Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, NHL, Marc Bergevin, Free Agent, Claude Julien, Max Domi, Josh Anderson, Trevor Timmins, Brendan Gallagher, Kaiden Guhle, Joel Edmundson
ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — It has been a busy week around the National Hockey League (NHL) as the Entry Draft took place virtually on Tuesday and Wednesday, and free agency began on Friday.
The first round of the draft on Tuesday went relatively smoothly, while the balance of the rounds on Wednesday took over six hours to complete. It was a long day for everyone involved, and let’s hope that the NHL won’t need to run next year’s event in these difficult conditions.
Canadiens Draft
The Canadiens used eight of the 10 draft picks that they had entering the day. The first round pick (16th overall) that Marc Bergevin had said that he would be willing to trade to improve the team immediately was kept and used to draft defenseman Kaiden Guhle from the Western Hockey League.
“We like a lot of things about his game: his leadership, his skating, his size, his mobility, his character, he’s won before. For us that was very appealing not to pass,” said Bergevin on the 6-foot-3 inch defenseman. The general manager also added that they project Guhle to have an important role on the team within the next four years.
“[Guhle] has the upside to be a horse and to log a ton of minutes and play in every situation, and rise up the charts on our depth chart and play for a heck of long time for us and help us win in the playoffs,” Trevor Timmins said in an interview on TSN 690. “We believe Guhle has the potential to be a core player for us down the road.”
“I’m a very physical, very good skating two-way defenseman. I like to be hard on other team’s best players, I like to make a good first pass, jump into the rush, use my skating to my advantage,” Guhle said when asked to scout himself.
“We we’re able to draft a lot of target players,” said Timmins on the team’s draft class. “We added some size, some strength, some goal scoring, people that are hard to play against.”
Joseph Whalen and Rick Stephens reviewed all of Montreal’s selections on the Canadiens Connection podcast at the link found at the end of the article.
Domi Traded
We all had our doubts whether Max Domi would still be with the organization for the start of the 2020-21 season, and we got the answer on Tuesday, when he was traded to Columbus along with a third draft pick in return for Josh Anderson.
At the conclusion of the postseason, Domi erased the mention of Montreal from his social media accounts, and fired his agent Pat Brisson. It’s the second time that Brisson, a close friend of Bergevin, was fired by a Canadiens player (coincidentally both named Max) before eventually getting traded.
Bergevin and Domi’s new agent Darren Ferris both played the public relations game well prior to the trade. Bergevin had mentioned that Domi would get the ice time if he earned it during training camp, while Ferris stated that his client would play any position that his coach wanted, including goalie.
In the postseason, Domi was used as the team’s fourth line center behind Philip Danault, Nick Suzuki, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. It was a decision that raised questions, especially when the team struggled to put the puck in the net.
“It was a super-weird situation,” Domi said. “I’d be lying to you if I said I knew what was really going on. There wasn’t a lot of communication there. I was just trying to figure out what was going on. I wasn’t really told why or what I had to do to work my way up (the lineup), so … that’s just how the game goes. I’m not the coach. I was put in certain situations and, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to help the team as much as I would have liked to.”
“During the two seasons that he was here, there was communication from the coaching staff with Max, and I spoke to Max a couple of times,” responded Bergevin when asked about Domi’s comments. “To say that Max never received communication from the coaches is false.”
The former Canadien also mentioned that he didn’t have an exit meeting at the conclusion of the season. “We lost in Toronto and a lot of players left really early the following morning. In a normal world, the players usually stay in town and you have two to three days to talk, but that wasn’t the case [this year], so it’s really easy to explain,” explained the general manager.
Size
The Canadiens theme of the off-season has been to add size to their roster. I’m sure that the word ‘SIZE’ is plastered in Bergevin’s home office, and specifically in capital letters to emphasize the goal.
Josh Anderson at 6-foot-3-inches and 222 pounds meets the criteria. Bergevin’s other significant acquisition Joel Edmundson at 6-foot-4-inches and 215 pounds also checks off that box. It was even a focus at the draft.
“I wouldn’t say there was a direct focus,” answered Timmins when asked if size was a target. “Everybody knows we have a smaller team, we’re trying to become bigger, but at the same time we’re not going to pass over skill, and talent, or skating.”
Anderson Contract
The two sides didn’t waste any time to agree to terms, as Anderson signed a seven-year contract extension on Thursday that has an average annual value of $5.5 million. The dollar amount attached to the contract seems fair, while there’s some concern on the length of the deal. Anderson had leverage in the negotiations as he had the option of becoming an unrestricted free agent (UFA) at the end of the 2020-21 season.
“I was open to anything. It just happened so fast, but the seven years is what we were kinda looking for because the UFA was next year,” said Anderson.
“There’s always a risk when you sign a player long term. To sit here and say there’s no risk, there isn’t a single GM who will say the same thing, but it was a risk we were willing to take,” Bergevin said about the duration of the contract.
Gallagher’s next
I expect that Bergevin’s next significant move will be to sign Brendan Gallagher to a contract extension. Gallagher’s current contact, which expires at the end of the upcoming season, has an average annual value of $3.75 million.
The Canadiens general manager recently told RDS in an interview that Gallagher has earned a long term contract and that he will be the team’s highest paid forward. Jonathan Drouin and Anderson are currently the highest paid forwards with an average annual value of $5.5 million.
Canadiens Connection podcast
These issues and other current Habs topics were discussed on this week’s episode of the Canadiens Connection. Listen and subscribe!
By Chris G., Senior Writer
All Habs Hockey Magazine
Copyright © 2020 Rocket Sports