The Montreal Canadiens take on the San Jose Sharks at the Bell Centre this evening in a rare matchup of cross-continent teams. The Sharks have been struggling this season, and the Habs will look to continue their impressive start.
The Canadiens, at 11-9-1, could be tied for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with a win. There is still a long way to go this season, but that alone is more than anyone expected this season.
The Habs were not supposed to be this close to the postseason at any point because of a young defence. That young defence is a big reason why the team is playing so well. In fact, there are suddenly too many defenders on the roster to get them all in the lineup on a nightly basis.
The Canadiens have been carrying eight defencemen since Mike Matheson returned from injury. Tonight will be just the fifth game Matheson plays, so this problem hasn’t been dragging on for months, but it is an issue that needs to be addressed.
Eight blue liners on the roster means two of them are healthy scratched every single night. Now, with all due respect, Chris Wideman probably deserves to be one of them most nights, and as a 32 year old, the team isn’t ruining his development by sitting him.
Wideman will sit once again tonight, missing his 10th game of the season. There is nothing wrong with that as he is their 7th defenceman and will sit his fair share of games. The problem is, Arber Xhekaj is also sitting this game out as a healthy scratch.
Xhekaj is a 21 year old rookie who is having an impressive season. Not a lot was expected out of him but he was great in training camp camp and earned a spot on the opening night roster.
This is just the second time that Xhekaj has sat out, but Jordan Harris has missed three games and Jonathan Kovacevic has missed a couple as well. This will only increase now that Matheson is back in the lineup every night.
Harris and Kovacevic are also rookie blue liners that are playing quite well. They are comfortable playing regular minutes against tough competition, and they formed a solid second pairing behind Kaiden Guhle and David Savard to begin the season while Matheson and Joel Edmundson were out.
With everyone now healthy, the Canadiens need to scratch two defenders every night, and really none of them deserve to sit. So, how do they fix this issue?
One possibility is to send down either Jordan Harris or Arber Xhekaj. Neither of them require waivers so it would be a quick fix and allow them to play big minutes in the minors. However, they have played well at the NHL level and do not deserve to be sent down right now. So that isn’t the best idea.
The only other option is to trade away someone. The Canadiens are a rebuilding team so it makes no sense to trade away a young player like Guhle, Harris, Xhekaj or Kovacevic. That means a veteran like Matheson, Edmundson, Savard or Wideman should be on the move.
Matheson was just acquired in the offseason for Jeff Petry and has only played four games for his hometown team so it is unlikely he gets dealt. Wideman wouldn’t have much value on the market right now so there is no point in moving him, unless it is to do him a favor.
If the Habs can find a team that would use Wideman more, maybe they deal him. If not, it makes the most sense to try and trade Edmundson or Savard as soon as possible. Edmundson has one more year left on his contract after this one and Savard has two.
As a rebuilding team looking to make room for the younger players to play more, it would make a lot of sense for the Canadiens to try and move one of those veteran blue liners in the near future.
Want your voice heard? Join the A Winning Habit team!