The Montreal Canadiens and Dissecting the Dvorak Disaster

Marc Bergevin is one of the most divisive General Managers in the recent history of the Montreal Canadiens. He made some great moves, some not-so-great moves, and some awful moves. Generally, Bergevin's regime was very poor for drafting but made some pretty good swaps. And one of the last moves Bergevin made was acquiring Christian Dvorak from the Arizona Coyotes.

Christian Dvorak

First off, a little history on Christian Dvorak. Dvorak played junior with the London Knights, and was drafted in the second round, 58th overall in 2014. The pick was acquired by the Arizona Coyotes from the Chicago Blackhawks for a prospect that never made the NHL (Mathieu Brisebois) and fringe NHLer David Runblad, who's career highlights are that he was traded for the pick that became Vladimir Tarasenko.

After a lackluster OHL debut, Dvorak lit the league up in the next two years as a member of the Knights. In the 2014-15 season, Dvorak scored 41 goals and 109 points in 66 games. The next year, Dvorak made another step up, scoring 52 goals and 121 points in 59 games.

Unfortunately, Dvorak never found that level of offensive production in the NHL with the Arizona Coyotes. Dvorak never broke the 20 goal plateau in the NHL, and never over 40 points. His 2018-19 season was also cut very short by a pectoral muscle injury, limiting him to just 20 games.

Despite the lack of high-end offensive production, Dvorak began being known for his defensive play and face-off acumen. Its also worth mentioning that he was playing with the Arizona Coyotes, one of the worst teams in the league at the time.

After 2021, the Arizona Coyotes were restarting their perpetual rebuild once again, and were looking to trade any established NHL talent for draft picks. And it just so happened that a certain NHL team just lost a lot of centre depth.

The Montreal Canadiens

In 2021, the Montreal Canadiens had reached the peak, only to stumble at the very top. The Habs were soundly beaten by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 5 games in the Stanley Cup Final. Unfortunately, reaching that spot cost the team pretty much everything.

First of all, the Canadiens lost a lot of veteran players to injury to never return. Franchise cornerstone Carey Price suffered a career-ending injury, only playing a handful of games the next year. Captain Shea Weber never played another NHL game (and is now, in fact, a member of the Coyotes/Utah Hockey Club).

But, going to the Stanley Cup Final comes with the Stanley Cup tax. Usually, it just affects the winning team, but even making the Final can also drive up the prices of players looking for new contracts.

And two of those players were centres: Philip Danault and Jesperi Kotkaniemi.

Danault was a young centre struggling to make a name for himself in the Chicago Blackhawks system and was bought low by the Canadiens, who made him into one of the best shutdown centres in the entire league.

Danault played frequently with Max Pacioretty when he was on the team, but later formed a first line with Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Tatar. That line was among the best in the entire league at tilting the ice in their favour, up there with superstar lines like Boston's Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak.

In the 2021 playoff run, Danault shut down the likes of Auston Matthews, Mark Scheifele (for two games), and Mark Stone. The line was a match-up nightmare and was a big reason why the Habs were able to make it as far as they did.

In 2018, Danault signed a 3 year deal with the Canadiens for just over $3 million for 3 years. Since then, Danault had become the #1 centre for the team, and had grown in the minds of the entire league, and was due for a big payday.

But, Danault wasn't the offensive star that many people wanted, and his numbers were never near the top of the league, points-wise. Marc Bergevin didn't want to pay Danault quite as well as the market demanded, and the Canadiens #1 centre was signed with the Los Angeles Kings.

Then there was Jesperi.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi was drafted in 2018, third overall, just before Brady Tkachuk. It was a questionable move, as Kotkaniemi was a late riser that year, and Tkachuk was seen to be a better prospect, but as a centre, Kotkaniemi could fit the hole the team had better at the time.

The next offseason, the Montreal Canadiens offer sheeted young Carolina Hurricanes star Sebastian Aho. That might seem a little off-topic, but if you know, you know, and that offer sheet would impact the Canadiens and Kotkaniemi years later.

After the 2021 run, Kotkaniemi had become a restricted free agent, and Bergevin had to make a decision to make. Since making the league in 2018-19, Kotkaniemi had stayed in the league, but struggled to produce at a high level.

A new contract never came, and Kotkaniemi was offer sheeted by the Carolina Hurricanes, years later, as a direct retiliation for the Aho sheet, referencing Aho's jersey number in Kotkaniemi's new contract. It was an absurd contract, and the Canadiens didn't match it, and let Kotkaniemi walk.

The Trade

So, the Montreal Canadiens had a big hole in centre, and got a couple of draft picks for the Kotkaniemi offer sheet, and the Arizona Coyotes had a centre that had NHL experience and wanted draft picks.

The Montreal Canadiens acquired Dvorak from the Arizona Coyotes for a 1st round pick in 2022 and a 2nd round pick in 2024. Those draft picks became Filip Bystedt and Alfons Freij.

On the Arizona side, Bystedt was flipped with a couple of other picks for the pick that became Connor Geekie, and Freij's pick has been bounced around, and he was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets, coming in as part of the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade.

On the flip side, Dvorak has remained with the Montreal Canadiens, even though you might not remember it.

Looking back at reactions at the time, the trade was seen as a good move. Dvorak was still under contract for a few years, was still young with NHL experience, and was seen as a direct upgrade over Jesperi Kotkaniemi for a fraction of the price.

That was the big talking point at the time. Comparing the trade of Dvorak with the signing of Kotakniemi, and yes, comparing the two, the Montreal Canadiens did do better than the Hurricanes. Kotkaniemi has produced better in Carolina than he did in Montreal and has outperformed Dvorak offensively, but that cap hit is an awful lot, and Carolina has a much better team than Montreal.

Dvorak in the meantime, has been an unobjective failure in Montreal. He has yet to play a full season with the team, maxing out at 64 games and has not scored more than 11 goals, and 33 points. Those numbers aren't as good as the ones he was putting up in Arizona, let alone good enough to warrant his contract.

And to make it worse, young centres like Owen Beck and especially Oliver Kapanen are coming up, and threatening to steal a roster spot. Especially Kapanen, who has had a fantastic preseason so far, and outside of the name, age and contract, would be on the team over Dvorak this year.

So, is it completely over for Dvorak? I think it's hard to see much improvement in him at this point in his career. Hopefully, the increased competition will put a fire under Dvorak and will bring his production back on track. Nobody wants a player to fail, but if you are keeping Dvorak on the team over an objectively better player like Kapanen.