Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, NHL, Nick Suzuki, Paul Byron, Mattias Norlinder, Marc Bergevin, Jeff Petry, Brendan Gallagher

Jake Evans, David Savard (Photo by Canadiens.com)ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | MONTREAL, QC. — This is your one-stop destination every week day for your Canadiens news capsule. Here are your Habs Headlines!

GAME DAY: MTL @TOR

The Montreal Canadiens open the 2021-22 regular season tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET.

Watch for our full game preview available on Wednesday afternoon. And post-game we will publish a comprehensive game recap for you.

Be sure to bookmark AllHabs.net and visit often.

Extension for Suzuki

The Canadiens signed forward Nick Suzuki to an eight-year, contract extension worth $63 million. The deal will begin next season and run from 2022-23 to 2029-30 with an average annual value of $7.875 million. The contract includes a 10-team no-trade list beginning in 2026-27.

“We are very happy to secure Nick’s services for the next eight seasons,” said general manager Marc Bergevin.

“I love the city of Montreal, I love playing, I love being a Canadien, and to do that, hopefully for the next nine years, is something I’m really looking forward to,” said Suzuki. “It’s huge for me and my family, and we’re really happy that it all worked out.”

“We believe in his development. We’ve already seen him take steps forward since he’s been with us, and we also know what he can bring in the future,” said Dominique Ducharme. “We believe he’ll continue to grow as a player and a leader.”

Lines / Pairings / Goalies

On Tuesday morning, the Canadiens practiced at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard just prior to boarding a charter to Toronto.

These were the forward lines, defence pairings and goaltenders:

Tyler Toffoli – Nick Suzuki – Cole Caufield
Jonathan Drouin – Christian Dvorak – Josh Anderson
Joel Armia – Jake Evans – Brendan Gallagher
Artturi Lehkonen – Mathieu Perreault – Cedric Paquette
Alex Belzile – Ryan Poehling

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry
Ben Chiarot – David Savard
Alexander Romanov – Chris Wideman
Sami Niku

Jake Allen – Samuel Montembeault

Injury Update

Canadiens forward Paul Byron and defenceman Mattias Norlinder skated prior to practice with therapy staff as they each rehab from injuries.

Here is the Canadiens current injury list:

Mike Hoffman (lower-body) – one week
Joel Edmundson (undisclosed) – two weeks
Mattias Norlinder (lower-body) – indeterminate
Carey Price (player assistance program) – early November
Paul Byron (hip) – end of December
Shea Weber (multiple injuries) – out for the season

Depth Chart Ratings

From the folks at The Athletic, this graphic represents the Canadiens roster rated by Game Score Value Added (GSVA.) Using this metric, the Habs forwards are ranked 18th in the league, defence are ranked 19th and the goaltenders are ranked 19th. Overall, the team is ranked 19th in the NHL using GSVA.

The Canadiens best players according to GSVA are Brendan Gallagher and Jeff Petry while the worst are Cedric Paquette and Chris Wideman.

Listen to the Canadiens Connection podcast

Current Habs topics were discussed on this week’s episode of the Canadiens Connection podcast. Listen, share and subscribe!

All Habs Hockey Magazine
Copyright © 2021 Rocket Sports