Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin continues to be a busy man
Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin hasn’t had time to catch his breath.
Last week, Bergevin combined preparations for the National Hockey League draft with a series of continuing negotiations and there’s more discussion on the agenda heading into the opening of the free-agent market at noon Tuesday.
Bergevin has had conversations with the agents for a number of unrestricted free agents, but his immediate concern is the team’s own UFAs. Captain Brian Gionta and defencemen Francis Bouillon and Mike Weaver are in a position to test the free-agent market, and while Bergevin said he hasn’t closed the door on any member of the trio, it doesn’t appear any of them will sign before the deadline.
Weaver’s agent has already said he will pursue other avenues after a lukewarm response from the Canadiens.
Gionta wants to stay in Montreal, but he could probably get more money and a longer term elsewhere. Bergevin still has to sign restricted free agent Lars Eller, but the GM has 11 forwards under contract and the list of candidates to join Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk on the No. 2 line include the Rene Bourque we saw in the playoffs, Daniel Brière, Dale Weise and Michael Bournival.
There are continuing talks with agent Don Meehan over a new deal for defenceman P.K. Subban. There’s no sense of urgency, although neither side is anxious for a repeat of 2013 when the season started without Subban, who is a restricted free agent.
The Canadiens are in a better financial position than many clubs. Some teams were blindsided when the salary cap was set at $69 million U.S. after earlier estimates it could top $71 million. Bergevin has $17.5 million in cap space for five players, but he’ll need almost half that amount to make Subban happy.
The Canadiens came away from the draft in Philadelphia with the sense they picked some future NHLers despite the fact they selected No. 26 in the first round and didn’t have a second-round pick.
Montreal was surprised to find Nikita Scherbak, a Russian forward playing for the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades, was still available when they picked Friday night. The Russian factor — the fear a Russian player will opt for the Kontinental Hockey League—might have scared some teams away, but Scherbak said his goal was “to play in the NHL against the best players in the world.”
The other drafted players represent a range of size, experience and skill that will require patience and development to pay off.
The Canadiens moved up in the third round to select Brett Lernout with the 73rd overall pick.
“I was happy that they thought so much of me that they gave up two picks,” said the 6-foot-4, 205-pound Lernout. “I think they’re going to need physical defencemen in the future and that’s my game.”
The Canadiens obtained the pick from the Arizona Coyotes, giving up their thirdround pick (No. 87) and their fourth-round pick (No. 117).
Ler nout played all 72 games for the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos last season, collecting eight goals and 14 assists. He was a plus-7 and led the team with 103 penalty minutes.
Lernout said he would spend the next few years working on his puck-handling and his foot speed.
“He’s a big, tough kid and we moved up in the draft because we wanted him and we thought there were some other teams that might have grabbed him if we didn’t make that move,” said Trevor Timmins, the Canadiens’ director of amateur scouting.
The Canadiens appeared to be taking a flyer with their first pick in the fifth-round (125th overall). They selected Nikolas Koberstein, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound defenceman from Olds in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
Koberstein was a seventhround draft choice of Prince Albert in the WHL, but elected to play for Olds because he hopes to play U.S. college hockey. He had five goals, 13 assists and 153 penalty minutes last season.
He was one of the three AJHL players selected to play in the Canadian Junior Hockey League Prospects Game. Koberstein, who was ranked 205th by Central Scouting, has committed to the University of Alaska-Fairbanks for 2015.
Later in the fifth round, the Canadiens selected Daniel Audette, a centre from the Sherbrooke Phoenix of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The Canadiens should have a good line on Audette because his dad, former Canadien Donald Audette, works for the team as a scout.
Audette had 21 goals and 55 assists along with 79 penalty minutes last season in Sherbrooke.
His stock in the draft dropped, which might have been because he’s small — 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds — or because there are questions about his defensive game.
Audette was minus-31 in his first junior season and minus-37 this past season.
The Canadiens used their sixth-round selection (177th overall) to pick goaltender Hayden Hawkey f rom the Omaha Lancers.
He was the United States Hockey League’s goaltender of the year after leading the development league with a 1.99 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage. The Colorado native is expected to continue his career at Providence College after another year in Omaha.
Hawkey is regarded as another five-year player and Timmins sees a similar track for seventh-round pick Jake Evans, a slick playmaker from St. Mike’s in the Junior A Ontario Junior Hockey League. Evans recently enrolled at Notre Dame, where he is taking summer courses and training.