The Montreal Canadiens traded Evgeni Dadonov to the Dallas Stars for Denis Gurianov last season. They were taking a chance on a one highly touted young player who was not having a great season.
Gurianov would go on to play 23 games with the Canadiens, scoring five goals and eight points. It was a far cry from the career best 20 goals he scored in 2019-20 or the 30 points he put up in just 55 games the following season.
He had 31 points in 73 games in 2021-22, but really struggled last season and combined for 17 points in 66 games between Dallas and Montreal. He was a restricted free agent at the end of the season, but did not receive a qualifying offer from the Canadiens at season’s end. He was making $2.9 million per season on his previous contract, so the Canadiens would have needed to offer him a one-year contract extension at $2.9 million to retain his rights.
They chose not to do so, but reports emerged that they reamined interested in keeping Gurianov in Montreal. With as many as 16 forwards already on the roster for next season, they Canadiens would have needed to shed a salary, or possibly two, before it made sense to bring back Gurianov.
At the age of 26, Gurianov could still turn back into the 20 goal scorer he was previously, but it will not be in Montreal.
Gurianov signed a one year contract with the Nashville Predators yesterday, at a cap hit of just $850,000. Money was certainly not an issue in re-signing Gurianov, it was just a numbers game of another sort, that being contracts already signed.
The Canadiens would have needed to find a way to move out a veteran winger like Mike Hoffman, Joel Armia or Rem Pitlick before signing Gurianov would have made any sense. It appears the Habs were not able to find any takers for any of their veteran wingers.
Gurianov moving on to the Predators isn’t the end of the world for the Canadiens. It would be better to have a 26 year old winger who has shown some offensive promise in the past rather than an older winger who is earning more money than their current play would suggest they deserve.
With Gurianov choosing to head elsewhere, it could be a bad sign that moving a veteran winger off the Canadiens roster could prove impossible.
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