The Gazette
Montreal Canadiens Edition
[FIELDSET="Retiring players"]
Here is a list of the notable players retiring this year :
-Teemu Selanne
-Jamie Langenbrunner
-Jarome Iginla
-Nicklas Lidstrom
-Kimmo Timmonen
-Ryan Smyth
-Milan Hejduk
-Daniel Alfredsson
-Chris Pronger
-Brian Rolston
-Tim Thomas
-Evgeni Nabokov
-Marty Turco
[/fieldset]
[FIELDSET="Huberdeau wins Calder Memorial trophy !"]
Montreal Canadiens' center Jonathan Huberdeau, acquired from the Panthers last season, came home from the NHL Award Gala yesterday with the Calder Memorial Trophy. Huberdeau, who scored 22 goals and assisted on 27 for a total of 49 points, was excited about this and told us how much this accomplishment means to him. "Being considered the best rookie in the NHL this season is something that will only push me to get better. I will do everything to live up to the expectations winning this trophy can come up with. I'm very glad I've won it and I'd like to thank my parents and friends for all their support since I started playing hockey. It's and undescriptable feeling. Thank you." Surprisingly, the player that came second in the ballot was his teammate Ryan Murray. No doubt, Canadiens' fans should be excited about their future.
For the second year in a row, Getzlaf left Las Vegas with the Art Ross, the Hart Memorial and the Ted Lindsay trophies. Kevin Shattenkirk, from the Blues, was nominated defenseman of the year and won the Norris trophy.
As classy as usual, Pavel Datsyuk won unsurprinsingly, for the second year in a row, the Lady Bing. Surprisingly, he lost the Frank J. Selke trophy, awarded to the best defensive forward in the league, to no one else than Sidney Crosby.
Vezina Trophy went to New York Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist, who was always amongst the discussions to win it in the past year, but never could. Brian Elliott and Jaroslav Halak, of the Blues, will both share the William M. Jennings trophy for awarding the less amount of goals in the whole league. Finally, the Masterton trophy was awarded to Oilers' defenseman Ladislav Smid, who missed most of last season with injuries and came back with a solid year. Without surprise, Marleau went back home with the Rocket Richard trophy.[/fieldset]
[FIELDSET="Draft Day Recap"]
The Montreal Canadiens made two trades during the draft. First, they've traded winger Erik Cole to the St. Louis Blues for their first round pick this year, 19th overall, and Finnish defenseman Teemu Eronen. Marc Bergevin felt that Cole could come to help to a young and promising team like the Blues and thought it would help the rebuild process of the Canadiens by receiving a pick and a promising defenseman. Eronen, 22, will played in the SM Liga last year and is expected to come over to play in the NHL, hoping to play some games in the NHL.
The other team the Canadiens traded with are the Oilers. In the second round, the management team had their eyes on two players and felt they needed to make a trade to acquire both. As a result, they traded Sebastian Strandberg, Marc Stuart and a 3rd round pick in 2016 to the Oilers for their 2nd and 3rd round picks in 2013, as well as prospects Tobias Rieder and Tyler Pitlick. Pitlick played 16 games in the NHL last year, getting 1 goal and 5 assists, while Rieder played in the OHL, getting 39 goals and 84 points in 61 games. Born in Germany, Rieder is a small but agile player.
With their two mid-first round picks in this year's draft, the Canadiens drafted from the Halifax Mooseheads center Jonathan Drouin, and selected 4 picks later, with the 19th overall, russian forward Valery Nichushkin. "Drouin is a smart playmaker, very skilled with the puck on his stick, and with a great speed to go with. We think he could end up being one of the best players from this year's draft", said Canadiens' scout Trevor Timmins. "As of Nichushkin, it is a gamble. His skill set is probably one of the most complete from this draft : He's big, he hits hard, he plays great on both ends of the ice and he has an excellent nose for the net. We were surprised he was still there when we picked and the whole management team agreed that it was worth the risk", concluded Timmins after the first round pick.
As expected, MacKinnon, who many already compare to Crosby, went first overall to the Blue Jackets, while the Devils drafted Seth Jones with the second overall pick.
The two players the Canadiens coveted in the second round appeared to be center Jeremy Grégoire as well as defenseman Kade Pilton, both drafted by the team. Gregoire is said to be a complete player with a good frame, while Kade Pilton is a 6'4 tall defenseman, who is exceptionnaly agile and quick for his size, and that can also play both ends of the ice. The ISS had him ranked 17th overall in their last month issue, comparing his style of play with those of Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.
The other players drafted by the Canadiens were Ville Husso, Bradley Latour, another dynamic player, in the 3rd round, Matej Paulovic, Malte Stromwall, Sergey Kuptsov and Jacob Graves.
Overall, this draft looks amazing for the Montreal Canadiens. They've drafted two great players born in La Belle Province, took a gamble that could be a great reward and stole Kade Pilton in the second round.[/fieldset]
[FIELDSET="Wednesday June 26th 2013 - Canadiens agree to long-term deals with Pacioretty, Atkinson"]
Two fan favorites, Cam Atkinson and Max Pacioretty have been both locked-up long term with the team. Pacioretty, who had 56 points last year - a career high -, inked a 8 year-long contract that will earn him $5M per year. As of Atkinson, who scored 27 goals last year for 49 points, signed a 6 years contract worth - take a breath - only $18M. Atkinson commented on why he signed for such a low term : "I really like the city. I want to help the team win games as well as acquire other great players that will help us go further, which is made possible by accepting less money." No doubt he will make a lot of friends towards the management team.[/fieldset]
[FIELDSET="Thursday June 27th 2013 - Canadiens sign 5 players to Entry-Level contracts"]
The Canadiens announced today that they signed goalie Ville Husso, who just got drafted, as well as forwards Daniel Pribyl and Olivier Archambeault and defensemen Esa Lindell and Ville Pokka to their first entry-level contracts. [/fieldset]
[FIELDSET="Saturday June 29th 2013 - Schultz and Dumont inked to two-years, two-way deals"]
Marc Bergevin announced this afternoon the signing of minor-league players Gabriel Dumont and Ian Schultz to 2-years, 2-way contract each worth $600K per year.[/fieldset]
[FIELDSET="Sunday June 30th 2013 - Desharnais told he will not be back ; Wheeler re-signs"]
Sadly for many fans, Desharnais, who quickly grew on their heart, has been told by Marc Bergevin he could start looking for offers from other teams as they did not plan to offer him an extension. This is understandable as the Canadiens have many young players coming and Michel Therrien told us he and the management team wanted to give Huberdeau a chance on one of the top-lines at his positiono of strenght - at center.
At the same time, Bergevin told the medias Blake Wheeler, acquired at the deadline, had been re-signed for five years for a grand total of $30M. Fans were worried about his situation as there were no rumours the team and his agent were close to an agreement, but it seems they found one at the last minute. [/fieldset]
[fieldset="Monday July 1st 2013 - Bergevin signs two young, tough forwards"]
Montreal Canadiens announced today they signed both of Matt Beleskey and Nick Palmieri to one year contract worth $1.1M. These signings are suppose to add some depth and toughness to the team, that lacked some during their series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Although both are not expected to be full-time NHLers, they should play an handful amount of games. [/fieldset]
[fieldset="Tuesday July 2nd 2013 - Racine and Beaudry accept contract with Habs"]
Jonathan Racine, a defenseman who was selected in the 3rd round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft by the Panthers but could not earn a contract with them, as well as Jeremy Beaudry, an offensive-minded defenseman who went undrafted for the second year in a row, both accepted the terms of an ELC with the Montreal Canadiens. Bergevin told us that he signed those two players to add depth to the defensive chart of the team as well as variety, as the way it stood before their signing, there were not much promising polyvalent defensemen after Beaulieu and Pilton.[/fieldset]
[fieldset="Thursday July 4th 2013 - Canadiens sign defenseman Roman Josi to a 1 year, $3.325M offersheet"]
Bergevin was known to be a very agressive general manager. There were reports last years that he wanted to send an offersheet to Winnipeg Jets' forward Evander Kane, but that the Jets' forward accepted Winnipeg's offer before he had the time to send him one.
This summer, same story, except that this time, his target was Roman Josi. Only 23 years old, the swiss defenseman earned 49 and 55 points with the Predators in his first two seasons in the NHL.
The Nashville predators have until next Tuesday to decided whether they match this offersheet or accept the compensation - a 2nd round pick in next year's draft.
[/fieldset]
Stay tuned to know if Nashville matches, and how things will turn out, my prospects analysis, as well as the start of the season.
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