Canadiens: Three Potential PTO For Habs To Consider

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The Montreal Canadiens have not had the busiest offseason around the National Hockey League.

Their 2023-24 opening night roster does not look a lot different from a lineup they could have put together last season. There have been some minor changes, like Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick being traded away and Alex Newhook arriving via trade.

Other than that, a lot of the same young players like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris and Sam Montembeault will play big roles again next season. There were no big free agent signings to boast about, and probably not a single free agent signing that will make the opening night roster.

Of course, there is still time so sign free agents and there are some interesting ones available even though the month of September has arrived.

We have landed at the point on the calendar when an unsigned player is more likely to sign a professional tryout (PTO) and not an actual contract for the upcoming season. That gives them an invitation to training camp but without the guarantee of being on the team when the regular season begins.

The Canadiens have done this before, and it ended up being quite successful. They invited Tomas Fleischmann to training camp in 2015. He signed an actual contract on October 4th, just before the regular season began after impressing in the preseason. He would score ten goals and 20 points in 57 games as a third line player and then get traded, with Dale Weise, to the Chicago Blackhawks for Phillip Danault and a second round pick that would become Alexander Romanov, who would become a 15th overall pick, which would become Kirby Dach… or something like that.

Either way, they added some free depth just before a bad season and turned it into a good prospect and a second round pick. Could they do that again this season?

There are plenty of options still available. Let’s look at three players that would make sense to bring in on a PTO.

Jesse Puljujarvi

The Montreal Canadiens certainly don’t need to add another goaltender to their already crowded crease. Jake Allen and Sam Montembeault will be using training camp to try and prove they should keep their jobs and not be usurped by Casey DeSmith or Cayden Primeau.

On defense, there are a plethora of young blue liners that will be battling for ice time. Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris and Arber Xhekaj give the team four options on the left side. David Savard, Jonathan Kovacevic, Justin Barron and Chris Wideman are four players who could play a regular role on the right. Not to mention Gustav Lindstrom who could find a role.

If the Canadiens are going to add another player, it would make the most sense to add someone up front. Having moved out a couple of veterans via trade, and allowed Jonathan Drouin and Denis Gurianov to leave as free agents, they are down a handful of veteran wingers.

Jesse Puljujravi is the type of player that fits what the Canadiens have been building recently. They gave opportunities to high draft picks that had not figured it all out like Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook and Gurianov. They could try again with Puljujarvi.

The 25 year old right winger was a fourth overall draft pick but hasn’t piled up the points in the NHL the way he did in other leagues. He scored just 16 points in 75 games last season, but continues to show excellent analytics and is a smart, defensively aware winger that routinely is on the ice for more scoring chances for than against.

He finished last season on the injured reserve, and that situation remains a bit cloudy, but if he is healthy enough to play in September, it would make a lot of sense to bring him in and see if he can play a two-way role and earn a low income contract for the season.

Max Comtois

Like Puljujarvi, Max Comtois is a young winger that has shown some upside, but definitely struggled last season.

Comtois was a second round pick of the Anaheim Ducks and is still just 24 years old. He had nine goals and 19 points in 64 games last season, which was not his best work. He also had six goals and 16 points in 52 games the season prior, which means two consecutive seasons of low offense.

Before that though, Comtois had what appeared to be a massive breakout season. In 2020-21, the Longueuil, Quebec native scored 16 goals and 17 assists for 33 points in 55 games. He was just 22 at the time and seemed to be headed for a top-six winger role for a long time.

Not only was he putting up decent offensive numbers at a young age, but at 6’2” and 210 pounds, the left winger showed a toughness and gritty style that made him a difficult player to play against.

Could he bounce back and find a bit more of that offense? Or could he be a low-cost gamble to play on a fourth line and add some depth to the organization for the inevitable injuries that seem to really pile up in Montreal? Why not? He is the right age for general manager Kent Hughes to target and could find a bit more offense in his late-20’s and become a solid two-way player that fits onto a second or third line for many years to come.

Tomas Tatar

While Comtois is from the area and may be interested in playing for the Canadiens, Tomas Tatar has actually suited up in Montreal for three seasons. He played excellent two-way hockey with the Habs and was a huge surprise after arriving as basically a cap dump in the Max Pacioretty trade.

Tatar lined up with Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher for most of those three seasons and formed a terrific defensive trio that could put up plenty of points as well. Tatar scored 25 goals and a career high 58 points in his first season in Montreal and then topped it by following that season up with 61 points in just 68 games in 2019-20.

His final season in Montreal was not quite as good as he scored ten goals and 30 points in 50 games before becoming a frequent healthy scratch in the playoffs. While he may have a sour taste in his mouth from that run, and he eventually left that offseason as a free agent, there are new coaches, general managers and many new players in Montreal these days.

One teammate that remains was his most frequent linemate and that is Brendan Gallagher. The gritty right winger has struggled the past two seasons (not ironically since Tatar left) and could use a boost in the arm to try and get his career back on track.

Bringing in Tatar for training camp to see if him and Gallagher still have that chemistry might give them both a real chance to play their best this season. Tatar did score 20 goals and 48 points last season, so it seems odd he hasn’t caught on anywhere.

Perhaps he could launch a PTO with the Canadiens into a contract, even if not in Montreal where there are many wingers already, then somewhere else that has an injury that leads to an opening on their top nine.

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