MONTREAL — April 12 still seems far away, unless you’re an NHL general manager in Canada, where a mandatory two-week quarantine must be served by any player you wish to acquire.
As Elliotte Friedman reported Saturday, after speaking with officials from Health Canada, even a vaccinated player won’t be able to circumvent that length of quarantine, because being vaccinated against COVID-19 doesn’t prevent one from contracting and spreading the virus.
And even if the NHL is hopeful it can convince the federal government to allow its Canadian constituents to adopt the same quarantine rules they had for training camp — seven days and four consecutive negative tests — they haven’t done so yet and the clock is ticking.
So, any Canadian GM looking to add players who can make enough of a difference in helping their team secure a playoff spot has to consider pouncing over these next two weeks.
The Montreal Canadiens fall into that category, and there’s another factor that could spur them to action soon, even if general manager Marc Bergevin would love to have more time to clear the necessary cap space to make additions. Take a look at their closest rival’s schedule: the Toronto Maple Leafs will play just six games through the end of the month, making this the most opportune time for them to pull the trigger on some deals they might be eyeing. And when you look at Toronto’s needs — a top-four defenceman, a scoring winger and a third-line centre — they’ll be after some of the same players the Canadiens likely have interest in.
As for Bergevin’s incentive to add to a team that’s been more Jekyll and Hyde than he expected before the season started, it’s still got to be reasonably high. The Canadiens spent more than $100 million over the off-season, Bergevin said he checked four key boxes on his needs list with the acquisitions of Jake Allen, Joel Edmundson, Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli, and he recently made several changes to his coaching staff because his expectations hadn’t changed.
“I’ve talked about my belief in this team, I know Berge has the same belief in this team,” said Canadiens assistant captain Brendan Gallagher on Sunday. “We talked about it a lot — he’s done everything he possibly could to give us the best chance to win. I love our team, I love the way that we’re constructed. It’s just on us as players to get the job done.”
But Bergevin can always do more to help them, and the Canadiens do still have some needs to fill and several assets they can part with to address them.
RFAs
Jesperi Kotkaniemi, 20, $925,000
Artturi Lehkonen, 25, $2.4 million
Victor Mete, 22, $735,000
Ryan Poehling, 22, $925,000
Cale Fleury, 22, $771,666
Otto Leskinen, 24, $925,000
Gustav Olofsson, 25, $750,000
UFAs
Tomas Tatar, 30, $4.8 million
Phillip Danault, 28, $3.08 million
Joel Armia, 27, $2.6 million
Corey Perry, 35, $750,000
Michael Frolik, 33, $750,000
Xavier Ouellet, 27, $737,500
Charlie Lindgren, 27, $750,000
Jordan Weal, 28, $1.4 million
Lukas Vejdemo, 25, $700,000
Vasili Demchenko, 26, $792,500
Draft picks
2021: 1st, 2nd, 2nd (TBL), 3rd, 3rd (CHI), 3rd (WSH), 4th, 4th (STL), 4th (VGK), 5th, 5th (OTT), 5th (PHI), 6th, 7th
2022: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 7th (STL)
Current cap space: $787,394
Projected deadline cap space $1.7 million
Needs
Need 1: A depth centre
Need 2: A puck-moving defenceman.
The Canadiens are better off down the middle than they have been in recent years, but with rookie Jake Evans in the fourth spot and Jesperi Kotkaniemi (20) and Nick Suzuki (21) holding down primary scoring roles, there’s a considerable need for a centre who can win faceoffs — the team ranks 26th in the category — and take some of the heavy defensive responsibilities off Phillip Danault’s crowded plate.
Eric Staal’s name is bound to come up, if only for his experience and his Stanley Cup-winning pedigree. But he’s under 50 per cent in the dot, he’s minus-18, he has only 10 points in 27 games and counts for $3.25 million on the cap.
Not exactly a value add.
Nashville’s Brad Richardson would be one — especially at just $1 million. The 36-year-old is also a Cup winner, he’s consistently won over 50 per cent of his faceoffs throughout his career and is at 54.4 per cent through 12 games this season. The cost would likely be a fourth-round pick at most, but Richardson suffered an upper-body injury and was placed on the injured reserve list on Mar. 11, which significantly lowers the incentive to trade for him.
Which brings us to Luke Glendening, the Detroit Red Wings pivot who’s won 66 per cent of his faceoffs this season. Sources have informed us the Canadiens are suitors for this player, but they’d have to be able to move a player off their roster in the deal (or elsewhere) if they’re going to absorb his $1.8-million salary and still have enough space to address their other need.
Because puck-moving defencemen cost money. Even if the Canadiens get close enough to the upper limit of the cap to get the full savings allotted to them by placing Ben Chiarot on long-term injury reserve (out six-eight weeks after right-hand surgery), they’d still likely need to shed some salary to fit in someone like say, Nashville Predators defenceman Mattias Ekholm.
Vancouver Canucks defenceman Alex Edler is being thrown into rumours both in Vancouver and Montreal, but his $6 million cap hit would be even more prohibitive for the Canadiens to absorb than Ekholm’s $3.75-million hit for the rest of this season and next. That Edler has a no-movement clause complicates things further.
The lower-grade options don’t move the needle enough for the Canadiens. Buffalo’s Brandon Montour and Colin Miller have really underperformed and each of them count for close to $4 million on the cap. Columbus’s David Savard is in the same boat and makes $4.25 million. And New Jersey’s Ryan Murray, who’s been injured on and off throughout his entire career and has only played 17 games this season, is too big a gamble at $4.6 million.
Potential Assets to Move
Asset 1: Paul Byron, 31, $3.4 million through 2023
Asset 2: Artturi Lehkonen, 25, $2.4 million through the end of this season
Asset 3: Any and all draft picks
Asset 4: Any prospect not named Cole Caufield
Byron and Lehkonen, who have both been pulled out of the lineup at points this season, are players who could be used to create cap space. Byron would obviously be more difficult to move given the length of his contract, but Lehkonen would be attractive for any team.
Even if the Finn doesn’t produce much, he’s such a reliable player. And he holds his value well as a player who’s not in line for a big pay bump and one who still remains a restricted free agent at the end of this season.
Could the Canadiens and Red Wings link up on a Glendening for Lehkonen deal? It’s one that could help both teams, with Detroit getting a player who fits well in their rebuild and Montreal getting a key centre and some cap savings.
That last part is vital, because cap flexibility is just about the only thing preventing the Canadiens from being able to acquire Ekholm. The LTIR savings on Chiarot don’t open up space if he returns at any point prior to the end of the season, so they’ll still need to clear more room than just the $600,000 they’d save moving Lehkonen for Glendening.
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But if they can find a way to do it — perhaps by moving Tomas Tatar’s $4.8-million cap hit, or Joel Armia’s $2.6-million in combination with Victor Mete’s $735,000 — they shouldn’t hesitate to move picks. And they have top-end prospects who can help them outbid several of the other suitors in the mix for Ekholm.
The Canadiens probably wouldn’t move Cole Caufield, who is a leading candidate for the Hobey Baker after an incredible season with the Wisconsin Badgers, but they could trade any other A-level prospect (or two) without significantly weakening their pool. Ryan Poehling, Jesse Ylonen, Lukas Vejdemo, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris and Mattias Norlinder are just some of the names they could consider.
The Winnipeg Jets, who have massive incentive to get a player like Ekholm, can’t say the same. They have picks to dish, but as Ken Wiebe suggested in his column last week, Ville Heinola, Dylan Samberg and Cole Perfetti would all likely be off the table.
The Maple Leafs would likely love to add Ekholm, but if they’re going to move either Rasmus Sandin or Nick Robertson, you have to wonder if they’d prefer to do it for a couple of forwards — one high-profile winger and an edgy third-line centre. They also have Rodion Amirov and Timothy Liljegren to work with.
Outside Canada, Boston will be a player in this. Philadelphia, too. Perhaps even Pittsburgh. And the Washington Capitals, with former Predators coach Peter Laviolette on their bench, might poke around as well. But each of these teams would either have an issue taking on Ekholm without shedding salary or with how it would affect their Seattle Expansion Draft situations.
Seattle Expansion Considerations
None.
If the Canadiens acquired Ekholm, for example, they’d likely protect him and still feel comfortable exposing another defenceman because goaltender Jake Allen remains the most likely player Seattle would be interested in. Even a young defenceman like Cale Fleury would prove more attractive than Joel Edmundson or Chiarot.
Renting another defenceman or a centreman wouldn’t change that, either.
