By Stevo, AllHabs.net

MONTREAL, QC. — The pieces of the puzzle are slowly starting to fall into place for the Montreal Canadiens, and as I stated in a recent column, you should expect next season’s Habs roster to look a lot like it did this season, barring a few exceptions of course.

The NHL entry draft was just this past Friday, and the Canadiens used this opportunity to build up some depth at the defenseman position, acquiring five defensemen with its seven picks, including first-round draft choice, Nathan Beaulieu. Charlotte who occasionally writes for AllHabs.net put together the following which should give everyone a better idea of the Canadiens draft picks this year, Genuine Draft: My Opinion on Nathan Beaulieu (and the Other Guys).

First, here’s a quick links recap of the Montreal Canadiens’ off-season signings so far:

• Rafael Diaz signed by Habs
• Habs Sign Yemelin to One-year Contract
• Habs Sign Nattinen to Three-year Contract
• Habs Sign Gill to One-Year Deal
• Andrei Kostitsyn Scores a One-Year Contract
• Habs Sign Darche to One-year Deal
• Pacioretty Signs Two-year Deal with Habs
• Habs Sign Desharnais to Two-year Contract
• Habs sign Andrei Markov to a three-year contract

Josh Gorges, Yannick Weber and Ryan White all received qualifying offers from the Canadiens, all are restricted free agents. Same goes for Hamilton Bulldog players Mathieu Carle, Frederic St-Denis and Ryan Russel.  The restricted free agent process must now take its course.

As for Benoit Pouliot, Alexandre Picard and Tom Pyatt, neither receive a qualifying offer and will therefore become unrestricted free agents as of July 1st.

On the unrestricted free agent side, with the Markov signing now a done deal, it’s become quite clear that the chances of James Wisniewski returning with the Habs next season is all but null. As for Jeff Halpern, Roman Hamrlik, Brent Sopel and Paul Mara, all should also become unrestricted as of July 1st, and I would be surprised to see them again in a Habs’ jersey.

With the NHL salary cap having been moved up to $64,300,000 next season, this means the Canadiens now find themselves in the following cap situation:

• Salary Cap:  $64,300,000
• Current Payroll:  $49,495,510
• Cap Space:  $14,804,490

The current payroll is spread over 16 players, which means the remaining cap space can be used to sign up to seven remaining players.

habsgirl4life recently gave us a quick glimpse of the free agent market in her column entitled, Your Thoughts and Mine on Free Agency. I myself would like to take an in-depth look at the goaltender situation in Montreal, and who Pierre Gauthier should aim to have as Carey Price’s backup for next season.

First, let’s look at what we have within the organization.

Alex Auld deserves all the credit in the world but he is close to non-existant in Montreal. I see many people throwing lists of potential goaltender candidates around, but few include Auld on that list.

For a guy who many expected absolutely nothing from, he managed to only put up two regulation time losses on his record, starting in twelve games, while participating in sixteen. His record was 6-2-2, with a goals against average (GAA) of 2.64, while maintaining a save percentage (Sv%) of 0.914%. Respectable stats for someone who played so little.  Let’s put this in our back pocket for a second while we explore other options.

Now let’s touch on the AHL a little bit because the name of Curtis Sanford, is one I’ve often seen come back in conversations as potential candidate for backup to Carey Price, but can he fulfill that role? He’s certainly proven he can fill that role at the AHL level, let’s look at his stats these past two seasons.

• 2009-2010, 41 GP, 2.13 GAA, 0.916 Sv% | Playoffs: 9 GP, 2.02 GAA, 0.925 Sv%
• 2010-2011, 40 GP, 1.93 GAA, 0.930 Sv% | Playoffs: Injured.

On paper, this looks great, barring the recent injury that prevented him from playing in the playoffs. Not only were his stats great in the first of the two seasons, including the playoffs, but he came back this last season with even better stats, finishing the season with a GAA under 2, and a Sv% of 0.930%, stats which were unheard of at a time.

I’ve seen Sanford, and when I observe him play, for different reasons, he gives me that impression as the type of goaltender that can remain very effective in the AHL, but i’m not convinced, not yet anyways, that he can be effective in the fastest league on this planet. Primarily, I would say that in the few times where I have seen him play, his ability to recover after making the first save is what struck me as a little lacking in his game. What I mean by this is that very often, when giving up a rebound, he will be out of position for the second shot, which can be very less forgiving at the NHL level. I digress.

Next up we have Drew MacIntyre who ended last season with the Bulldogs, leading them as far as he could in the playoffs. First, with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL, in 20GP, he maintained a GAA of 2.91, and a Sv% of 0.906%. With the Bulldogs however, his numbers drastically improved, as he finished the season with a GAA of 1.89, and a Sv% of 0.938% in just 20GP. In the playoffs, due to Sanford’s injury, he surprised everyone playing 20 games, and finishing with a GAA of 1.95, and a Sv% of 0,930%. One to keep our eye on.

Than we have Peter Delmas who played the greater part of last season with the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL, and also Robert Mayer who had 21 starts with the Hamilton Bulldogs, but both are clearly not ready for any type of role at the NHL level.

With how the goaltenders have developed this last season, I would not be surprised to see Curtis Sanford get released to free agency, and see the Bulldogs go with Drew MacIntyre as their man, and let Peter Delmas and Robert Mayer fight for the backup position. Time will tell.

If we move to the NHL, and look at which goaltenders could become available this July 1st, we see the following names as potential candidates:

New Jersey Devils – Johan Hedberg:

• $1,500,000 last season. 38 years old. Never had great stats. Played +33 games in his last four seasons. No thanks.

Minnesota Wild – Jose Theodore:

• $1,100,000 last season. 34 years old. Played +32 games in his last three seasons. Too much history in Montreal. Don’t need the distractions. No thanks.

Chicago Blackhawks – Marty Turco:

• $1,300,000 last season. 35 years old. Has been on the decline in past three seasons. He needs a lifeline, the Habs don’t need to be the one offering it. No thanks.

Toronto Maple Leafs – Jean-Sebastien Giguere:

• NEXT.

Columbus Blue Jackets – Mathieu Garon:

• $1,200,000 last season. 33 years old. Although inconsistent at times, he’s shown us some wonderful displays in Columbus these last two seasons playing almost half the games. Probably looking to play more, not less. Unlikely he’s willing to sign for less than what he made last season. Interesting candidate, but very unlikely.

St. Louis Blues – Ty Conklin:

• $1,300,000 last season. 35 years old. One item stands out when looking at Conklin’s career stats, when he doesn’t play much, he doesn’t play well. No thanks.

Tampa Bay Lightning – Dwayne Roloson:

• $2,500,000 last season. 41 years old. Do I really need to keep going? He had a great playoff run, tip of the hat, but that’s as far as I will go on the subject. No thanks.

When it’s all said and done, I really don’t see there being a better candidate out there, than the one we already have, the one who accepted his role with tremendous class this season, one who never argued about his ice time, and that is obviously Alex Auld. I gave him no credit at all, and very much questioned the Canadiens for signing him last season, but after the fact, he played his role better than most anticipated.

At a cool $1,000,000 last season and still only 30 years old, what’s the point of looking elsewhere? Is there a need to find a better backup goaltender than Alex Auld?

Out with the Auld, in with the new? I say no, we can keep the Auld, and use the new elsewhere.