The San Jose Sharks were finally able to pull off a trade to send Erik Karlsson to the Pittsburgh Penguins, but it wouldn’t have gotten done if it weren’t for the Montreal Canadiens, who, by many accounts, were big winners by getting themselves involved.
This wasn’t expected to be a year where the Canadiens pushed for the playoffs just yet, but it was one to start to get the competitive juices flowing and see what they have in many of their young guys. While this trade helps them in the win department, it has the opposite effect on giving chances to some of the young players.
The three-team trade involved nine players and 12 pieces. The Canadiens received Jeff Petry, Casey DeSmith, Nathan Legare, and a 2025 second-round pick while moving Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick. Based on what they gave up and received, I’d say that is a win to start. But the trade has much deeper impacts on the Canadiens this season that we will now dive into.
Petry & Right Defence Depth
The big piece coming to Montreal is Petry, who’s returning after just one season in Pittsburgh to the place he spent the majority of eight seasons. He struggled in his final season with the Canadiens in comparison to the previous four, where he scored at least 11 goals and 40 points in each and earned Norris Trophy votes in two of them. He will instantly slot back in the top-four…if he doesn’t get dealt before the season starts.
Eric Engels believes that as no money was retained on Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick, there are open retention spots if the Canadiens do trade Petry before or during the season. Since the Penguins retained 25 percent of his salary in the trade, that means at 50 percent, the Canadiens can open up a number of opportunities to trade Petry at just $2.34 million AAV for this year and next.
Now, if the Canadiens don’t end up trading Petry just yet, they will likely be fine with slotting him into their top-four as he does make their defence better. He has generally stayed healthy, is a veteran who is very acquainted with Montreal, logs lots of minutes, and does plenty of things well defensively, like hit and block shots. Last season, he also greatly reduced his giveaways. The Canadiens have a fairly valuable piece at their disposal now.
If Petry is kept around for a little bit, that likely all but confirms David Reinbacher will spend another season with Kloten in the National League (NL) before making the jump over to North America (from “Sting prospect Reinbacher prefers to play in Europe next season”, The Sarnia Observer, June 5, 2023). This also means defensive roster spots will be hard to come by, as Arber Xhekaj, Jordan Harris, Justin Barron, Johnathan Kovacevic, and Chris Wideman will all be gunning for two spots in the lineup and three on the team. I don’t like Wideman’s chances, but I would like to see Xhekaj, Harris, and Barron get significant playing time in the NHL this season.
Canadiens Are Prepared in Net for Movement
The Canadiens have themselves plenty of goaltending depth now that DeSmith has been added to the mix. This means Sam Montembeault will be flanked by DeSmith, Jake Allen, or Cayden Primeau in the NHL this season. The biggest potential loss this preseason will be if Primeau doesn’t manage to make the team out of training camp. If this is the case, he will have to go through waivers, and there is a pretty good chance a team will pick him up. If that happens, the Canadiens still have three goaltenders to work with as their next man up after that is Jakub Dobes, who will be an American Hockey League (AHL) rookie this season.
Like Montembeault, DeSmith is an unrestricted free agent (UFA) after this season, but he has better numbers than both Montembeault and Allen last season. DeSmith might have had his worst season in 2022-23 with a .905 save percentage (SV%), but he has finished all four of his other seasons in the NHL with a .912-plus SV% and can start 30-35 games easily.
This should either bring the Canadiens to trade Allen or have him play in the AHL. Engels noted that there is a real possibility that the Canadiens carry three goaltenders on their roster to start the season.
Canadiens Utilizing Money Well & Freeing Up Roster Spots
The Canadiens aren’t a team with any cap problems, but they have been utilizing their cap space well, regardless. Last offseason, they sent Petry and his full contract ($6.25 million AAV) to the Penguins, only to get him back with only 75 percent of his contract ($4.687 million AAV) with a draft pick and after his $3 million bonus had already been paid this season.
Related: Canadiens Have 4 Interesting Positional Battles in Top-6
I’ve already noted the great work to not retain any money on Hoffman and Pitlick, but moving both opens up two roster spots for some of the young players that might not have gotten a chance, such as Jesse Ylonen or Lias Andersson. This should all but lock Rafael Harvey-Pinard into a top-12 spot in the Canadiens’ lineup too.
The Canadiens did very well as the third team in this Karlsson trade, adding depth where it was needed, bringing in value to capitalize on later, and opening up space for young players to get an opportunity. What other tricks do the Canadiens have up their sleeve?
