The Montreal Canadiens are adding some serious goal-scoring to the top-nine, signing Mike Hoffman to a three-year contract. The deal will carry an average annual value of $4.5MM. PuckPedia reports that Hoffman will earn $3.5MM in 2021-22 and $5MM in each of the final two seasons.
Hoffman, 31, is one of the most lethal powerplay weapons in the NHL, and should immediately help Montreal with the man-advantage. Even more than that he adds another legitimate offensive weapon to a team that struggled to score goals in 2020-21. Even in a down year by his standards, Hoffman’s 17 goals would have tied him for second on the Canadiens, behind only Tyler Toffoli. His 36 points would have been behind only Toffoli and Nick Suzuki among the forwards, and more than replaces the numbers that Philipp Danault provided (though obviously not his defensive or positional abilities).
The question now is where Hoffman fits exactly, given the current makeup of the team. The Canadiens already have Toffoli, Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson, Joel Armia and Cole Caufield on the wing, not to mention Jonathan Drouin who is expected to ready to play again at the start of the upcoming season. Hoffman will have to find fit somewhere on those top three lines, or likely won’t be able to provide enough offense to offset the hefty cap hit he just received.
Still, there’s no doubt that Hoffman can score, and that alone made him an interesting target in this year’s free agency. He ranked 12th on our list of the Top 50 UFAs, with a prediction of three years and $12MM for the Canadiens.
Good player on a good deal, but where’s he playing? Habs have a ton of wingers.
nice signing and is a much needed goal scorer
Wish the Bruins jumped on this
Does the crazy gf come with him?
@wreckage – She’s not crazy! Just “a bit off”…
“I don’t deal in crazy, I deal in help. And she needs a crazy amount of help.”
Dammit, wanted him back here in STL…
Didnt he have to settle for a PTO last year? Free agency was a lot nicer to him this year
He was technically on a PTO but it was because stl was up against the cap and couldn’t sign him until the season officially started and they could bury a contract on LTIR if I recall properly.
It came with a handshake agreement for his one year contract, once Tarasenko went on LTIR
It happened again this year with Hoffman Again, I shall compare this to Pietrangelo situation it’s cause of our cap space or *Master Tarasenkos Kingdom* that forced us not to sign him I feel
This was his only 1 year deal. They signed him to a PTO in Jan until they could move some contracts to LTIR. Then they officially signed him to his 4M deal.
Yeah, he had options for sure but liked St. Louis as a destination. Obviously he likes the 3 years with the Habs.
What a poor fit , plays no def at all on a defensive team
I guess you and the entire Habs management disagree. I wonder who’s right?
Habs are building a team of real character guys! First the draft pick and now Hoffman. Sheeesh.
Hoffman never had issues. It was his gf. Not sure if they’re even still together.
Ya that was a nice deflection on his part.
C’mon man! You feminist libtards should find another platform for the movement. It’s not working with reasonable people.