Is Pierre Gauthier's summer puzzle nearly done?
by Kevin van Steendelaar on Jul 13, 2011 7:54 PM EDT
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PrintWith the signing of Ryan White to a one-year, one-way contract with the Montreal Canadiens, Pierre Gauthier has just one restricted free agent left on the playing roster to negotiate with.
It's a no-brainer that Josh Gorges will be with the Habs 2011-12 season, but the final financial numbers are still to be determined. It's safe to say that in the event that an arbitration hearing does happen, the Habs should have the advantage. It would be a complete shock if the ruling went Gorges' way, given his injury history and the questioning of whether or not is knee is complete recovered for opening night.
White's signing is figured at $625,000 according to RDS's Renaud Lavoie, putting the club's salary somewhere around $56.5 million. That should leave over $7.5 million for Gauthier to absorb Gorges salary, have room to maneuver a bit to tweek the projected starting roster for the season, and possibly have some spending money at the trade deadline if needed.
How or when Gauthier does that remains to be seen. As of now, the Canadiens have 12 forwards, 6 defensemen (7 with Gorges) and two goalies who we should see on opening night in Toronto.
The Canadiens GM still has a pair of openings on the team's 23-man roster to work with. Many are speculating a lineup with eight defenseman, thus allowing Yannick Weber to be used as a forward when needed. It would aslo allow the old boys such as Hal Gill and Jaroslav Spacek to catch a break from time to time.
Flip side of that coin is that it leaves only one true spare forward available to allow someone up front to rest. And given the Canadiens notorious flu bug issues, balancing the reserves might be the best option.
Last season, Jeff Halpern was picked up for a bargain basement price and paid off for the club. Can Gauthier dig out another surprise from the remaining free agent pool or will he rely on the non roster talent awaiting in Hamilton?
Another summer option for PG is that big blockbuster trade deal that has been rumored over the last decade. The latest rumor du jour is Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos, who has replaced the last five summer's hopeful Vincent LeCavalier. The probability of the Habs landing Stamkos, without unloading a lot in the process, is more unlikely than Jaromir Jagr signing in Montreal. We all saw how that worked out.
Gauthier also has to fit players that work well under Jacques Martin and with the current leadership community on the team. The addition of Eric Cole covered those bases, and given the 2010-11 edition of the Canadiens nearly took out the eventual Stanley Cup champions in Round 1, it's safe to say there won;t be any more big splash announcements from the 7th floor of the Bell Centre soon.
_________________________________________________
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Tom Pyatt is excited about signing with Tampa
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If he is signing another UFA, I think it’ll be after he has all the RFA’s signed. Gorges will obviously be the last to sign.
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“Gauthier also has to fit players that work well under Jacques Martin and with the current leadership community on the team.”
This is the salient point, I think. Which probably means no Zherdev. Sigh.
Well, Jacques is okay with putting an offensive player on a 3rd/4th line, but Zherdev definitely is a reach. He’ll try and mould a young guy into this kind of role, I’d think.
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by Bruce Peter on Jul 14, 2011 11:27 AM EDT up reply actions
I think its becoming increasingly obvious that Zherdev has been informally blacklisted for some undisclosed reason. With his on-ice ability it seems obvious that some team with a weak forward group would be willing to give him a shot.
by Stephan Cooper on Jul 14, 2011 6:27 PM EDT up reply actions
Eric Godard was availble for a couple weeks. He’s been picked now. He would have been a good 4th line guy with toughness and a pretty good fighter as well.
Godard is anything but a good 4th line guy. Tom Pyatt is a good 4th-line guy, Ryan White is probably a good 4th-line guy.
Eric Godard is not an NHL-calibre hockey player.
I think Gauthier actually agrees with us on that one, which is a good news.
I find it funny that people are talking about the Sens’ 4th line of goons as if it was something to be afraid of. Let them come, a Desharnais-Darche-Trotter line would have so much fun against them that radio stations would get calls about them being our first line.
by Simon Lamarche on Jul 14, 2011 9:51 PM EDT up reply actions
I think the easiest hole to fill is for another PK forward. Plekanec-Moen is a top level first unit but after that we’re talking about some combination of Gionta, Gomez, Desharnais, Cole, Cammaleri and White which doesn’t inspire the confidence Halpern-Pyatt used to.
I could see Desharnais and White being groomed for the job as they have the requisite skills while Gomez-Gionta takes the second unit time but that is closer to serviceable 2nd and 3rd pairings than ideal ones.
I thought Gomez-Gionta was a good pairing last year and White was a good PKer with Pyatt. If he can do the same with Desharnais (both can play center and are average on faceoffs) I think we’re going to be alright.
by Simon Lamarche on Jul 14, 2011 9:54 PM EDT up reply actions
Prospect defenseman trade. Carle for Mitera. I figured that the writing was on the wall for Carle after Diaz was signed as he’s the least interesting of the RHD PMD defenseman in the system.
Agreed on Diaz marking the end of Carle. I think Mitera might be ahead of Nash as well. Nash really only got a call-up last year because Carle was hurt at the time. Hope he makes it… he’s posted good numbers in the A considering he doesn’t get top PP time.
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Nash also was a LHD when the team was relatively stronger on the right
At the NHL level LD is pretty deep with Markov, Gill and Spacek currently taking spots but only Yemelin and maybe Gorges look to be able to cover the position in the near future so their are more depth openings on the left rather than the right with Diaz and Weber looking to make the team. So there is an opportunity for both Nash and Mitera for next year if they can seize it. It will also somewhat depend on what Yemelin proves to be in the NHL, not only in terms of calibre of play but style.
The 2012 RHD situation is intriguing. With both Diaz and Weber looking to lock down the 3rd RD spot behind Subban and Gorges with the other probably a 7/8. I’m very interested to see what Diaz can do this year in the AHL to start making his case. The Swiss league is pretty competitive and he apparently was a top level defenseman there.
by Stephan Cooper on Jul 15, 2011 7:19 PM EDT up reply actions
I’m not sure how Martin will use the D, but obviously Spacek has played a lot of RD for the Habs as well (and was pretty good). At the end of the year, Martin was still more likely to play Sopel or Spacek ahead of Weber. How will he work in Yemelin? I could see a Yemelin-Spacek 3rd pair to start the year with Weber again the odd man out, or doing the forward thing again.
Possibly a moot point, as its only a ‘question’ when we have all our top 6 healthy. I have Markov-Gorges and Gill-Subban as the likely top 2 pairings.
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I think the top two pairings are likely going to cover 45 minutes of ice to start the season. One factor may be whether Yemelin is a pure LD or a swingman like Gorges. History suggests that at least one defenseman will be out at least half the time so the 7th man is going to get regular starts anyway.
by Stephan Cooper on Jul 16, 2011 5:49 AM EDT up reply actions
Having either Markov or Subban out on the ice for up to 40 ES minutes a game if needed is awesome, knowing most teams play around 45 ES minutes a game. Whoever is on the third pairing will have some pretty soft minutes.
It all edges out on Yemelin I think. It seems pretty certain to me that this is the year Weber establish himself by stepping over Spacek’s broken body. But Yemelin is in a position where we could see him push Gill aside by the second half of the season. We’ll see. This is the season where the next 5 year’s defensive core is assembled.
Exactly. We have two 36/37 year olds with one year left on their contract, one star hitting his mid 30s and 3-5 options on D below the age of 27.
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Markov and especially Subban are probably going to get big special teams time. 3+ minutes PP and 2+minutes PK. So they are probably going to average more like 18 minutes ES. Only 4 guys player more than 19 minutes ES per game last year and 21 above 18. Most of them didn’t play both special teams either.
Also Spacek, Yemelin and Weber shouldn’t be so bad to warrant the over use of the top guys. They should be good for 13 ES minutes a night.
Markov might pass PK duties on to Gill, Gorges, Subban and Spacek for more ES time however.
Spacek/Weber/Yemelin: 13 min
Gill: 14 min
Gorges: 16.5 min
Markov/Subban: 18 min
No point in running them ragged like Keith and Seabrook if you have the depth not to.
by Stephan Cooper on Jul 17, 2011 2:58 PM EDT up reply actions
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