The Montreal Canadiens came into the 2022-23 season with one glaring weakness, and it was one the blue line. They just didn’t have enough veteran defencemen to put together a decent group of defenders.
Then, Joel Edmundson was injured at the start of training camp, and it quickly became apparent that he would miss significant time to begin the season. A team without enough veteran defenders lost perhaps its most important defender.
Not long after that, Mike Matheson was also injured and it was announced that he would be out for about six weeks. At first it sounded like he was day-to-day and would be right back on the ice, but he is yet to make his Canadiens debut.
Canadiens Young Defencemen Are Shining
This left the Canadiens with an extremely young blue line. In fact, they had four rookies in the lineup on opening night…. but it worked. They were able to mostly shut down Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews and the Habs won 4-3 on a late Josh Anderson goal.
We are just six games into the season, but those young defenceman keep playing well every night.
Kaiden Guhle has stepped right into a top pairing role with David Savard and has been phenomenal. His combination of size, speed and hockey sense mean he can take on huge minutes against tough competition and make it look easy, even at the age of 20.
Jordan Harris made his debut late last season, but is still a rookie. He has not played the same role as Guhle, but has looked great and done everything the team has asked. He is another smart, quick defender who gets the puck out of trouble before the trouble really begins.
Johnathan Kovacevic was picked up off waivers on the eve of the season and stepped into the lineup like he has been here for five years. He is another big defender who can move quickly on the ice and has played smart, reliable defensive hockey.
Arber Xhekaj is becoming the big name defender on the blue line. Not only is he huge (just ask Zack Kassian) but he has chipped in a goal and three points in six games as well. He had a few hiccups defensively early on but appears to have cleaned up some of those mistakes in a hurry.
Add in Savard and Chris Wideman as the two veterans on the roster right now and you have the six defenders who have played every game so far this season.
They have performed so far above expectations, that it is hard to decide who will be sent down when the veterans return to the lineup. Edmundson’s timeline is still uncertain, and Matheson will still be out for a couple weeks, but who is leaving the lineup?
The easiest thing to do is send down a couple of players who do not require waivers. Guhle doesn’t require waivers, but he is second on the entire team in ice time, so he will not be sent down.
Harris does not require waivers either, but he is quietly becoming a key two-way guy on the blue line and doesn’t deserve to be shipped to the AHL.
Neither does Xhekaj, but somebody needs to be scratched when Edmundson and Matheson return. Xhekaj brings an element to the blue line that does not exist otherwise. He is the tough guy on the team, but he is also a good enough player that he can be trusted to play a third pairing role without costing the team.
It helps Savard, Kovacevic and Wideman that they are the only right shot options, while Edmundson, Matheson, Guhle, Harris and Xhekaj all shoot left. Of course, Harris can play the right side if needed, so that could be bad news for Wideman.
If everyone were healthy today, it would make sense to run a top four that includes Matheson with Savard and Edmundson with Harris. That would leave Guhle on the third pairing with Kovacevic.
Unfortunately for Wideman, he would be the odd man out and Xhekaj would be sent down to the Laval Rocket since he does not require waivers.
It is obviously possible that the team doesn’t get entirely healthy for a very long time and we don’t have to worry about this at all. But this team that supposedly had no one that could play on defence suddenly has as abundance of options on the blue line.
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