Montreal Canadiens Sign Tyler Toffoli
The Montreal Canadiens have landed one of the top remaining free agents, agreeing to terms with Tyler Toffoli to a four-year contract worth a total of $17MM. That gives Toffoli a $4.25MM average annual value, actually a little lower than the $4.6MM cap hit he has carried the last three seasons and well below what most believed he would receive this off-season. The deal also does not contain any trade protection.
Toffoli, 28, has settled for a multi-year deal that pays him market value for his floor, but not close to his ceiling. Toffoli is a four-time 20-goal scorer, including one season with over 30 tallies, and has four seasons of 40+ points. While he did have a pair of seasons with the Los Angeles Kings in which he only managed 34 points, his norm is well above that mark. In fact, his 82-game pace with the Kings and Vancouver Canucks last season was 29 goals and 53 points. 82 games is not uncommon for Toffoli either; the two-way winger has played in every game in three seasons and has never played in fewer than 62 games since becoming a full-time NHLer. If Toffoli can stay healthy through this contract, which does take him into his thirties, and scores even at his career average rate, this is a bargain deal for the Canadiens.
Toffoli plays a smart, two-way style. He isn’t overly physical and doesn’t dominate the typical defensive stats, but is a capable penalty killer and an effective forechecker. Offensively, Toffoli can make zone entries, gets to the net, and creates scoring opportunities. A solid all-around player, Toffoli has been an analytics darling throughout his career with his ability to positively impact play leading to strong possession numbers and high scoring expectations. With Montreal, Toffoli joins a now lethal group at right wing, including fellow new acquisition Josh Anderson and career Canadien Brendan Gallagher. Toffoli is likely to challenge for a top line role, but there is no way of knowing how that group will shake out. Either way, Toffoli will produce at even strength and will be an asset on special teams.
While this signing should make Montreal fans very happy, fans of another team in Canada have to be frustrated at this point. Prior to the opening of free agency, the Vancouver Canucks had stated over and over that they hoped to re-sign all three of Toffoli, Jacob Markstrom, and Chris Tanev, if at all possible. Four days into free agency, Toffoli’s deal with the Habs means the Canucks have lost all three of their “priorities” this off-season, with Markstom and Tanev joining the rival Calgary Flames. The inexplicable inactivity out of Vancouver is one of the biggest head-scratchers of the off-season, especially with Toffoli signing such a reasonable deal.
Montreal Canadiens Re-Sign Xavier Ouellet
The Montreal Canadiens have re-signed depth defenseman Xavier Ouellet, inking him to a two-year, two-way contract. The contract will carry an NHL salary of $725K in 2020-21 and $750K in 2021-22.
Ouellet, 27, actually has 172 NHL games under his belt, even though he rarely stays up in the NHL for more than a few games at a time. His only full season was in 2016-17 when he suited up 66 times for the Detroit Red Wings, and he has played in 31 games with Montreal since arriving in 2018. More importantly, he’s been a leader and rock for the Laval Rocket, where he wore the “C” the last two seasons.
The minor leagues will be where he’s headed again, but having a defenseman with that much NHL experience stashed in the AHL is valuable. He can come up when injuries strike and faces little chance of being claimed on waivers upon his return.
Montreal Canadiens Sign Brandon Baddock
Is it still not clear that Montreal is looking to get bigger and tougher this off-season? If so, take a look at Brandon Baddock. Sportsnet’s Eric Engels reports that the Canadiens have signed the forward to a one-year , two-way deal worth the minimum $700K at the NHL level and $110K in the AHL. The 6’3″, 220-lb. Baddock has topped 100 penalty minutes in each of his three pro seasons.
Baddock, 25, has yet to make his NHL debut but looks like a player who could make a difference on the fourth line. The former New Jersey Devils prospect is not afraid of puck battles or fist battles, as evidenced by his league-leading 154 PIM in the AHL in 2018-19. While his game may be defined by size and strength and his ability to disrupt play, his offense has also been gradually improving each year.
Between Baddock, the long-term commitment to Josh Anderson, and the addition of Joel Edmundson, Montreal is gearing up to be a much more difficult team to play against next season and in the future. However, the team also needs to be sure that they don’t forget about other areas that need improvement, such as their poor shooting numbers and 22nd ranked power play.
Canadiens Re-Sign Victor Mete
The Canadiens have agreed to terms with another one of their pending restricted free agents, announcing the re-signing of defenseman Victor Mete to a one-year contract. The deal will pay him $735K, meaning that he accepted his qualifying offer.
The 22-year-old was a fourth-round pick of Montreal back in 2016 (100th overall) but made the NHL roster just one year later. He has played in 171 career regular season contests during that span which makes a deal at this price tag seem a little low. However, his role with the Canadiens decreased as this past season went on and when the playoffs arrived, he averaged just 12:30 per night. It’s possible that his spot in the lineup is further diminished for 2020-21 with the acquisition and signing of Joel Edmundson and the arrival of prospect Alexander Romanov who is expected to contend for a roster spot right away.
With the move, the Canadiens have roughly $4.5MM in cap room to work with this offseason with a couple of spots to fill up front. Meanwhile, the one-year term will give Mete arbitration eligibility next offseason and potentially a shot at a bigger pay day then.
Montreal Canadiens Sign Josh Anderson To Seven-Year Extension
The Montreal Canadiens are all in on new acquisition Josh Anderson. While the Columbus Blue Jackets signed trade counterpart Max Domi for two years at a $5.3MM AAV, the Habs have inked Anderson to a whopping seven-year contract at a $5.5MM AAV. Montreal has announced a $38.5MM pact that will keep the newest addition under contract through the 2026-27 season.
The structure of Anderson’s contract is unique. There are no signing bonuses woven into the deal, with every cent being paid out in salary. However, the salary deviates significantly, to the league maximum in fact, with low salaries in the beginning and end of the deal to help the Canadiens with the current financial crisis as well as with a potential buyout down the road. The exact payout structure is as follows, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger:
Year 1: $4MM
Year 2: $4MMM
Year 3: $7MM
Year 4: $8MM
Year 5: $7MM
Year 6: $5MM
Year 7: $3.5MM
The contract also carries some limited trade protection, per CapFriendly. In years two to four of the deal, Anderson has an eight-team no-trade list. In years five to seven, that protection shrinks to just a five-team no-trade list. It is notable that Anderson does not possess trade protection in his first year, so if things go south right away the Canadiens could move the winger to any interested team.
While any long-term deal carries some risk, this is an especially precarious pact. Anderson played just 26 games this past season with Columbus, missing much of the season due to injury. While there are no concerns remaining in regard to that injury, his durability will be in question until he can prove that his injury issues are behind him. Perhaps even more concerning is his play when he was on the ice for the Blue Jackets; Anderson recorded just four points and his shooting percentage came in under 2%. Of course, the season prior Anderson did total a career-high 27 goals and 47 points. However, it was his only season with over 20 goals or 30 points in his six-year NHL career. At $5.5MM annually, Montreal is expecting at least 20+ goals and 40+ points in each of the next seven years. They are hoping that 2018-19 Anderson is the real Anderson; if it’s not the team could be in trouble.
With all that said, Canadiens fans should take at least some solace in the fact that the team is so comfortable with their acquisition of Anderson that they were willing to hand out a massive long-term deal before he even donned their jersey. If anything, this contract shows that Montreal is going to give Anderson a major role and expects the big winger to be a core piece for years to come.
Montreal Canadiens Sign Noah Juulsen
The Montreal Canadiens have taken care of one of their restricted free agents (though not the one some are hoping for). Noah Juulsen has signed a new one-year, two-way contract with the team worth $700K in the NHL.
Juulsen, 23, was a first-round pick of the Canadiens back in 2015 but has hand incredibly bad injury luck over his short professional career. In 2017, just a few weeks after GM Marc Bergevin called him “very close” to being NHL ready, Juulsen suffered a broken foot in an exhibition game. Your first taste of professional is hard enough without having a six-week recovery period keeping you off the ice at the beginning of the season. Juulsen would play 23 games for the Canadiens and 31 for the Laval Rocket, but clearly had more to give.
A year later, in November of 2018, Juulsen’s terrible luck reared its ugly head once again. While playing in the NHL with the Canadiens, Juulsen had slowly worked his way up the lineup and even logged more than 20 minutes of ice time in a win against the Vancouver Canucks. He looked ready to contribute on a nightly basis, playing top-four minutes for the Canadiens and fulfilling his first-round pick status. Then, in a game against the Washington Capitals, he was struck in the face with the puck on two occasions and was forced to leave.
Ruled out indefinitely, Juulsen actually did make a return to play a few games with both the Canadiens and the Laval Rocket of the AHL. In February however, he was shut down due to a “vision-related issue.” In September 2019 he was still suffering from headaches, though just a month later he was cleared for action once again. He ended up departing the team in November to see a specialist, and the 13 games he had played for Laval to that point remained his total for the rest of the season.
With a new deal and a clean bill of health, Juulsen will attempt to make a comeback even at the age of 23. He has played just 93 professional games over parts of four seasons, but still possesses all the skills to be a regular in the Montreal lineup. He’ll have to prove it, but if he is truly healthy Montreal could still have a valuable asset on their hands.
Columbus, Montreal Swap Josh Anderson, Max Domi
The Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens have found some common ground, swapping restricted free agent forwards Josh Anderson and Max Domi. The Blue Jackets will also receive a 2020 third-round selection in the trade. Both players are represented by agent Darren Ferris and will need new contracts for 2020-21.
Both Anderson and Domi have had huge success in the past for their respective teams, but needed a change of scenery after some recent struggles.
In Anderson’s case, the relationship with the Blue Jackets has been strained for some time, going back to a contract negotiation in 2017 that saw him miss all of training camp. That was followed by two successful seasons, but the 26-year-old forward managed to score just a single goal in 26 games in 2019-20 while struggling with injury.
The Canadiens are obviously betting that Anderson can rebound and get back to the player who scored 27 goals in 2018-19 and looked like one of the best power forwards in the entire league. A fourth-round pick in 2012, Anderson brings size (6’3″ 220-lbs) and goal scoring to a Montreal team that lacked both this season. He’s also coming off a contract that carried a cap hit of just $1.85MM and requires just a $2.1MM qualifying offer (though is arbitration-eligible).
For Domi, this trade comes just a year after he scored 72 points for the Canadiens, the franchise’s third-highest total in the cap era. That incredible year was followed by a frustrating, 44-point season in 2019-20 however, which saw Domi dropped to the fourth line at times and just never seem to find his true footing in the Montreal lineup.
He also, quite importantly, is coming off a contract that carried a $3.15MM cap hit and will require a $2.9MM qualifying offer. Domi is expected to be looking for a substantial raise on that number, something that the Canadiens may not have felt comfortable with as they start to transition to other young centers.
Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi are the future in Montreal, meaning Domi either would have had to play in the bottom-six or move to the wing. That isn’t the case in Columbus, where he can slide in as the team’s second-line center behind Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Perhaps the most interesting part in the deal is the draft pick, which seems like an asset that the Canadiens shouldn’t have had to include in a swap of these two players. Montreal certainly had plenty of capital to spend given they still have ten picks in tonight’s draft, but it is striking to see Anderson actually hold more value than Domi even after losing basically his entire season to injury.
Montreal Canadiens To Buy Out Karl Alzner
Another buyout is on the docket for today, as the Montreal Canadiens have placed Karl Alzner on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract. With two years left on his deal, Montreal will incur cap penalties for the next four seasons. Those charges will look like this:
- 2020-21: $3,958,333
- 2021-22: $1,958,333
- 2022-23: $833,333
- 2023-24: $833,333
Alzner, 32, was actually signed to the longest contract on day one of free agency just three years ago, inking a five-year deal with the Canadiens that carried a cap hit of $4.625MM. That deal, which was considered extremely risky right from the start, resulted in just 95 games played for Montreal.
In 2017-18 Alzner spent the entire season in the NHL, suiting up for all 82 games and averaging more than 20 minutes a night. Unfortunately, those minutes weren’t all that effective, with the defensive defenseman recording just 12 points and poor possession statistics. By the next season, he was buried in the minor leagues where he has spent the majority of the last two years.
That risky deal turned into an albatross for the Canadiens, though the team was never really in cap trouble as they slowly rebuilt their team around a younger core. Now that they are ready to start competing again, getting at least some of the Alzner money off the books was an obvious choice.
Still, because of the front-loaded nature of the deal, the Canadiens will not receive much relief this season. They do however save quite a bit of actual money, paying Alzner just $833K in each of the next four seasons.
It’s hard to see an NHL future for the veteran defenseman, though perhaps at a much lower cost another team would take a chance on him as a depth option.
Wayne Simmonds Drawing Interest
The free agent market is approaching rapidly and without an interview period, this season things may be complete chaos when the bell strikes on Friday. Then again, perhaps not for every free agent. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the Buffalo Sabres have given Wayne Simmonds permission to speak with other teams ahead of free agency.
That news comes on the heels of a report from Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic that both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens have shown interest in Simmonds. Both teams are looking for a little more physicality in their forward groups, something Simmonds can provide in spades when healthy and playing his best. He’s also an excellent net-front player on the powerplay, something both teams could use.
The question now is whether Simmonds can ever get back to that “healthy and playing his best” status. The 32-year-old scored just eight goals in 68 games this season playing for the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres, after an extremely disappointing finish to the 2018-19 season with the Nashville Predators.
Once one of the best power forwards in the entire league, Simmonds was a perennial 30-goal candidate with oodles of physicality and leadership. In 2015-16 he reached a career-high with 32 goals and 60 points, while also racking up 192 hits for the Philadelphia Flyers. That kind of player is difficult to find in today’s game, but even in the case of Simmonds himself, it may no longer exist.
For at least the Maple Leafs, Simmonds would need to take a drastic pay cut to fit into their financial structure, but perhaps he will be forced to do that anyway by a shrinking market. He earned $5MM on his one-year deal with the Devils, but will likely be looking at a much lower salary this offseason.
Canadiens Tender Qualifying Offers To Five Players
While the deadline for qualifying offers isn’t until Wednesday shortly after the draft ends, the Canadiens opted to take care of them early, announcing that five players have received offers. Players receiving offers are center Max Domi, winger Charles Hudon, and defensemen Victor Mete, Noah Juulsen, and Xavier Ouellet.
Of the group, Domi is the most notable. The 25-year-old is coming off of a quieter second year with the team as he posted 17 goals and 27 assists in 44 games, numbers that were well below his output in 2018-19 when he set career highs with 28 tallies and 44 helpers. Shortly after their elimination at the hands of Philadelphia, he changed agents to Darren Ferris of Quartexx which led to some speculation of him being unhappy with his situation although Ferris made it known last month that Domi hopes to remain with Montreal. A position change may be in order for that to happen, however, as Nick Suzuki, Phillip Danault, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi figure to be Montreal’s top-three centers next season. Domi’s qualifier was set at $2.9MM.
Mete’s entry-level contract has come to an end but his role with the Canadiens has decreased as it has progressed. He spent a lot of this season on the third pairing and in the playoffs, his ATOI dropped to just 12:30 per game from 16:00 during the year. With Joel Edmundson being acquired and signed already this summer, his spot in their top six may be in some jeopardy. He isn’t eligible for salary arbitration.
Hudon and Ouellet spent the majority of the season with AHL Laval but were up for the stretch run and playoffs with Ouellet being a regular in the postseason. Both players are eligible for salary arbitration in their final year before UFA eligibility. As for Juulsen, the 2015 first-rounder has missed most of the last two seasons with recurring migraine issues stemming from taking two pucks to the face in the same game back in 2018-19. He was able to play in Laval late in the year and was on Montreal’s playoff roster although he didn’t get into any game action.
The team confirmed that three players – center Aaron Luchuk plus wingers Andrew Sturtz and Antoine Waked – did not receive offers. The three spent all of last season in the minors and will become unrestricted free agents on Friday.