Confirmed with Link: Jake Allen signs extensions with the Canadiens (2 years, $3.85M AAV)

[Runner77]

It's a good deal for the Habs but I won't give Hughes too much credit as it was a necessary move.

How about credit for getting the deal done on a short term? Money doesn’t look out of whack either.

 

[Treb]

I don't think they know exactly what the opportunity will be yet.

My guess is that all they know is they like Allen as a leader and a stop gap. Which is probably the right choice given the alternatives internally and externally right now.

I don't think they've identified anyone internally yet as an heir apparent. I forget who said it but I think they were on record saying they don't believe they currently have anyone in the system who can be a #1 goalie. I think highly of Dobes but he's only had one good NCAA season under his belt and we'll need to see how he replicates that.

I also forget who said it but I believe it was Lebrun, who said he wouldn't be surprised if the Habs invest more than one high draft pick this year in a goalie prospect. I'd be looking at the Habs potentially taking Hrabal and Fowler this year.

Will they really be high picks though? The one draft I saw them in has them late 2nd/early third.

Definitely not a great year for goalies again.

Hrabal is on a good start in the USHL though so who knows.

 

[Runner77]

People going crazy over the Habs goaltending situation aren't looking across the league. The Leafs and Oilers couldn't even improve their goaltending situation this off-season and they are contenders.

I don’t think it has much to do with being contenders as much as it does with management priorities and roster building approaches.

These are the same teams who are always open to spending money on scoring forwards but who don’t seem as eager to invest on defencemen and goalies.

 

[River Meadow]

Pretty good salary to lock up our surefire #1 goalie for another 2 years.

 

[BaseballCoach]

I mean a 7 and 3 teams NTC isn't that prohibitive. I assume most teams on that list will be teams he probably doesn't want to be on like Arizona for example.

The three teams on his list in his final year are EXTREMELY UNLIKELY to be the teams that want to acquire Jake for a Cup run.

I don’t think it has much to do with being contenders as much as it does with management priorities and roster building approaches.

These are the same teams who are always open to spending money on scoring forwards but who don’t seem as eager to invest on defencemen and goalies.

If they really have an appetite for scoring forwards, we could talk......

 

[WeThreeKings]

Will they really be high picks though? The one draft I saw them in has them late 2nd/early third.

Definitely not a great year for goalies again.

Hrabal is on a good start in the USHL though so who knows.

They are 2nd rounders

 

[Runner77]

Allen is fine at that cap hit. I think the knock on him would be that you can't give him too much of a meaty workload because that seems to be when his play suffers. He's good for a 1a/1b type of goalie rotation, though.

It keeps the door open for a good chunk of starts to become available to other goalies in the system who you would hope become better than Allen one day.

Seems to me it’s not just the number of games he’ll get into but how well his workload is managed. He tends to become injured when he’s solicited too extensively within a short timespan as was the case last year under MSL — it appeared to me that MSL overused him.

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

First reaction is it was a bit high of an AAV but once I remembered he’s going to be shelled worse than any Habs goalie has been probably ever it’s justifiable and only short term

 

[peate]

Primeau will be nothing more than a backup, if that.

I hope that happens. I’m not sure that Primeau could ever be more than a no. 2.

I'm still looking for what the Habs saw in him. He has many flaws in his game. Can't cover the posts, got beat a few times on weak shots. His puck handling is average. Lets hope he improves during the season in Laval by playing a lot. Not a #1 goalie at this point.

 

[Runner77]

I'm still looking for what the Habs saw in him. He has many flaws in his game. Can't cover the posts, got beat a few times on weak shots. His puck handling is average. Lets hope he improves during the season in Laval by playing a lot. Not a #1 goalie at this point.

Primeau did well last season in the AHL playoffs. I was hoping it would carry over to this camp but he’s just not looking the part right now.

 

[Habby4Life]

Primeau did well last season in the AHL playoffs. I was hoping it would carry over to this camp but he’s just not looking the part right now.

He’s a minor leaguer at best. They have three years to find a Grade A goalie prospect and/or a legit 1 via trade or FA. Allen buys them time.

 

[Treb]

They are 2nd rounders

So we should be fine picking them with whatever 2nd we gather this year from Drouin/Dadonov/Byron/Monahan. If they are too late in the round, we have 3 4th round picks to move up.

 

[LaP]

I mean a 7 and 3 teams NTC isn't that prohibitive. I assume most teams on that list will be teams he probably doesn't want to be on like Arizona for example.

For the next 5 to 7 years it would be silly for a player to not have at least a 1 team NTC

 

[yianik]

This gives all our goalie prospects up to 3 more years at maximum (less for some of course ) for someone to step up. It also gives us 3 years to trade for a starter or some young developing goalie and hope he becomes a no.1.

Good signing.

 

[GrandBison]

Possible, in which case Montembeault is likely traded unless we somehow don't sign Dichow or start one of Dobes/Dichow in the ECHL.

Montembeault is still intriguing. You never know with goalies, he could be a starter be the end of the year.

 

[Treb]

Montembeault is still intriguing. You never know with goalies, he could be a starter be the end of the year.

You "never know", but you do know at some point.

If Montembeault ever ends up being a legit starter, buy a lottery ticket because you are a master at next to zero odds.

Montembeault being a career NHL backup would be an achievement for him.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

Primeau hype is over ahler inbound
Montombeau is #3
Allen is a backup
Nothing in the pipeline.
I get it , they want to keep vet goalie that can play games. But 4m a year is meh.

Allen is the kind of goalie that you find at ufas + he's aging.

Also is probably getting paid more because he will have to goalkeep with probably the worst def of the league for 2 yearw in a row which is kinda a good reason


Don't know what's the plan for goalies at all

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

People going crazy over the Habs goaltending situation aren't looking across the league. The Leafs and Oilers couldn't even improve their goaltending situation this off-season and they are contenders.

Yeah but you forget that Oilers had 2 overpaid ahl goalies caliber with 0 salary cap.

While Toronto has no salary cap and knew that Jack can't carry shit but i still wonder why they took Murray whos even more garbage.

They handled that pretty bad. Allen was surely available, Unless habs asked too much.


Most contender teams drafted their own goalie or are packed defensively and offensively.

 

[Whalers Fan]

Weeks later, Weekes was right.

That pun was weak.

 

[morhilane]

Yeah but you forget that Oilers had 2 overpaid ahl goalies caliber with 0 salary cap.

While Toronto has no salary cap and knew that Jack can't carry shit but i still wonder why they took Murray whos even more garbage.

They handled that pretty bad. Allen was surely available, Unless habs asked too much.

Most contender teams drafted their own goalie or are packed defensively and offensively.

Campbell now makes $5m AAV with the Oilers and he's hanging with 17 other goalies between $5m and $6.4m. Only 3 makes more (Price and the two starters in Florida). It wasn't a money thing for the Oilers, they paid to get the best goalie available on the UFA market...

Toronto have been doing stupid decisions with goaltending for a few years thought.

And Allen wasn't available, HuGo wouldn't be extending him if he was on the market.

And yes, teams have to draft them, but now they takes until they are 27-28 before they can be starters (i.e. 10 years).

 

[Treb]

Primeau hype is over ahler inbound
Montombeau is #3
Allen is a backup
Nothing in the pipeline.
I get it , they want to keep vet goalie that can play games. But 4m a year is meh.

Allen is the kind of goalie that you find at ufas + he's aging.

Also is probably getting paid more because he will have to goalkeep with probably the worst def of the league for 2 yearw in a row which is kinda a good reason


Don't know what's the plan for goalies at all

Allen is not getting paid more than his caliber. Take 5 seconds and look at comparable goalies (or check my post earlier in the thread).

We're not in a 75M cap anymore.

 

[Halakitlikethat]

The Habs were never getting a first rounder for Allen. If that was the return he would have already been traded. There were lots of teams desperate for goalies last season.

 

[Twisted Sinister]

I'm seeing this sentiment a lot here and in other discussions with Montreal fans and I truly don't understand where it's coming from. The Canadiens finished last place in 21-22 and they've traded Toffoli, Lehkonen, Kulak, Chiarot, Petry, and Romanov with only Dach and Matheson coming back as intentionally "good" roster players. Otherwise, the only veteran replacements to the outgoing players were Dadonov/Monahan, who represent franchise player money at 11M combined for two cap dumps we ate for futures/long-term cap flexibility. They retained Montembeault after 38 games of .891 play and made no efforts to clear salary this offseason to address roster holes. What exactly is signalling to you that they aren't in this for a rebuild?

Rebuilding is a team-level strategic decision to spend a period of time focusing on accumulating long-term assets and cap flexibility at the expense of short-term competitiveness. Drafting high is a part of rebuilding, but rebuilding does not require optimizing your decisions for the highest draft lottery odds possible at the expense of all other concerns. The front office determining that the development value of having a single credible veteran goalie on a team where you're going to be cycling in 4-5 different rookie defencemen this season is more important than the marginal few percent increase in lottery odds from finishing eg. 30th vs 29th does not mean they are unwilling to go all-in on a rebuild.

The new odds have changed the strategic framework for tanking significantly. It isn't worth actively trying to finish as low as possible unless you can guarantee 32nd place. Your odds at the 1st pick are 25.5% if you finish in 32nd, and it rapidly drops to 13.5, 11.5, 9.5, 8.5, 7.5 etc for the 31-27th places and so on. The juice just isn't worth the squeeze unless you can guarantee a 32nd place finish and I don't think that's a reasonable goal without doing active harm to the roster given how bare Arizona's roster is.

Sorry for the delayed response, haven't been around today.

First off, I'd be very happy to finish 32nd, and I think we'd have an amazing chance at doing so if we didn't have Allen as our starter. I will say, more than anything else, Allen would be the difference between us finishing 32nd and something like 25th because the other goalies are not great to say the least.

Even if we do not finish 32nd, getting Michkov or Fantilli is no joke. Those guys are likely future franchise players. I'm not too certain you could say the same about the guys 4 and below, even thought there is a LOT of talent there.

Lastly, not signing Allen and then trading him to a desparate team with goaltending problems 20 or so games into the season would net maximum return, allowing us to potentially snag possibly another 1st round pick or B+ prospect. We already have sufficient "character" veterans on the team in Eddie, Gally, Savard, Matheson, etc to carry the load.

EDIT: Just to add, I've never bought the "losing culture" argument. Almost every team that has won the cup in the cap era has rebuilt.

 

[Kojo]

I'm happy for Allen. He's perfect for the job. I just hope he doesn't try to be a hero and steal too many games for us.

 

[BLNY]

I'm happy for Allen. He's perfect for the job. I just hope he doesn't try to be a hero and steal too many games for us.

He's a very good goalie, but he's not a miracle worker. Relying on any of our goalies to steal games is the ultimate recipe for finishing in the bottom 3.