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Montreal Canadiens To Scratch Ben Chiarot As Deadline Approaches

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The Montreal Canadiens, perhaps influenced by the recent injury to Jakob Chychrun, have decided to protect their prized trade deadline asset and will scratch Ben Chiarot for tonight’s match according to several reports including Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff.

It should come as no surprise that Chiarot will be traded, as his name has been in the rumor mill basically from the moment the season began. The 30-year-old defenseman is in the final season of a three-year, $10.5MM contract signed in 2019 and carries a cap hit of just $3.5MM. That number, especially if the Canadiens retain a portion of it, is one that many of the league’s top contenders could fit into their salary structure at this point in the season.

While he usually doesn’t bring much offensive upside, Chiarot has actually showcased extremely well for the Canadiens of late, racking up six points in his last five games (and nine in his last nine) including a two-goal effort against the Calgary Flames earlier this month. He’s now averaging more than 23 minutes a night on the season a number that has only gone up in recent games when he’s been averaging close to 25. Beyond all he’s done in the regular season, there’s one thing that is still driving the market for the Canadiens’ big defenseman–his play in last year’s postseason.

There is a perception that Chiarot, alongside Shea Weber and often playing with Philip Danault, was a huge part of the team’s Cinderella-like run to the Stanley Cup Finals. The length, physicality, and toughness of Chiarot are considered a perfect mix for the playoffs, though there are also a few misconceptions about his play last year. In the 285 minutes he played beside Weber at five-on-five, Chiarot’s results were great, allowing just nine goals against despite some tough matchups. But his numbers away from the Canadiens’ captain absolutely plummeted, to the point where Montreal was actually outscored 23-16 with Chiarot on the ice overall at even strength.

That should at least raise a bit of concern for contenders looking to pay a hefty price to add the defenseman, especially since this season, again without Weber, the Canadiens have been outscored 59-40 at even strength with Chiarot on the ice. A big part of that is the overall strength of the team and the tough defensive deployment he faces nightly but he’s also not a lock to improve a team’s play, at least not at the first-round pick cost that has been discussed.

Yesterday, a player in a similar situation–Josh Manson of the Anaheim Ducks–was dealt for a second-round pick and a top prospect. If Chiarot’s bringing back something like that for the Canadiens, it would make sense why he’s being pulled from the lineup. The risk of injury is too great, especially given the recent scare they had when he suffered a minor issue.

Montreal has three games left before the trade deadline, but Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic notes that trade talks have picked up in recent days. If he is finished in a Canadiens sweater, Chiarot will leave with 17 goals and 46 points in 164 regular season games.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Canadiens’ Cedric Paquette Clears Waivers

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March 13: Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Paquette cleared waivers today. After going unclaimed, Montreal can now assign him to the Laval Rocket.

March 12: It has been a tough season for Canadiens center Cedric Paquette.  He has struggled to stay healthy and when he has been in the lineup, things haven’t gone much better.  As a result, Montreal has placed Paquette on waivers, as first reported by TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link).

The 28-year-old signed with Montreal in the summer, inking a one-year, $950K deal with an eye on him playing a regular role on the fourth line and penalty kill.  However, he has wound up playing in just 24 games this season, recording two assists while logging less than nine minutes a night in ice time.  That production is largely in line with last season when he managed just eight points in 48 games between Ottawa and Carolina where he was in and out of the lineup.

Paquette is a veteran of over 400 NHL regular season games and has 95 career playoff contests under his belt so there’s a small chance a team might want him for depth for the postseason.  More likely is that he’ll go unclaimed on Sunday and be sent to AHL Laval where his entire cap hit would come off Montreal’s books.

Jake Allen Skating But Won't Return This Weekend

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  • While Canadiens goaltender Jake Allen has resumed skating, he won’t suit up in either of Montreal’s games this weekend, reports TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link). The 31-year-old is having a tough year like many are in Montreal and has a .901 SV% in 24 starts this season but has come up as a speculative trade candidate if he’s able to show that he has fully recovered from the lower-body injury that has kept him out for the last two months and get into game action before the March 21st trade deadline.

Injury Notes: Matheson, Edmundson, Donskoi

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The Pittsburgh Penguins activated defenseman Mike Matheson from injured reserve today, per the team, sending down young Pierre-Olivier Joseph to the AHL to make way for Matheson’s return. Matheson’s been absent from the lineup for about two weeks, originally classified as week-to-week with an upper-body injury. His offensive production has been a nice surprise for Pittsburgh this season, as he’s on the best pace of his career with 21 points in 50 games. He’s been a solid bottom-four rock in Pittsburgh this season, but he’ll jump up alongside Kris Letang in his return to the ice with Brian Dumoulin out of the lineup.

More injury notes from around the league:

  • In what’s been a solid recent surge for the Montreal Canadiens, they could be getting a fan-favorite back into the lineup soon. Defenseman Joel Edmundson has been sidelined all season with an injury, but the team said today that he’s close to making his season debut. What was originally an undisclosed day-to-day injury during training camp in September snowballed into a back injury that’s prevented him from taking the ice this season. He’d be, in effect, Ben Chiarot’s replacement in the lineup after Chiarot is inevitably dealt at the Trade Deadline, which is arguably an upgrade for the team if Edmundson is at full strength and form. He’s in the second season of a four-year, $14M deal.
  • In the midst of a tough season, Seattle Kraken forward Joonas Donskoi has landed on injured reserve. The Kraken recalled forward Kole Lind from the Charlotte Checkers in his place. Donskoi suffered an undisclosed injury during the team’s March 8 game against Toronto. He has just two goals in 57 games this year, shooting at a rate of just 3.0%. Locked in through next season, hopefully, the tides turn over the offseason for Donskoi’s scoring luck.

2022 NHL Draft Confirmed For Montreal

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The city of Montreal was set to host the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, but those plans were scuttled when the world was turned upside-down by the COVID-19 pandemic. Continued pandemic restrictions meant that the city was unable to hold the draft in 2021 as well, but things finally seemed to change when fans returned to the stands at NHL arenas and the city was awarded the 2022 NHL draft. But as the Canadiens were once more forced to play games behind closed doors this season, the possibility of the draft being moved out of Montreal once again became a very realistic thought. In his annual meeting with the media at the NHL All-Star Weekend, Commissioner Gary Bettman stated that the NHL “would consider” moving the draft out of Montreal if the pandemic restrictions were still in place.

This was a disheartening development for many in the city who were eager to see Montreal host its 27th NHL Draft, but it seems that those fears can now be laid to rest. According to Chris Johnston of TSN, speaking on TSN’s Insider Trading program,  the threat of the draft being moved out of Montreal again is “totally gone.” Johnston reports that the expectation is for the draft to be held as it was pre-pandemic, meaning with representatives from every NHL club on the draft floor and the hosting arena featuring a full-capacity crowd. NHL officials will “be heading to Montreal” next week to finalize all the details, but the bottom line is that it looks as if the vision of a draft in Montreal will finally be realized after a significant wait.

For Montreal as a market, this announcement can have particular significance because of the state of the Canadiens’ season. Despite their resurgence under coach Martin St. Louis, the team is still last in the NHL with 37 points. Should they stay in that place in the standings, they will have the highest odds of winning the #1 overall pick in the 2022 draft, and be guaranteed to be picking inside the top-3. For a hockey-mad market like Montreal, the Canadiens potentially being able to select a future franchise cornerstone like Shane Wright at a draft hosted inside the Bell Center is an exciting prospect and a nice consolation prize for a fanbase that has been through a largely miserable season.

Could Canadiens' Improved Health Impact Their Approach To the Trade Deadline?

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Given Kekalainen’s firm stance on the team taking a “big picture” approach to the trade deadline, it would be fair to characterize Domi as a likely trade candidate given his contract situation. It is unclear whether Domi fits into the Blue Jackets’ long-term plans, and Kekalainen’s non-committal answer when asked about Domi’s future in Columbus can be viewed as an indication that the player’s days with the organization are numbered. Domi has always been a talented offensive player, his 72 point season for Montreal in 2018-19 is an indication of that, but he has not fit in Columbus. He has 18 goals and 50 points in his 100 games as a Blue Jacket. That’s a 41 point pace, decent enough, but a far cry from the 72-point form he flashed with the Canadiens and likely not enough to warrant receiving a similarly-priced extension on the $5.3MM against the cap he currently costs. Those factors combined with Kekalainen’s recent comments reinforce the idea that we are fast approaching the end of Domi’s time as a Blue Jacket.

  • Despite their recent run of success, the Montreal Canadiens are going to be sellers at this year’s trade deadline. Their team has been ravaged by injuries this season, and it has impacted the team’s approach to making trades at that deadline. Veteran players such as Jonathan Drouin, Christian Dvorak, Joel Edmundson, or Jake Allen could very well be in the wider deadline conversation as trade season heats up, but each has been dealing with their own injuries that have kept them out of the lineup and out of that spotlight. But that could change soon. The team announced that a host of players, including the names listed above, were able to practice under a non-contact designation. The list of players is as follows: Jake Evans, Jeff Petry, Paul Byron, Edmundson, Drouin, Dvorak, and Allen. If this group of players manages to find their way back into coach Martin St. Louis’ lineup before the trade deadline, that could change the team’s approach to the deadline drastically. GM Kent Hughes would have more healthy players to be able to potentially shop, and teams eyeing the Canadiens’ roster for potential upgrades would have a set of additional options whose health situations would be far less murky. So, regardless of the team’s appetite to trade any of these players, this progression in their health situations puts the team closer to having more options as the March 21st deadline approaches.

Montreal Canadiens Could Move Shea Weber’s Contract

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Earlier tonight on the 32 Thoughts segment of Hockey Night in Canada, Elliotte Friedman added another name to the list of potential Montreal Canadiens defensemen to be moved: Shea Weber (link). Friedman believes Montreal will look to move Weber’s contract to a team that either needs long-term injured reserve room or who needs to get to the cap floor and prefers not to spend much over the next few years.

The 36-year-old Weber has not played this year, having had his playing career likely come to an end due to injury. Weber last played in the Stanley Cup Finals for Montreal against the Tampa Bay Lightning last season before being placed on long-term injured reserve this season.

What is most notable about Weber’s situation is his remaining contract terms. While he has another four years left on his contract, carrying a $7.9MM cap hit each season, he is only owed $6MM total over those four years. In other words, a team that acquires Weber would only have to pay him $6MM, despite his contract having four years at $7.9MM each year. This would be an intriguing option for a team that is looking to take on cap for their own benefit or to alleviate another team’s salary cap concerns.

Montreal may not be inclined to move Weber, however, unless the terms were in its best interests. If the Canadiens are committed to a rebuild, then they might be the exact team that could benefit from having Weber’s contract on the books in the first place. Still, this idea has only thus far been reported and a market for Weber has yet to establish itself, and could carry on into the offseason potentially.

Calgary Flames Acquire Michael McNiven

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The Calgary Flames have acquired Michael McNiven from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for future considerations. The Laval Rocket, where McNiven was playing, thanked him in a tweet, suggesting he will be moving to one of the minor league affiliates of Calgary.

McNiven, 24, has known only the Canadiens organization since turning pro, signing as an undrafted goaltender out of the OHL. He’s spent time with the Rocket, Brampton Beast, Adirondack Thunder, Jacksonville Icemen, and Norfolk Admirals over the years loaned around to get as much playing time as possible as he continued his development. It paid off this season when he made his NHL debut for Montreal, though things didn’t go very well in his 20 minutes of action. McNiven allowed three goals on seven shots, meaning his career save percentage sits at .571 until he makes another NHL appearance.

A former Owen Sound Attack star who once went 41-9-2 in an incredible junior season, McNiven hasn’t been able to find much consistency at the AHL level and holds just an .869 save percentage this season in 11 appearances. Marc Antoine Godin of The Athletic tweets that the goaltender has been unhappy in the Canadiens organization for some time, and will now get a fresh start with the Stockton Heat.

With Jake Allen nearing a return, the Canadiens should have enough goaltending depth to cover all of their organizational holes, though there is also a chance they dip their toes into the college or junior free agent markets at some point. By moving McNiven out, they open up an extra contract slot and now have just 47 of the maximum 50 on the books.

Trade Deadline Primer: Montreal Canadiens

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As the calendar turns to March, the trade deadline is inching closer. Where does each team stand and what moves should they be looking to make?  We continue our look around the league with the Montreal Canadiens.

The Montreal Canadiens enjoyed a dream run to cap off what had been an inconsistent 2020-2021 season, defeating three strong playoff teams before eventually falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final. That dream run stands in great contrast to how the team began their 2021-2022 season. The Canadiens collapsed, falling to the bottom of the NHL standings. These results led to an organizational overhaul. Out was longtime GM Marc Bergevin, in was former Rangers GM Jeff Gorton in a role overseeing hockey operations along with former agent Kent Hughes as GM. Hughes and Gorton dismissed incumbent head coach Dominique Ducharme, replacing him with Hall-of-Fame player Martin St. Louis, who now has the Canadiens surging with five straight wins. Despite the team’s turnaround under St. Louis, the Canadiens still figure to be sellers at the deadline, as they indicated with the trade of Tyler Toffoli to Calgary.

Record

13-33-7, 8th in the Atlantic

Deadline Status

Seller

Deadline Cap Space

$9.41MM today, $9.41MM in full-season space, 0/3 retention slots used, 48/50 contracts used per CapFriendly. 

Upcoming Draft Picks

2022: MTL/CAR 1st,* CGY 1st,^ MTL 2nd, MTL 3rd, ANA 3rd, CAR 3rd, MTL 4th, TBL 4th, MTL 5th, MTL 6th, MTL 7th, STL 7th

2023: MTL 1st, MTL 2nd, MTL 3rd, MTL 4th, MTL 5th, CGY 5th, MTL 6th, MTL 7th

*As per the terms of the offseason Christian Dvorak trade, Montreal will give Arizona the better of Montreal/Carolina’s first-round picks, unless either or both are inside the top-10, in which case Montreal will receive the better of the two picks. 

^If Calgary’s pick is inside the top-10 the Flames have the option to trade Montreal their 2023 1st instead, and if they do so Montreal will also receive Calgary’s 2024 4th.

Trade Chips

Despite languishing at the bottom of the standings, the Montreal Canadiens still have a solid amount of desirable trade chips on their roster. The Canadiens player getting perhaps the most attention in trade speculation is defender Ben Chiarot. Chiarot, 30, is a pending UFA on a $3.5MM cap hit that is relatively easy for many contenders to absorb. Chiarot is a bit of a divisive player, with many disagreeing on his true value, but what is clear is that he plays the kind of playoff-oriented game that NHL decision-makers covet. Chiarot’s best asset is his physicality, his rugged style that wears down opposing players, especially in front of the net. He is not an offensive player, and his 12 points in 48 games show that, but he is still a good enough skater to handle himself in transition. More analytically-inclined observers might scoff at the idea of Chiarot returning the Canadiens any assets of significance, and that would not be an unreasonable stance to take given Chiarot’s place as a high-minute defenseman on one of the league’s worst teams. But even with that in mind, it is undeniable is that Chiarot is exactly the kind of player coaches and executives want to have in their uniform when playoff hockey begins.

Beyond Chiarot, the Canadiens have another player who many coaches and GMs will seek: Artturi Lehkonen. Like Chiarot, Lehkonen also saw his profile raised leaguewide during the team’s playoff run. Lehkonen helped linemates Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher take on the team’s toughest matchups, and their success in shutting down scorers like Mark Stone, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews (among others) was crucial to the Canadiens being able to go as far as they did. Lehkonen is a relentless forechecker who can fit on a contending team’s penalty kill as well as any of their four lines. He also brings an underrated offensive element to his game, with nine goals and 22 points in 50 games so far this season without much powerplay usage. Lehkonen offers an extra year of team control as an RFA after this season when his $2.3MM cap hit expires. His versatility, relentless two-way game, and an extra year of team control should make him a hot commodity on the trade market, especially given the trade interest a comparable player like Barclay Goodrow, for example, received a few years ago.

While Chiarot and Lehkonen figure to be largely in-demand assets on the trade market, the same cannot be said for defenseman Brett Kulak. Kulak, 28, is a bottom-pairing defenseman on an expiring $1.85MM deal. After struggling to establish himself as an NHL player as part of the Flames’ organization, Kulak arrived in Montreal and became a relatively regular NHL fixture. He is now a veteran of over 300 NHL games and can offer a team some stability and skating on their bottom pairing. A team shouldn’t expect a player who can handle intense special teams work or shelter an inexperienced defenseman, but that being said a team could do a lot worse than Kulak as a depth blueliner. He shouldn’t be prohibitively expensive to acquire, either.

Other Potential Trade Chips: F Cedric Paquette ($950k through 2021-2022), F Mathieu Perreault ($950k through 2021-2022), F Joel Armia ($3.4MM through 2024-2025)

Team Needs:

1) Skilled Prospects

New GM Hughes made it clear when he was first introduced to Montreal media that he did not envision the team undergoing the sort of long-term, scorched-earth rebuild other franchises have undertaken. With those marching orders in mind, it is likely that Hughes’ plan to get the Canadiens back on track will center around already-drafted prospects and young players rather than draft picks to be used on players further away from the NHL.

2) Cap Flexibility

Despite the Canadiens’ struggles this season, the team is deep into LTIR spending and has some significant contracts on the books. It’s not as if the roster has been stripped bare and has no veterans commanding significant salaries. In fact, the roster has quite a few of them. Pierre LeBrun of TSN reported that the Canadiens’ long-term plan could include adding a “significant” free agent, but for that to be the case the team would likely need to improve its cap flexibility from its current point.

3) Draft Picks

While Hughes has made it clear that he would ideally rebuild the Canadiens on an accelerated timeline, the fact remains that draft picks are crucial to building any successful NHL franchise. The Canadiens have a few extra picks moving forward thanks to trades, but still could use some more selections in the coming drafts to help re-stock their prospect cupboards.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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