Eyes On The Prize, a Montreal Canadiens community

Continuing to wrap up the signings of all their restricted free agents, the Montreal Canadiens have signed Blake Geoffrion to a two way, 1 year deal worth $803,250 in the NHL. Geoffrion's acquisition as part of the Hal Gill trade with the Nashville Predators was loved by Habs fans, as he is the first ever 4th generation hockey player with a single franchise. It remains to be seen whether Geoffrion can make an NHL career for himself, but he adds much needed left wing depth to the organization in Hamilton, and is always there in case of injury. With this deal, Bergevin has now signed every restricted free agent aside from star defender P.K. Subban.

The Montreal Canadiens have reached a 2 year deal with hard hitting Alexei Emelin. Emelin finished last season with 3 goals and 4 assists in 67 games, two of those points came while shorthanded. Emelin averaged about 3.5 hits per game last year, almost all of them of the bone-rattling variety. During the 2011-12 season, Emelin played the 3rd most time at even strength per game of all defenders at 15.22 minutes, showing that he was trusted to handle a lot of minutes in that scenario. Emelin also put up the second best Relative Corsi score of the Habs defense among those players who played more than 20 games and -0.1. The 26 year old Russian impressed fans throughout the season with his continual improvement, agitation, and pure physicality. It only took him a couple months in the league to be named one of the game's best hitters. Update: According to Renaud Lavoie, Emelin's contract is $2M per season

The Canadiens have also signed Travis Moen to a new 4 year deal. 4 years is a lot for a player of Moen's type, but clearly the Habs brass loves him. Moen is a gritty defensive forward who's solid in his own end and on the penalty kill. He's also capable of playing tough minutes and moving up the lineup when there are injuries. Moen's signing seems to make the wingers on the 4th line a couple of defensively responsibly rugged players as Ryan White was signed to play on the right wing. UPDATE: Moen's deal with the Canadiens will pay him an average of $1.85M against the cap.

The Montreal Canadiens have named J.J. Daigneault the defense coach. Daigneault has spent the last several seasons doing the same job for the New York Rangers AHL affiliate, grooming well known defenders like Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh and Michael Del Zotto. With this move, Therrien's coaching staff is now complete heading into the season.

According to TSN.ca, "the Montreal Canadiens are expected to name Michel Therrien as the team's next head coach, with an announcement coming in the next 24 to 48 hours." Stick tap to Olivier for calling it and to all the remaining optimists out there. This should be interesting.

Chris Kuc of the Tribune reports than the Montreal Canadiens will be naming Marc Bergevin, Chicago Blackhawks assistant general manager as the new GM of the Habs.