Montreal Canadiens Sign Gianni Fairbrother
The Montreal Canadiens have signed prospect Gianni Fairbrother to a three-year, entry-level contract which will begin in the 2021-22 season. The deal carries an average annual value of $848K. The window to sign drafted players for next season opened today, meaning this is likely the first of many deals announced in the next few weeks.
Fairbrother, 20, was the team’s third-round pick in 2019, 77th overall. He has played three games for the Laval Rocket this season, registering his first point at the professional level. Just yesterday, Fairbrother was sent back to the WHL where he will play the shortened season with his Everett Silvertips.
If he had not signed a deal by June, his draft rights would have expired. The two-way defenseman had strong numbers last season, recording 25 points in just 37 games for the Silvertips, but missed the second half of the year due to injury.
WHL Notes: NHL Loans, Guenther, Knak
The Western Hockey League is finally back in action. Nearly a year since the top junior league canceled the remainder of its 2019-20 season due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the WHL has returned to play. The league announced a 24-game season back in early January with a to-be-determined late-February start date and that date was Friday, as four Central Division teams matched up. As one might expect, the re-opening of the WHL has a number of previously displaced players rushing back to their respective teams. Below are the signed NHL prospects who had been playing in the AHL that have been officially reassigned to the WHL:
Adam Beckman, Minnesota Wild –> Spokane Chiefs
Gianni Fairbrother, Montreal Canadiens –> Everett Silvertips
Kaiden Guhle, Montreal Canadiens –> Prince Albert Raiders
Ridly Greig, Ottawa Senators –> Brandon Wheat Kings
Ozzy Wiesblatt, San Jose Sharks –> Prince Albert Raiders
Tristen Robins, San Jose Sharks –> Saskatoon Blades
- The WHL season may only be one day old, but the league’s leading scorer is a name to know. Dylan Guenther, a consensus top-ten prospect in the 2021 NHL Draft, started his campaign with the Edmonton Oil Kings with a pair of goals and a pair of assists to take the WHL’s top scoring spot. Guenther is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the WHL’s return, however brief, if the NHL does not postpone the 2021 draft. The top prospect was facing the possibility of missing out on his entire draft year, having only played in four games in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. While many CHL players jumped to the USHL this season, Guenther held out hope that the WHL would return and is now rewarded with 24 games to show what he can do. Likely a top-ten pick either way, the lack of certainty in this NHL draft class will now allow Guenther to fight his way into the top-five and potentially even to the top overall spot with an elite performance. A supremely skilled scoring winger, Guenther is the biggest name to watch in the WHL’s shortened season.
- Another name to watch is Swiss forward Simon Knak. Despite some expectation that he would be selected last year in his first NHL Draft go-round, Knak slipped through the cracks. That was despite finding success in his first season in North America, recording 34 points in 49 games for the Portland Winterhawks. However, the draft dream is still alive. Knak has spent this season back home in Switzerland, suiting up for powerhouse HC Davos at the top level of the Swiss National League. He held his own too, recording eight points in 25 games in his first pro experience. Knack very easily could have stayed in Davos and continued his pro career. However, possibly inspired by his recent success as well as a strong run as captain of Switzerland’s U-20 team, Knak has decided to stay true to his plans and head back to Portland. Davos announced that Knak has been recalled from his loan and is returning to the WHL, hoping to catch the eye of NHL scouts by playing a top role for the Winterhawks. The question is whether he can do enough in a shortened season to earn a selection as an overage pick.
Poll: Was Firing Claude Julien The Right Decision?
The Montreal Canadiens have made the first coaching change of the season, firing veteran bench boss Claude Julien and replacing him, at least for now, with Dominique Ducharme. Julien was hired by the Canadiens in 2017 after being let go by the Boston Bruins, inking a new expensive five-year deal with Montreal. He didn’t make it through that full contract (it has a year left), but his tenure there wasn’t actually all that unsuccessful. Sure, the Canadiens didn’t make it very deep in the postseason, but they did get there in two of his four chances.
Overall, the Canadiens were 129-113-35 under Julien this time around, but back-to-back losses against the Ottawa Senators eventually sealed his fate. General manager Marc Bergevin told reporters including Arpon Basu of The Athletic today that when the Canadiens had last week off between games, he gave Julien and his staff the benefit of the doubt that he would turn things around. Three straight losses out of the break obviously showed things hadn’t changed, so he made the move to give the younger Ducharme a chance.
The former CHL Coach of the Year has obviously been groomed for this role and will be given the rest of the 2020-21 season to make his case to continue as head coach into the future. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that Bergevin won’t even be reaching out to other coaching candidates for the time being, giving Ducharme his chance instead. LeBrun also notes that Gerard Gallant, who has been thrown around as a potential replacement in Montreal, would not be willing to take an associate or assistant coach role–he’s waiting for a head coaching position.
Even though Julien’s recent history wasn’t great, it’s important to remember just how successful he’s been as a coach in the NHL. His overall record of 667-445-10-152 gives him a .587 points percentage, meaning his teams average over 96 points a season. He sits 13th on the all-time wins list and lifted the Stanley Cup as head coach of the Bruins in 2011.
Was it the right move for Montreal? Will this be able to turn their season around, given how readily available a playoff spot seems in the North Division? Is Ducharme the right coach to lead them moving forward? Vote on the poll below and make sure you leave your thoughts in the comment section.
Was firing Claude Julien the right move?
-
No 52% (782)
-
Yes 41% (616)
-
It's complicated (leave thoughts in comments) 6% (97)
Total votes: 1,495
[Mobile users click here to vote]
Claude Julien Fired By Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens have made a change behind the bench, relieving head coach Claude Julien and associate coach Kirk Muller of their duties. Dominique Ducharme, who had been serving as an assistant, will serve as interim head coach, while Alexandre Burrows has joined the coaching staff. Luke Richardson and Stephane Waite will retain their respective duties with the staff.
GM Marc Bergevin released a statement:
I would like to sincerely thank Claude and Kirk for their contributions to our team over the past five years during which we worked together. I have great respect for these two men whom I hold in high regard. In Dominique Ducharme, we see a very promising coach who will bring new life and new energy to our group. We feel that our team can achieve high standards and the time had come for a change.
Earlier in the season, the Canadiens appeared ready to challenge for the top spot in the North Division, with a high-powered offense led by newcomers Tyler Toffoli and Josh Anderson. Unfortunately, some of that offense has dried up and the team has come apart at the seams, losing back-to-back games against the Ottawa Senators. Those two losses certainly punctuate a drop in play, but it was obvious for some time that the Canadiens weren’t as good as their early-season results.
They had the Vancouver Canucks number especially, but against non-Vancouver teams, the Canadiens had just a 5-5-3 record on the year. Recently, the coach had made drastic moves to try and spark the team like scratching Tomas Tatar, the team’s 2019-20 scoring leader. When that didn’t work, the hammer had to come down on someone and it turned out to be Julien.
It’s not like Ducharme has no experience running a bench though. The interim coach was an incredibly successful junior coach, winning the CHL Coach of the Year award in 2013. He has been the head coach of Canada’s World Junior team twice, winning gold in 2018. This will be, however, his first time as a head coach in the NHL. Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports reports that there is not another change expected before the end of the season.
For Julien, the term “relieved of duties” was used because he has one more year on his contract at $5MM, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. That means any team hoping to hire Julien will need to approach the Canadiens and negotiate a deal to pay at least some of that remaining salary. Otherwise, Montreal will pay him to stay at home for the next year.
If the old hockey adage of “show me a good coach and I’ll show you a good goalie” is true, perhaps it is the opposite that has cost Julien his job. Although Carey Price has looked rejuvenated at times this season, the simple fact is that he’s not stopping the puck enough for the Canadiens to contend each night. Price has just an .893 save percentage on the season and though some of that can be attributed to the play in front of him, his numbers have been trending down for several seasons now—not to mention Jake Allen‘s .932 behind the same team. If Ducharme is to turn the Canadiens around this season (or in any of the next five), that performance has to improve.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
AHL Announces Full 2020-21 Schedule For Canadian Clubs
Over a month since the AHL released the regular season schedules for its American teams and more than three weeks since those same teams started playing, the league has finally announced a full season schedule for its Canadian contingent. Of course, the clubs already began play over the course of the past week, but were operating on a limited schedule of just a few games. They now have a full slate to look forward to.
Like their American counterparts, the Canadian teams will all wrap up their regular seasons in mid-May. While the previously-released schedule ended on May 14, this new schedule has games up through May 16. Unlike the American teams, the Canadian clubs will all play the same amount of games. Though home and away splits differ, the Belleville Senators, Laval Rocket, Manitoba Moose, and Toronto Marlies will each play 36 games apiece.
The exception to all of this is the odd duck team of this AHL season: the Stockton Heat, an American team displaced for this year by a move to Calgary, the home of their parent club. The Heat, who were the final Canadian team to get started this season, will play a much different slate than any other team in the league due to their location away from American competition but also far from their fellow Canadian teams. “Stockton” will only play 30 games, broken up into long road trips and home stands. Their regular season schedule will also come to an end on April 29, more than two weeks before the rest of the league. The Calgary Flames knew there would be negative repercussions for relocating their farm team just before the season started, but felt the transactional benefits for the NHL club outweighed the limitations to their AHL club.
Poll: NHL’s “Thanksgiving Trend” Revisited
Fans of the NHL are sure to be familiar with the deeper meaning that American Thanksgiving holds each season. With unrelenting consistency, the NHL’s standings on the final Thursday of November have had great predictive ability when compared to the final regular season standings. In fact, over the past seven years the Thanksgiving standings have been about 75% accurate at forecasting eventual playoff teams, predicting 12 of 16 spots on average. Even though American Thanksgiving only rolls around less than two months into the season, three out of four teams in a playoff spot at that time will have retained their postseason berth when the season ends.
The 2019-20 season of course did not have a standard postseason, but if it had then the Thanksgiving trend would have proved even more prophetic in a shortened campaign. Last year, in which teams were limited to between 68 and 71 games apiece prior to the early termination of the regular season, the Thanksgiving standings would have predicted 13 of 16 playoff teams in the standard format. Of the three teams that would have slid out of the postseason, the Florida Panthers trailed the Toronto Maple Leafs by .014 points percentage in the Atlantic Division and the Winnipeg Jets missed out by a measly .001 points percentage behind the Calgary Flames as the final Western Conference wild card. The Thanksgiving standings were that close to predicting 15 of 16 playoff teams in the shortened season, with the unexpected slow start for the Vegas Golden Knights and hot start for the Arizona Coyotes being the other unsurprising course correction.
But how does this trend impact a season that didn’t even begin until well after American Thanksgiving? Based on total games played by Thanksgiving over the past few seasons, Thanksgiving represents about the 30% progress through the NHL season. In the current 56-game season, that comes out to about the 17-game mark. Although postponements and rescheduling have created a wide discrepancy in games played among teams this year, the league as a whole passed that 17-game average on Saturday: Happy Thanksgiving. Admittedly, the 2020-21 campaign does have a different playoff model as well, one that is somewhat stricter than the last few years without the fallback of a wildcard spot for a team on the fifth-place fringe in their division. Yet, it is still a 16-team postseason and the Thanksgiving trend should hold. Using points percentage to rank the standings (the stat may end up determining playoff position for a second consecutive season anyhow) and adjusting for the season’s makeshift divisions, here is the current “Thanksgiving” outlook:
North Division East Division
Toronto Maple Leafs (.789) Boston Bruins (.733)
Montreal Canadiens (.625) Philadelphia Flyers (.679)
Winnipeg Jets (.618) Washington Capitals (.594)
Edmonton Oilers (.600) Pittsburgh Penguins (.594)____
Calgary Flames (.472) New Jersey Devils (.583)
Vancouver Canucks (.405) New York Islanders (.559)
Ottawa Senators (.237) New York Rangers (.469)
Buffalo Sabres (.429)
West Division Central Division
Vegas Golden Knights (.700) Carolina Hurricanes (.781)
Colorado Avalanche (.679) Florida Panthers (.750)
St. Louis Blues (.611) Tampa Bay Lightning (.700)
Minnesota Wild (.571) Dallas Stars (.583)
Los Angeles Kings (.531) Chicago Blackhawks (.579)
Arizona Coyotes (.500) Columbus Blue Jackets (.526)
San Jose Sharks (.500) Nashville Predators (.412)
Anaheim Ducks (.417) Detroit Red Wings (.325)
Now this begs the question, especially seeing how accurate the Thanksgiving standings were in last year’s shortened season but also accounting for the many disruptions for a number of teams early this season, who is the trend currently overlooking? Which teams currently outside the playoff picture, if any, do you think will make the postseason when all is said and done later this season? Use the comments section below as well to discuss which teams may fall out of the postseason and whether you feel the Thanksgiving trend will apply this season.
Which Of These Teams Will Buck The "Thanksgiving" Trend And Make The Playoffs?
-
New York Islanders 23% (263)
-
Chicago Blackhawks 19% (215)
-
Los Angeles Kings 10% (110)
-
None - "Thanksgiving" goes 16/16 9% (102)
-
Columbus Blue Jackets 8% (88)
-
Calgary Flames 6% (73)
-
New Jersey Devils 6% (64)
-
New York Rangers 4% (50)
-
Arizona Coyotes 4% (42)
-
Vancouver Canucks 4% (42)
-
Buffalo Sabres 2% (25)
-
San Jose Sharks 2% (18)
-
Detroit Red Wings 1% (17)
-
Nashville Predators 1% (14)
-
Anaheim Ducks 1% (9)
-
Ottawa Senators 1% (7)
Total votes: 1,139
Canadiens Expect To Sign Cole Caufield, Jordan Harris After NCAA Season
The Montreal Canadiens have been one of the biggest surprises thus far in the 2020-21 season and their success has often been fueled by the play of their rookies and other young impact players. The team’s talent pipeline isn’t drying up any time soon either and the club expects to add a pair of top prospects to organization before the end of the current campaign. Speaking with the media today, GM Marc Bergevin all but confirmed that 2019 first-round pick Cole Caufield will turn pro at the end of his sophomore season at the University of Wisconsin. The Athletic’s Arpon Basu adds that Bergevin also noted that defenseman Jordan Harris is also expected to sign with the club when he wraps up his junior season at Northeastern University.
Caufield, 20, is easily Montreal’s best unsigned prospect and quite possibly the top non-NHL player in the organization. A record-breaking goal-scorer for the U.S. National Team Development Program, Caufield was the 15th overall pick two years ago and even that felt too low to many scouts and analysts. He has since solidified his status as a dangerous offensive weapon, posting a point-per-game season as a freshman on a disappointing Wisconsin squad last season, winning Big Ten Rookie of the Year. He spurned the pros to return for a second year, and so far that has resulted in a whopping 17 goals and 33 points in 22 games and a top NCAA ranking for the Badgers. Caufield also took home a gold medal at the World Juniors for Team USA, collecting five points along the way. Caufield has not let his small stature slow him down against the older and larger competition at the college level nor against his elite peers at the WJC. The Canadiens expect more of the same once he gets to the NHL, as Bergiven glowed about his ability and his growth this season. Basu notes that while Montreal fans will want Caufield on the NHL roster immediately, Bergevin stated that cap considerations, quarantine timelines, and roster structure will all play a part in determining where the highly-touted prospect begins his pro career.
Harris, 20, may not compete with Caufield on name value and draft stock alone, but can hold his own as a productive collegiate player and promising NHL prospect. A third-round pick in 2018 out of the New England prep school ranks, Harris is skilled, puck-moving defenseman. He made a clean jump from high school to college, recording 13 points in 39 games as a freshman for the Hockey East Champion Huskies, but has improved considerably in each of his last two seasons – 21 points in 33 games last year and 16 points and a career-high five goals through just 15 games this year. He is Northeastern’s No. 2 scorer, a locker room leader, is a big reason why the program finds itself in contention for an NCAA Tournament spot. While he may not have the immediate NHL upside of Caufield or an Alexander Romanov, Harris is another player for Habs fans to get excited about and he may even see some NHL action himself later this year if the situation is right.
Of course, the question of whether Caufield or Harris can make an impact with Montreal this season is very dependent on their NCAA schedule. The NCAA Tournament is not scheduled to begin until March 26 and for Frozen Four teams the season may not end until April 10. While the discrepancy between games played and frequent absences of players this season should make for unpredictable conference and national tournaments, both Caufield and Harris have a chance to make a deep run. Caufield’s Wisconsin Badgers are currently ranked No. 5 in the country and seem like a lock for the NCAA Tournament and a title contender. Harris’ Northeastern Huskies are currently right on the edge of qualification at No. 16, but have another month of regular season games and the Hockey East Tournament to clinch a spot. If Harris is not playing in the national tournament, he should have plenty of time to get to Canada and suit up for the AHL’s Laval Rocket or even the Canadiens over the last six weeks or so of the season. However, if either players’ season stretches deeper into April, leaving less than a month of NHL regular season games available following quarantine, there is less of a chance that they make their Montreal debut, especially Harris but potentially for Caufield as well. Fortunately, the Canadiens will get to see both players in action far beyond just the end of this season.
Five Players Clear Waivers
Despite some major names being available on the waiver wire over the past 24 hours, all five players have cleared. Montreal’s Paul Byron, Detroit’s Danny DeKeyser, and new Carolina acquisition Alex Galchenyuk were all waived for roster flexibility and will be reassigned to their respective taxi squads. Young Columbus defenseman Gabriel Carlsson has been reassigned to the taxi squad for now but will soon join the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters in order to get some play time. Boston’s Par Lindholm has signed a new contract with the SHL’s Skelleftea AIK and will see his NHL contract terminated. No new players have been placed on waivers today.
Of the group, the player who was quietly the most likely to be claimed was Carlsson. The big 24-year-old blue liner, a 2015 first-rounder, lost his waiver exemption this season and the Blue Jackets did not want to risk him on the wire earlier this season. However, through the first quarter of the campaign he has not seen any NHL game action sitting behind a deep Columbus defense corps. With the AHL season now up and running, the team opted to take the chance with Carlsson in order to get him some play time in the minors and it paid off. The stay-at-home defenseman has played in at least one game for Columbus in each of the past four seasons and will likely be back with the team at some point this year. However, the team will try to avoid another trip through waivers as they might not be so lucky a second time putting the sturdy and affordable defender back up for grabs.
Of course, the bigger names available were Byron, DeKeyser, and Galchenyuk. The Montreal Canadiens, short on cap space but not on forward talent, have been playing Byron in a checking role, making him an expensive fourth liner. The club had been trying to trade the veteran, but there were no takers on his contract despite his solid career numbers. The team hoped that Byron would clear waivers so that they could retain the player, who is absolutely still a serviceable top-nine forward, while also opening up some salary cap space by transitioning him to the taxi squad. Galchenyuk was in fact traded already and just on Saturday as a matter of fact. The skilled forward was dealt by the Ottawa Senators to the Carolina Hurricanes as part of a three-player deal. Playing on an affordable and expiring contract, Galchenyuk was a risk-free acquisition for the ‘Canes but was even more valuable if he could be stashed on the practice squad and used in case of emergency in a scoring role. Their plan succeeded and now Carolina simply has to decide whether the now-flexible Galchenyuk is worth more to them on their taxi squad or as a trade asset to flip to another team. The surprise inclusion was DeKeyser, one of the few holdovers of the most recent Detroit Red Wings’ powerhouse teams. DeKeyser has been in decline for several seasons now, but playing for a rebuilding club – especially with limited ice time this season – and dealing with injuries does not make for flattering statistics for anyone. A player who still has the support of his coaches and teammates may end up on the taxi squad but is likely to still be a prominent presence for the organization, especially with another year remaining on his current contract.
Lindholm was the outlier of the bunch. After clearing waivers earlier this season, the underutilized veteran was placed on the wire again to begin the process of a contract termination. Lindholm was not expected to be claimed and even if he had been, there still would have been a conflict with the multi-year contract he just recently signed in Sweden. Lindholm may actually be capable of being a reliable fourth line center in the NHL, but that opportunity was not available in Boston and seemingly nowhere else in the league at the current time, so the veteran will return home.
Montreal Canadiens Waive Paul Byron
In a move that was foreseeable yet is still somewhat surprising, the Montreal Canadiens have placed veteran forward Paul Byron on waivers. The team explicitly stated that their intention is for Byron to clear waivers and be assigned to the taxi squad, but that is out of their hands for the next 24 hours. The veteran forward could be claimed by a team who sees the upside in him if given the proper role and adequate ice time.
Given Montreal’s tight salary cap squeeze and the role that Byron has played this season to the tune of $3.4MM AAV, it is no surprise that the club sought a change. Byron has been forced into a checking role for the Habs as a result of a busy off-season and the emergence of several young players. His ice time is down to just 12:36 per night, a new low since he became an NHL regular in 2013-14, and he has no goals and just three assists in 14 games. The Canadiens could not afford to have a substantial amount of cap space chewed up by such production.
However, there is a reason that Montreal has been actively trying to trade Byron and is hoping that he clears waivers: the 31-year-old still has value. A versatile and hard-working forward, Byron may have meager numbers so far this year and had his production limited by injury last season, but he still has plenty of scoring potential. Byron is just two years removed from a 2018-19 season in which he recorded 31 points in just 56 games, a 45-point full-season pace. Had he played 82 games, it almost certainly would have been his third straight season of 20+ goals and 35+ points. While health is a concern, Byron has shown to be an effective forward otherwise. As Byron is signed through 2022-23 at a healthy cap hit, any team looking to claim him is surely taking a risk. For this reason, combined with the hassle for U.S. teams of moving any player from Canada to south of the border this season, Byron may very well go unclaimed. However, if a club still believes that a healthy Byron has that same 40+ point upside, then he could be a value as an experienced top-nine forward, even over the next several years.
Also on waivers today are Detroit’s Danny DeKeyser (link), Boston’s Par Lindholm (link), Columbus’ Gabriel Carlsson, and Carolina’s newly-acquired Alex Galchenyuk. Edmonton’s James Neal has cleared after being waived yesterday.
Snapshots: Tatar, Dumba, Devils, Murphy, Hamonic
The Montreal Canadiens will be without Tomas Tatar Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who is a healthy scratch, according to Sportsnet’s Eric Engels. The move made by head coach Claude Julien is believed to be a message sent to both Tatar and the team after Montreal has lost three of their last four games.
Tatar, despite having four goals and eight points in 14 games, has been adequate on the ice, but not as good as last season when he posted 22 goals and 61 points in 68 games. Engels believes that the message is meant just as much to the team as Tatar is one of the most popular players in the locker room.
The Philadelphia Flyers attempted a similar benching of leading scorer Travis Konecny on Jan. 30. Unfortunately, he has not scored a point since then.
- Corey Masisak of The Athletic reports that a New Jersey Devils team spokesman said the team will be allowed to return to practice on Monday. That will be the first time the team has been allowed on the ice since the game at Buffalo on Jan. 31. The team is currently scheduled to play on Tuesday at the New York Rangers.
- The Minnesota Wild got even more good news when they learned that defenseman Matt Dumba should be in the lineup on Tuesday when they begin playing once again after suffering what looked to be a severe ankle injury, according to Star Tribune’s Sarah McLellan. Dumba got tangled up with teammate Jordan Greenway and suffered an awkward fall on Jan. 30, but the blueliner said that he’s feeling good and has no issues regarding the injury. The 26-year-old Dumba is looking solid this season, already with three goals in just nine games this season. Teammate Mats Zuccarello is also getting closer to a return. The veteran forward practiced Friday in a non-contact jersey.
- The Chicago Blackhawks have placed defenseman Connor Murphy on injured reserve, retroactive to Feb. 9, according to NHL.com’s Brandon Cain. The blueliner was suffered a right hip injury in that game and is expected to miss up to two weeks. Murphy has been playing well for Chicago with two goals and five points in 13 games, while averaging 22:45 of ATOI.
- The Vancouver Canucks could be getting a boost back to their defense as head coach Travis Green reported that defenseman Travis Hamonic is close to returning to the team. The 30-year-old blueliner remains on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury. He has only appeared in five games with the Canucks this year with two assists, but could be a big addition if he returns soon.