TSN’s Aaron Ward was the first to tweet that defenseman Karl Alzner could be a member of the Montreal Canadiens. The deal will be for five seasons, and come in at an average annual value of $4.625MM.
The defenseman was rumored to a number of teams during the courting process and on PHR’s list, Alzner is ranked the third best UFA on the market. Though we targeted him heading to the Chicago Blackhawks, we predicted a five-year term at $24.5MM which clocks in at a $4.9MM AAV.
The Tampa Bay Lightning, another team looking to upgrade on the blueline, were apparently not targeting Alzner tweets The Tampa Times’ Joe Smith. The 28-year-old defenseman has spent his entire career with the Capitals organization, and last season, posted 13 points (3-10) in a full season’s worth of work.
He’s not an ideal fit for the Habs but that is a very good contract for the Habs.
Exactly, I thought he was going to get between 5.75-6.
When I heard the rumours that Montreal wanted him, I thought he was going to get Petry-type money, especially since the Habs generally have to pay more to offset the high Quebec taxes.