What The Habs Should Look For In The Off Season Part 2

The season is over for the Montreal Canadiens, today the team reported to the Bell Centre for the last time this season to clear out their lockers. Who should the Habs be interested in for next season?

With players like Brian Smolinski, Patrice Brisebois, Mark Streit, and Michael Ryder being unrestricted free-agents, the Habs have some space on the team. Un-restricted free agents like Maxim Lapierre, Andrei Kostitsyn, Mikhail Grabovski, Ryan O’Byrne, Jaroslav Halak, and Josh Gorges, the Habs have some decisions to make.

Personally, I think that Smolinski, Ryder, and Brisebois should be thanked for their services, with those three players gone, the Habs wold save a little over 5 million in salaries, to go with the money they already had in the bank, not to mention all the money that the Habs got in each round of the play-offs. Streit will be an interesting debate, although small, he helped the Habs in the regular season achieve the #1 power-play in the league, however in the play-offs, had an injury to his back, no doubt due to the physicality of the series with the Boston Bruins. With this in mind, also keeping in mind that the Habs need more size, will Streit’s new salary demand be explainable? Will the Habs keep him on the third or fourth line but use him on the point for the power-play?

As for the RFA’s, Lapierre showed me nothing in the play-offs, with the exception of some speed, and a few good plays, he was decent in the regular season,  so if the Habs were to lose him big deal, sign him to the league minimum, or send him back to the Hamilton bulldogs. Mikhail Grabovski will either replace Tomas Plekanec, or Saku Koivu, which doesn’t appear to be in the near future, however both Koivu, and Plekanec are UFA’s, and RFA’s at the end of next season, will they be traded for something, who knows, but for now Grabovski doesn’t fit. Halak is another story, a good goaltender, but not what Carey Price needs as a back up, unless the Habs think that they can sign him to play 20-25 games a season, then they have to move him. O’Byrne seems to be afraid of laying people out, he’s a good skater for a big man, but will have to learn how to punish forwards on the boards as Mike Komisarek did, or else with the plethora of defense-men on the farm team waiting for a chance, he might not be here either. Gorges is a good defense-man, he is small however, and Francis Bouillon is also a small guy, so one of them will have to go. As for Andrei Kostitsyn, he is going to be a decent sniper, not a superstar, but there are un-confirmed reports that he has been asked to play for the Russian Super League, with a salary of 4 million a year, he would follow in the foot-steps of Alex Perezhogin. If that is the case, then that would open up another spot on the roster as Kostitsyn isn’t worth that yet.

With the few players like Raffi Torres, or Paul Gaustad, and Jordin Tootoo, the Habs would definitely be a bigger, more physical team, and with defense-men like Pavel Valentenko, and Alexei Yemlin, and Ryan McDonagh, to come up soon, the Habs will have their sand paper players behind the blue line, all these factors would let the skilled forwards play like they did in the regular season, but would allow the Habs to be more physical, and grittier, in the regular season as well as the play-offs. These additions would also make it more interesting for fans to watch, as well as being able to protect their stars, which might make it more atracting for other players to come here. 

Right now this is how the team will look:

Higgins-Koivu-?

A.Kostistyn, if he doesn’t got to Russia- Plekanec-Kovalev

Begin-?-Kostopolous

Latendresse-Lapierre-?

Here’s how it could look:

A.Kostitsyn-Plekanec-Kovalev

Begin-Gaustad- Torres

Tootoo-Stoll/Lapierre-Kostopoulos/Boogaard/Stewart

Of course, depending on what the Habs do with the Ilya Kovalchuk hopes of the fans, the other line could look like this:

Higgins/S.Kostitsyn-Koivu-Kovalchuk

On the defensive side it looks like this:

Markov-Komisarek

Hamrlik-O’Byrne

Gorges-Bouillon

It could look like this:

Markov-Komisarek

Hamrlik-O’Byrne/Valentenko

Yemlin/Gorges-Bouillon/ Mcdonagh

Without making drastic changes in the defensive core, maybe bringing up Valentenko, the Habs would be a team to be reckoned with, of course perhaps none of these changes would happen, but it would be a team to be feared, both in the scoring department, as well as the physical department.

I don’t want a team of superstars, or goons, just a good mix. All the players I have named are not that expensive, and would still leave room for the Habs to acquire a free agent star.

Those are the people I believe the Habs need in order to advance further in the play-offs, probably without Kovalchuk, as he would cost a fortune. Besides Kovalchuck, the other players are good players with heart, and determination to get what is needed to win, it would be nice to see.