Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, NHL, Jake Allen, Marc Bergevin, Claude Julien, Allain Roy, St.Louis Blues, Salary Cap
ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — While the second round of the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs were on-going in the bubble cities, Marc Bergevin completed a trade to address one of the gaps identified by the team for the 2020-21 season.
“It’s something that we’re going to look at closely to improve the backup goalie position,” said Bergevin at his end of year press conference. “It’s a position that’s very important for the organization at this moment.” In his season-ending conference call, the backup goalie position was the first thing that Claude Julien mentioned when asked about improvements for next season.
On Wednesday, Montreal acquired goaltender Jake Allen and a seventh-round pick in 2022 from the St. Louis, in return for a third-round pick in 2020 (previously acquired from Washington) and a seventh-round pick in 2020 (previously acquired from Chicago).
Allen played 24 games with the Blues this season and posted a 12-6-3 record with a 2.15 goals-against average (GAA) and .927 save percentage (SV%), and recorded two shutouts. In five playoff appearances in this year’s postseason, Allen had a 2-1-1 record with a 1.89 GAA and a .935 save percentage.
Upgraded Tandem
This is arguably the organization’s best goalie tandem since the 2009-10 season when Price and Jaroslav Halak split the duties. Several experts have already deemed Price-Allen as the league’s best duo. I will reserve my judgement on that until all teams have a chance to prepare their 2020-21 rosters.
There has been ten goalies, not named Price, that have played at least one game with Montreal since Halak was traded, including Alex Auld, Peter Budaj, Dustin Tokarski, Charlie Lindgren, Ben Scrivens, Mike Condon, Al Montoya, Antti Niemi, Keith Kinkaid and Cayden Primeau.
In a situation where Price would be forced to miss some time due to injury, Allen could be an upgrade compared to the goalies listed above to take over and deliver results. Niemi had an impressive resume, however was clearly at the tale end of his career when he was claimed by Montreal on waivers at the age of 34.
The Canadiens have been unsuccessful in finding a backup goalie to reduce Price’s workload during the regular season. “The objective for me is to come in and make his [Price] life as easy as possible, and obviously collect some points for the group as well,” said Allen during a conference call on Wednesday.
The goaltender added that there was some discussion with management on the number of starts he would be expected to obtain, but “nothing too crazy” as Allen described. “For Jake, it’s important that he plays 30 games or more,” said Allain Roy, Allen’s agent in an interview posted on RDS.ca on Friday.
Allen Expected Change
It was no surprise to Allen that he would get traded prior to the start of 2020-21 season. “I knew coming into this off-season after we got eliminated that there was a chance that I was going to get traded. I didn’t really have an idea on where and when,” said Montreal’s newest acquisition.
“We were expecting a transaction, we had discussed it with Doug Armstrong (Blues GM),” said Roy. “We were just waiting for the destination.” The Blues are expected to give Ville Husso the opportunity to backup Jordan Binnington after spending the last four seasons in the American Hockey League (AHL).
“We were a little surprised that it happened so quickly after the season, and a little more surprised that it’s in Montreal,” added the agent.
Targeting Cap Team
In my opinion, Bergevin didn’t have to pay an expensive price to acquire Allen’s services. The third round pick that Montreal gave in the transaction was acquired earlier this season when Ilya Kovalchuk was traded to Washington. Kovalchuk was signed as a free by the Canadiens in January.
The Canadiens general manager used the available cap space to his advantage for this move. The Blues had approximately $2-million of cap space available for next season, without Alex Pietrangelo signed to a contract. Taking Allen’s $4.35-million cap hit off their salary cap will help St.Louis re-sign their defenceman that had $6.5-million cap hit on his expiring agreement.
Potential Alternatives
From the Canadiens perspective, the Price-Allen tandem will cost them $14.85-million of cap space. It’s currently the most expensive duo in the NHL. “If we can fit somebody who I feel is going to help us, yeah, I’ll definitely look at it closely,” said Bergevin at the conclusion of the season when asked if he would be willing to spend on a backup goaltender.
I think it’s safe to assume that the organization is banking on Cayden Primeau to be ready to backup Price for the 2021-22 season. Therefore, the fit that Bergevin was looking for was a goalie on a one-year contract, that they have confidence in his ability to allow Price to get some rest during the regular season.
Bergevin could have waited until the end of the current playoffs in order to test the free agent market or to explore the trade route with all of the 30 teams. If we use Allen’s 24 games played in 2019-20 as a benchmark, there are 17 free agent goalies available this off-season that played at least that amount this season. Only four goalies from that list had a higher cap hit than Jake Allen on their current contract.
From that list, Bergevin may have restricted himself by targeting a goalie who was willing to sign a one-year contract. That would likely eliminate the top-quality candidates from accepting an offer from Montreal.
In a potential trade market, there are 18 other goalies that played at least 24 games in 2019-20, and have one more season remaining on their existing contract. Only five goalies from that list have a higher cap hit than Allen.
From a basic statistical point of view, Tuuka Rask is the only goaltender from that list that had a superior goals against average and save percentage than Allen. I believe that Bergevin’s selection is a good one from those listed.
Evaluation
In terms of the quality of the player and the cost to acquire Allen, I think it was a good deal for Montreal. I don’t share the concerns that I have read from some experts and fans on the cap hit that came along the newest acquisition.
The Canadiens currently have approximately $14-million in cap space remaining with 17 players signed, which I believe allows Bergevin enough room to sign his restricted free agents and make changes to the roster.
The last time that the organization spent near the cap ceiling was in 2016-17, when the final cap space used was $470,952 below the maximum ranking Montreal 12th in league spending. Since that year, the Canadiens have under-spent by $7,191,612 in 2017-18 (26th), $8,035,991 in 2018-19 (24th), and $4,434,686 in 2019-20 (26th).
With what it certainly looks like the team is on a budgeted payroll and the expected decreased in revenues due to the pandemic, it would be doubtful that they spend to the cap in 2020-21.
All salary cap figures courtesy of CapFriendly
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By Chris G., Senior Writer
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