the Canadiens are much closer to getting Connor Bedard if Jeff Petry is playing elsewhere.

May 4, 2022; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Patrice Bergeron. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports /

Avoid top free agents

Part two of this plan following directly after part one which was trade Jeff Petry. Part two is: avoid all really good free agents. There is no point in trading Petry and then replacing him with Kris Letang.

The Canadiens have been linked to Letang and Patrice Bergeron who are both free agents this summer and were both clients of Kent Hughes before he took the Habs general manager job. But it doesn’t make sense. Why would veterans like Bergeron and Letang leave their Stanley Cup contending teams for the worst team in the league?

They probably wouldn’t. But they are from the province of Quebec and have a relationship with Hughes. Is that enough to entice them to sign with the Canadiens? If so, it is the Canadiens who should pass. They aren’t in a position to contend in the next couple seasons, so why sign a star free agent who will only help them get a little closer to the playoffs, but not actually into the postseason?

They shouldn’t, and general manager Hughes hinted at that on TSN Radio earlier this week. What they should do is sign a couple of cheaper free agents to one year contracts. Get a few veterans who can handle a lot of minutes, but aren’t exactly difference makers on the ice. Call them stop-gaps for the blue line.

In a few years, the Canadiens defence will be made up of some subset of Alexander Romanov, Kaiden Guhle, Mattias Norlinder, Logan Mailloux, Justin Barron, Jayden Struble, Arber Xhekaj and Jordan Harris. Only Romanov should be guaranteed a spot on the Canadiens full time next season.

Harris and Barron would be fine at the NHL level right now, but why not let them develop a bit more as a top pairing for the Laval Rocket for one season? Meanwhile, a veteran free agent like Nikita Zadorov, Justin Braun or P.K. Subban could play big minutes on a losing team before being traded at the deadline for a decent draft pick.

A top four of Edmundson-Petry and Romanov-Savard might be just good enough to get the Habs the 11th overall pick next season. A top four of Romanov-Savard and Edmundson-Braun gives them a much better chance at picking Bedard.

Apr 27, 2022; New York, New York, USA; Montreal Canadiens goaltender Sam Montembeault. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /

Give Sam Montembeault 60 Starts

The biggest predictor of success in the NHL is great goaltending. It is hard to lose a lot of games with a great tandem of goalies hitting the ice every night.

Who is going to win the Vezina Trophy this season? Probably Igor Shesterkin, but Frederik Andersen, Jacob Markstrom and Darcy Kuemper will be in the running as well. Where did all of their teams finish in the standings? Aside from Shesterkin, they all won their division, while Shesterkin’s team has home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs as well.

Great goaltending gives a team a chance to win every night, and the Habs have chance of heading into next season with a terrific goaltending tandem of Carey Price and Jake Allen. The problem is Price’s health, but he battled all season to play this year and couldn’t play more than five games.

Price was often injured before the offseason knee surgery that caused him to miss 77 games last season. He only returned because the season was extended later than it usually would be. His first game was played on April 15th and the regular season usually ends in the first week of April.

Seeing as he is likely to spend a considerable portion of next season on injured reserve as well, the Canadiens need to consider trading Jake Allen this offseason, and crowning Samuel Montembeault as the team’s starting netminder for the 2022-23 season.

Montembeault started 30 games for the Canadiens this season and posted a 3.77 goals against average and a .891 save percentage. He needs to start twice as many games next season, and though he sometimes has a terrific night and steals a win, his numbers suggest the Canadiens would lose far more often than they win next season if he played 60 times.

That would put them at the front of the line for Connor Bedard next season.

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