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Montreal Canadiens Sign Phillip Danault To Three-Year Deal

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The Montreal Canadiens announced that they have avoided arbitration and signed restricted free agent center Phillip Danault to a three-year, $9.2MM contract with an AAV of $3.08MM.

Danault, who was in his second full season with the Canadiens, was having another solid season when he was hospitalized and was forced to miss more than a month after being hit in the head by Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara’s 124-kilometer-per-hour slapshot. He was released the next day, but suffered from both concussion-like symptoms as well as vertigo. When the center returned to the lineup, he struggled upon return, tallying just one goal and one assist in his final nine games of the season

With the Canadiens short on solid center options last season, Danault and Jonathan Drouin served as a top-six center for the team. Danault is likely to serve in the same capacity with some suggestions that he could be penciled in ahead of Drouin as the No. 1 center next season since the team failed to acquire any more established centers. Regardless of what line he ends up on, the 25-year-old defensive center did have a career-high on faceoff percentage at 52.8 percent and has had a career percentage of 50.9 percent and ranked third on the team in ATOI with 16:35 behind just Max Pacioretty and Drouin.

There was some surprise it took so long for Danault to get a contract as he represents one of general manager Marc Bergevin’s biggest successes when he was acquired via trade from the Chicago Blackhawks for Dale Weiss and Thomas Fleischmann back in 2016. His best season was in 2016-17 when he played in all 82 games, putting up 13 goals and 40 points. The center just completed a bridge deal where he made just $913K, so this is a significant raise for him.

Montreal Has Tough Decision To Make At Upcoming Draft

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It’s well known that the Montreal Canadiens are looking for a franchise changing center. Usually when you have a top-three pick in a draft, a team can fill their biggest hole right there. However, that isn’t the case in the 2018 NHL Draft as the top of the draft is loaded with wingers and defenseman. Most of the centers are expected to go after the top-10. The Canadiens need help there as they have attempted to convert several players to the center position, including Jonathan Drouin and Alex Galchenyuk, but neither has made a successful conversion. If the team could add a couple of legitimate centers, it could hasten their turnaround.

Recent reports suggest the Canadiens have found themselves getting attached to Finnish center Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who most mock drafts have going after the 10th pick. Admittedly, he has risen up draft boards over the past year after a season in Finland’s top league, SM-liiga and put up 10 goals and 29 points as a 17-year-old among men (ironically he played the wing position there). In fact, at the combine this week, Kotkaniemi said that Canadiens were one of three teams to take him out to a steak dinner this past week. Assuming the Canadiens’ interest in him is genuine, the Canadiens have some critical decisions to make in the next few weeks. Kotkaniemi, who has two years remaining on his contract in Finland, has said there is an out-clause and he could come to North America, depending on the team that drafts him. Regardless, whatever Montreal does with the No. 3 pick will alter the rest of the draft, according to the Montreal Gazette’s Pat Hickey.

One option is to take Kotkaniemi with the third overall pick regardless of the prospect rankings. Afterall, the Columbus Blue Jackets did the same thing in 2016 when they surprised many by taking Pierre-Luc Dubois with the No. 3 pick then. That worked out pretty well. The downside is the team would likely pass on some top talent in either winger Andrei Svechnikov or Filip Zadina (whoever Carolina doesn’t take at No. 2) as well as a number of stud defensemen like Adam Boqvist, Noah Dobson or Quinn Hughes. Montreal needs help at both positions as well.

The second option is for Montreal to trade back and pick up Kotkaniemi at a more reasonable spot and pick up more assets. Unfortunately, several other teams like Kotkaniemi as well, including the Detroit Red Wings (No. 6) and the Chicago Blackhawks (No. 8). By the way, both teams were the only other teams to take Kotkaniemi out to a steak dinner this week. However, earlier in the week, general manager Marc Bergevin said he was reluctant to trade back in the draft. Director of player personnel Trevor Timmons countered that Saturday, suggesting the team could go up or down with all their extra picks in this draft.

Assuming the Canadiens do want to add a center in the draft, then the team will have a big decision to make in the coming weeks about which route they intend to take.

East Notes: Pittsburgh’s Fourth Line, Hall, Canadiens, Red Wings

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The Penguins are expected to try to add some offense to their fourth line this summer, notes Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  Getting some scoring from their bottom trio was an important key to their successful Stanley Cup runs the past two years but that was an area of concern this past postseason.  With that in mind, GM Jim Rutherford will be looking to put together a more balanced fourth line that can chip in with a goal here and there.  If they re-sign pending RFA Riley Sheahan, he’ll likely be part of that unit while youngsters Zach Aston-Reese and Daniel Sprong could be options as well.  If they look to the open market for a veteran to take a spot, Mackey suggests that Tampa Bay UFA winger Chris Kunitz could make some sense; prior to joining the Lightning last summer, the 38-year-old had spent nine seasons in Pittsburgh.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • Still with Pittsburgh, with the Friday deadline to sign 2016 CHL draft pick fast approaching, the Penguins are expected to relinquish the rights to defenseman Connor Hall, reports Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Hall was a third-rounder that year (77th overall) but he has battled considerable injury problems that have limited him to just 64 games (less than one full season) since being drafted.  The 20-year-old posted 11 assists and 78 penalty minutes in 47 games with the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL in 2017-18 and will look to catch on with another organization.
  • Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin acknowledged to NHL.com’s Mike Zeisberger that the team is leaning towards keeping the third-overall selection unless they are blown away by a trade offer. Assuming that Rasmus Dahlin and Andrei Svechnikov go first and second to Buffalo and Carolina as expected, the Canadiens will likely choose from wingers Filip Zadina and Brady Tkachuk.  Bergevin also stated that the team is not ready to write off using Jonathan Drouin at center next season.  Drouin, who played down the middle in junior but was a winger with Tampa Bay, struggled considerably at the beginning of the year but appears to have made enough progress in the eyes of management to get a second chance.
  • The Red Wings are open to moving their sixth-overall selection in the draft, reports Craig Custance of The Athletic (subscription required). GM Ken Holland admitted that trading up doesn’t make a lot of sense for them but sliding down a few spots would certainly be a possibility for them.  Custance adds that Holland has had preliminary meetings with the agents for pending RFA wingers Andreas Athanasiou and Anthony Mantha plus pending UFA defenseman Mike Green.

Snapshots: Canadiens’ Center Search, Huska, Carrier

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With the Montreal Canadiens looking to fill their holes at the center position this offseason and little immediate value at that position with their No. 3 pick in the 2018 draft, Montreal could find themselves looking long and hard to find a quality center to fit into their lineup this offseason. Assuming they don’t get star John Tavares to bite on July 1, the team might have no choice but to make a deal for a center to fill their need.

The Athletic’s Arpon Basu (subscription required) writes that there are two legitimate possibilities for the Canadiens on the trade market, including Ryan O’Reilly of the Buffalo Sabres and Elias Lindholm of the Carolina Hurricanes. The scribe writes that after recent end-0f-the-season comments he made about being more accepting of losing, O’Reilly is trying to force his way out of Buffalo and might be a perfect fit in Montreal. While he would likely make a better No. 2 center, O’Reilly is very talented and the team might be able to package together a combination of picks and young forwards to take on O’Reilly’s contract of $7.5MM over the next five years. The 27-year-old still put up some of the best numbers in his career this year with 24 goals and 61 points.

With the Carolina Hurricanes open for business, Lindholm might be a player the Canadiens take a chance on. The restricted free agent has had a promising start to his career, but also an inconsistent one, but likely would get a big payday after a 16-goal, 44-point season. If Carolina would like to avoid handing Lindholm a big contract, Montreal might be able to step in and give them an alternative as a combination of Lindholm and Jonathan Drouin would give them a solid young core up the middle for years.

  • Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun writes that the Calgary Flames are on the verge of announcing their assistant coaches that will aid new head coach Bill Peters this season after the team let assistants Paul Jerrard and Dave Cameron go when they fired Glen Gulutzan on April 17. While he didn’t have any specifics other than the announcement will come some time next week, Francis did speculate that the team might be leaning towards promoting Stockton Heat head coach Ryan Huska.
  • The Vegas Golden Knights are likely to get one of their players back from injury for the Stanley Cup Finals as William Carrier practiced today in a non-contact jersey, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s David Schoen. In fact, Schoen writes that head coach Gerard Gallant announced that he expects Carrier to be available for the Stanley Cup Finals. Carrier didn’t play in the Western Conference Finals due to an undisclosed injury has been a key member of the team’s fourth line.

Montreal Would Rather Trade Pacioretty Than Extend Him

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While it’s common knowledge the Montreal Canadiens have been considering trading their captain Max Pacioretty. The 10-year Canadiens’ veteran survived the trade deadline, but TSN’s Insider Bob McKenzie said on his most recent TSN Hockey Bobcast to expect Montreal to shop Pacioretty as the team must find a way to re-tool their roster, since rebuilding with the contracts of both Carey Price and Shea Weber is impossible.

Pacioretty, who has one more year on a reasonable six-year, $27MM deal he signed in 2012, had a major drop in performance this year. After tallying 30 or more goals for four straight seasons, Pacioretty managed just 17 in a forgettable 2017-18.

“I don’t believe that the way things currently stand, barring a change, that Montreal wants to make a long-term commitment to Pacioretty,” McKenzie said. “He’s got a year left on his deal. I think that they want to explore some different options and that possibly trading Pacioretty would satisfy those… I think Pacioretty, in a perfect world, would love to stay on Montreal on so many levels. I think he considers it home now, and he loves playing for the Canadiens. But I’m not sure that it’s a marriage that’s necessarily working at this point, so I would expect Pacioretty’s name to be front and center in a lot of trade talk between now and the NHL draft.”

The bigger issue is what the team hopes to get back in return for him. His value is presently quite low, so it seems unlikely the team will get a major return for the 29-year-old.

“But by the same token, they can’t give him away,” McKenzie added. “And he didn’t have a great year this year. The Montreal Canadiens didn’t have a great year. But he’s still a pretty consistent goal scorer, and you can’t give these guys away.”

However, with the team in desperate need for help at the center position, the team may need to use Pacioretty as a trade chip to fill that hole in their lineup. At the moment, the team had been using Jonathan Drouin and Phillip Danault as their top two centers. Neither belongs in those spots as the team has been trying to convert Drouin into a center, which hasn’t gone well so far, while Danault may just not be a top-six player. To make matters worse, the Canadiens have the third pick in the upcoming draft, but this year’s crop of prospects is weak at the center position. And with few other trade chips, they may have little to no choice, especially if the team is hesitant to sign Pacioretty to a long-term extension next year.

Atlantic Notes: Bergevin & Canadiens, Boucher, Okposo

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While the Montreal Canadiens season didn’t go as planned, the team must now figure out what went wrong as general manager Marc Bergevin attempts to right the ship after a disappointing season. To that point, Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette hands out grades for the Montreal Canadiens disappointing season. As can be expected there were more D’s and F’s than top marks, starting with the performance of Bergevin, who received an F for multiple questionable moves, including his “first come, first served” contract offers to winger Alexander Radulov and long-time Canadien Andrei Markov, in which both opted to leave and the team failed to find replacements for either.

The scribe was quick to throw a D towards most of the team’s star players, including goaltender Carey Price, whose eight-year, $84MM extension begins next season. While the team’s defense wasn’t there to support him, he’s supposed to be the team’s best player and he wasn’t even close after putting up a 3.11 GAA and a .900 save percentage in 49 games. Bad grades followed to Alex Galchenyuk, Jonathan Drouin, Jordie Benn, Max Pacioretty and the scouting department for thinking that Karl Alzner was worth a five year, 23MM contract in the offseason.

  • Ottawa Senators’ Guy Boucher’s status as coach has not been decided yet as general manager Pierre Dorion is focused on scouting before evaluating the coaching staff. However, if the head coach loses his job, much of that might have to do with the team’s practice schedule or lack thereof, according to Chris Stevenson of The Athletic (subscription required). After Dorion was critical of Boucher’s option to often rest his players, rather than practice, the scribe looked into some of the reasons why the coach opted to rest his players, pointing to special events like the trip to Sweden, the outdoor game and multiple team functions as well as the Senators were tied for the most back-to-back games this year with 19. Add in a 17-day span in which they did not play at home in December and the team had a exhausting schedule. However, the lack of practices didn’t help a squad who truly struggled this year under the head coach.
  • Jon Vogl of the Buffalo News writes that despite Buffalo Sabres’ Kyle Okposo’s poor season, the one positive is that a year ago, he had just been released from the neuro-intensive care unit and wasn’t even sure if he would play hockey again. With little time to train last summer, Okposo put up just 15 goals this season, his lowest since the strike shortened 2012-13 season. With five years remaining on his seven-year, $42MM deal he signed two years ago, the 29-year-0ld believes that he will get himself into elite shape this summer as he is finally healthy and ready to show the Sabres that the deal wasn’t a mistake.

Montreal Canadiens “Very Active” As Deadline Approaches

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The Montreal Canadiens, losers of four of their last five games including three at the hands of the Boston Bruins, are now 19-22-6 on the season and well out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. In his latest 31 Thoughts column for Sportsnet, Elliotte Friedman reports that GM Marc Bergevin is more active than normal trying to “get something going.”

Friedman lists only Carey Price, Shea Weber, Victor Mete and Jonathan Drouin as unlikely to be traded, making the rest of the roster ripe for speculation. Max Pacioretty has obviously been in the news quite a bit recently, something Alex Galchenyuk has dealt with for years. There are also lesser-known names like Paul Byron, Andrew Shaw and Brendan Gallagher who would all draw interest as well as expiring contracts for Tomas Plekanec, Jakub Jerabek and Antti Niemi.

Montreal has had a season to forget, but Friedman points out that everyone in the league can see what Colorado is doing this year. After putting up historically bad numbers in 2016-17, the Avalanche are now on a ten game winning streak and find themselves right in the thick of the Western Conference playoff run. Montreal knows first hand what that bounce-back can be, after struggling without an injured price in 2015-16 only to return to the playoffs a year later.

If anything, the Canadiens are more likely to reload than rebuild, as Price’s huge extension kicks in next season and there is plenty of other money tied up in Weber, Drouin, Jeff Petry and Karl Alzner. Even if they do move out some significant pieces, you can bet Montreal won’t be tearing down the whole thing.

Canadiens Notes: Bergevin’s Presser, Drouin, Mete

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At the halfway mark of the season, Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin spoke to the media of the state of the team, which currently sits at 17-20-4 and is in sixth place in the Atlantic Division. The team is floundering and can’t seem to find its way back into a winning situation and have lost six of their last 10 games. However, Bergevin said the team still is focused on the present.

“Today, we’re in a tough situation, but we haven’t lost hope,” Bergevin said about the state of the team. We haven’t thrown in the towel, but we for sure have a lot of work to do.”

However, after an offseason in which Bergevin signed defenseman Karl Alzner to a five-year, $23.1MM deal, traded for forward Jonathan Drouin, and extended goaltender Carey Price to a new eight-year, $84MM deal, there were hopes the Canadiens would fare even better than last year’s playoff appearance. However, that hasn’t happened. The team allowed long-time defenseman Andrei Markov and center Alexander Radulov to walk and many of his most recent moves haven’t fared as well as others would have hoped. Many have called for the Canadiens to make a change.

“Have I made mistakes? Yes. Have I done some good things? Yes. But that’s the reality for a general manager. But I’m proud of what we’ve done.”

Shockingly despite their poor record, the Canadiens are just six points out of a playoff spot. Granted there are several teams in between them and any possibility of a spot, but the team is hardly out of it.

“I believe [making the playoffs] is possible, but a lot of things have to change,” said Bergevin. “There are times where I’ve seen them capable of doing it.”

  • With a team that has struggled immensely on defense, much criticism has fallen on Bergevin for trading top prospect Mikhail Sergachev, the team’s ninth overall pick in 2016, for winger Jonathan Drouin, the third overall pick in 2013. Despite initially being deemed a successful trade for Montreal, Sergachev surprised a few by making the Lightning squad out of training camp and has been tremendous in Tampa Bay, while Drouin has struggled since his arrival, having only totaled five goals, while spending much of his time adjusting to the center position, something he is not used to. “Jonathan Drouin has had some good stretches at center, and he’s had some stretches that have been more difficult. When I say that some players have needed more consistency, he’s a part of that,” Bergevin said.
  • Bergevin added that defenseman Victor Mete, who was loaned to Team Canada for the WJC and is expected to return next week, is “probably” going to spend the rest of the season with the Canadiens. The 19-year-old, who shocked everyone by making the team out of training camp has had an on-and-off season so far, but has shown a lot of potential. However, if he is returned to his junior team before he reaches 40 games, the team can delay his eventual free agency by an extra year. “From what I’ve seen of Victor Mete in Buffalo, because I was there, he’s a young player, and he can help us,” Bergevin said. “He’ll probably be here for the rest of the season.”

Canadiens Notes: Potential Rebuild, Bergevin, Price

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The Montreal Canadiens find themselves at a crossroads. Expecting to compete for a playoff spot this year and beyond after what fans considered a solid offseason in which they traded for sniper Jonathan Drouin , signed veteraen defenseman Karl Alzner away from the Washington Capitals and locked up their star goaltender Carey Price for another eight years, the team has struggled all season, including a recent three-game losing streak to Columbus, Arizona and Saturday’s 6-0 loss to the rival Toronto Maple Leafs. The Canadiens suddenly find themselves 8-11-2 with little optimism that things might get better.

In fact, NBC Sports Joey Alfieri writes that it might be time to break up this team now and begin a proper rebuild. Up until now, general manager Marc Bergevin has been unwilling to trade the team’s veteran players such as center Max Pacioretty, but that could change soon as it doesn’t look as the team is a quick-fix away from repairing its on-ice problems. Saturday night on “Headlines,” Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos said that ownership and management would soon have a discussion about the direction of the team. Pacioretty would be a prime trade candidate, who has one more year on his contract at $4.5MM.

The scribe looks at their offseason moves and wonders if the team’s big trade to acquire Drouin might be looked as a major blunder as the team did trade away star defensive prospect Mikhail Sergachev, who is thriving for the league-leading Tampa Bay Lightning. He is also quick to point out that it was a major mistake to let go of Alexander Radulov and veteran defenseman Andrei Markov for nothing when the team quite obviously needed them.

  • Jack Todd of the Montreal Gazette writes that this latest 6-0 defeat to the Maple Leafs could spell the end for not just the current roster, but also for Bergevin, who has been responsible for constructing this roster and look to be going no where. The GM has been running the team for six years now and has little to show for it, but a team heading towards a lottery selection in June next year. The general belief is that if you aren’t competing for a playoff spot by the American Thanksgiving, then you have little shot of reaching the playoffs and the Canadiens aren’t close to competing. The scribe writes that while many feel that the team’s trade of P.K. Subban was the start of the downfall of the team, Todd suggests that Shea Weber is not to blame, but things may not look so bad had the team kept both Markov and Sergachev to form a Big Three. Instead, the team only has Weber to show for it, which falls under Bergevin’s domain.
  • Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette writes that the team has always had an identity, starting with their goaltender and then with a solid defense in front of him. Boring, but respectable. Instead, the scribe writes, the team is starting to look like the 2015-16 team that had lost Price for most of the season and finished in 13th place in the Eastern Conference. Now the team has gutted their defense and have removed their identity, which the franchise so often has depended on.
  • After a column in which he questioned the health of Price, Stu Cowan tweets that Price was the first out to practice Monday morning.

Morning Notes: Drouin, Spezza, Duchene

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As usual, the Hockey Night In Canada Headlines segment last night was one to watch if you’re interested in rumors and speculation going on around the league. With a panel of Nick Kypreos, Chris Johnston and Elliotte Friedman, you knew there was going to be a few interesting nuggets of information.

Johnston relayed an interesting situation surrounding Jonathan Drouin and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The two sides have finished an arbitration over a performance bonus from last season, that Drouin missed by less than a tenth of a point per game. Because of all the work Steve Yzerman did at the trade deadline last season, the Lightning don’t have any carryover from their entry-level bonuses, meaning the settlement (which will pay Drouin 90% of the bonus) will not affect this year’s cap number.

  • The panel also discussed Jason Spezza and the idea that his name is starting to surface in trade speculation. Spezza is obviously not as big a part of the Dallas Stars as he once was, taken away from the center ice position and moved down in the lineup. The interesting note that Friedman reported is that Spezza has a full no-movement clause during the season, instead of the 10-team no-trade list that had been previously recorded. That clause and the $7.5MM cap hit for this year and next make a move extremely unlikely even if Dallas wanted to part ways.
  • Though the Matt Duchene saga is over, the panel did relay that the Pittsburgh Penguins made a last-ditch effort to acquire the center from the Colorado Avalanche. That would imply that the Penguins are not comfortable with the team they have right now, and few would be surprised by that. Pittsburgh lost again last night and are now 9-7-3 on the year. Though no one is expecting them to miss the playoffs, GM Jim Rutherford is a known horse trader as the deadline approaches, and will likely be involved in another big move this season.

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