Young centres in spotlight on Habs’ retooled roster
Canadiens fans aren’t the only ones looking forward to the 2021 NHL season.
“I always try to keep the expectations down, I guess,” Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin said after signing Brendan Gallagher to a sixyear, Us$39-million contract extension in October. “But we’ve got some good things as a group. I can’t wait to start. I wish it was next week. We’ll have to wait, but I think our players are also very excited, which means a lot. So we’ll see. But I think it’s going to be fun, so I can’t wait to start.”
There will be a lot of new faces on the Canadiens when the 56- game 2021 NHL season finally starts on Jan. 13, including backup goalie Jake Allen, defenceman Joel Edmundson and rookie blueliner Alexander Romanov, along with forwards Josh Anderson, Tyler Toffoli, Corey Perry and Michael Frolik.
Expectations will be high after Bergevin’s off- season acquisitions and spending spree, which included signing defenceman Jeff Petry to a four- year, US$ 25- million contract extension. After playing almost US$8 million under the NHL salary cap for the last three seasons, the Canadiens are right up against the US$ 81.5- million cap and should be a much improved team from the one that went 31-31-9 during the 2019-20 regular season before upsetting the Pittsburgh Penguins in the qualifying round of the expanded COVID-19 post- season and then losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of the playoffs.
“At the end of the season, Marc told me where all the holes are on our roster and he filled every single one of them with the new players,” Canadiens owner/president Geoff Molson told Chris Nilan on TSN 690 Radio. “So expectations I think are pretty high. I think hope is really high and I couldn’t ask for anything better because I couldn’t have answered that question in the same way a year ago and now I can. And so I think that our fans have something to look forward to and we’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.”
Because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, the Canadiens will play in an all- Canadian division in 2021 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks. Every game will be Hockey Night in Canada.
One thing that could work against the Canadiens is a short, 10- day training camp slated to start on Jan. 3, with no pre-season games. With so many new faces in the lineup, there won’t be a lot of time for the team to jell and a slow start to a short season could be devastating.
The Canadiens are hoping Edmundson and Romanov will add depth and physical play on the blue line. Anderson and Toffoli will be counted on to boost an offence that ranked 19th in the NHL last season, scoring an average of 2.93 goals per game, and a power play that ranked 22nd with a 17.7 per cent success rate. Perry and Frolik add depth and experience at the bargain- basement price of US$750,000 each, while Allen will finally provide Carey Price with a solid backup goalie.
But the two players the Canadiens will be counting on most are young centres Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who blossomed during the post- season, bringing their games to “a new level” in Bergevin’s words. Suzuki led the Canadiens in post-season scoring with 4-3-7 totals in 10 games, while Kotkaniemi tied Suzuki for the team lead with four goals.
“I thought we took a really good step forward in the bubble in Toronto, especially with our young players,” Bergevin said. “Now, it was a small sample, I understand it was 10 games.”
The Canadiens are counting on Suzuki, 21, and Kotkaniemi, 20, to play the same way over a 56- game period, which isn’t a guarantee. Phillip Danault will also have something to prove as the veteran centre heads into the final season of his contract with the opportunity to become an unrestricted free agent during the summer. Wingers Tomas Tatar and Joel Armia are also heading into the final season of their contracts and can become unrestricted free agents.
Bergevin made long-term commitments to Anderson ( seven years, US$ 38.5 million) and Toffoli (four years, US$ 17 million) after acquiring them during the off-season. Anderson is coming off shoulder surgery in March and a disappointing season in which he posted 1-3- 4 totals in 26 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Canadiens are hoping the 6- foot- 3, 222- pound power forward can regain the form that saw him post 27-20- 47 totals in 82 games with the Blue Jackets in 2018-19. Toffoli posted 24-20- 44 totals in 68 games last season split between the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks.
The Canadiens definitely look better on paper heading into the 2021 season, but the games will be played on the ice and there are still some question marks.
Pierre Lebrun of The Athletic polled 15 U. S.- based NHL team front- office executives, scouts and coaches to get their predicted order of finish in the all- Canadian division. Two picked the Canadiens to finish first, four had them finishing second, one had them third, six had them fourth, one had them fifth and one had them sixth.
Let the games begin. It should be fun.