So the Steady Eddie trade is defensible if a little disappointing. My uninformed fan's solution was to hold on to him until the trade deadline, when he could reap a second and in the best of a Chiarot world, a first-rounder. You'd have Matheson, Guhle and Edmundsson on the left, which again in my plan you dealt with by unloading Victor Mete 2.0, namely Jordan Harris, on some other gullible GM (Pierre Dorion), and sending Wifi to Laval at least to start the year.
But Gorton and Hughes keep talking about culture, and it might have harmed the culture and the dressing room to send down a popular teammate like Arber, and maybe they think he's essential in the lineup as currently constituted. And Joel lost half a season due to back problems last year, and the analytics aren't kind to him, so Kent Hughes took 80 cents on the dollar by flipping him to the Caps for a third-rounder, and a seventh we can use in the future to honour David Poile and his remarkably lifelike mop of thick full brown hair.
I can go along with this move, a bird in hand and all that stuff, and maybe it does help to develop our young guys on D by giving them more ice and responsibility, so ultimately beneficial in the long term. But the flipside of this wager is if injury-prone Mike Matheson and/or David Savard miss weeks of action, watch out, we'll have a fragile D-corps, which may experience growing pains and the sophomore jinx, especially without the trusty vets around.
UFA July 1 was as boring as the draft was, with no trades, certainly none of the blockbusters the experts and insiders portended. I'm glad the Canadiens stayed clear of the first day of overspending, but now I'm thinking of finding bargains, even if we really don't have any room on the roster. Maybe a cheap veteran goalie for depth insurance? We're going to have to white-knuckle the start of the season with Caden Primeau, whether we keep three goalies on the roster or try to sneak him to Laval. Better have a Plan D.
I see Jonathan Bernier is available, but I don't think he'd be ready to accept a grand-frère role in Laval at this stage of his career. Keith Kincaid, maybe his lively social media presence can counter any burned bridges (no, I'm not serious)? Le retour de Zach Fucale? Does anyone know anything about Jean-François Bérubé?
At other positions, the UFA status of Maxime Comtois is certainly intriguing, a big winger with talent who should be able to score, but who's had two very disappointing seasons in Anaheim, which I can attest to, having taken flyers at times on him on my fantasy team, when I was desperate for help and he'd be given first line and powerplay duties by the Ducks. We find out though that he is one of the subjects of the sexual assault investigation on the Canadian World Junior team, and would that explain his drop in performance, like seemingly Carter Hart's? I'll bet we steer clear of him.
At defence, we need to replenish the ranks in Laval for callups and just to have enough bodies. Maybe Frédéric Allard can re-sign if the grass isn't greener elsewhere. Nicolas Meloche is out there available. Bode Wilde is a name...
At forward, I guess we made our lowball offer to Dennis Gurianov already, when we held his rights and chose not to make him a qualifying offer, so he's almost certainly not returning. Adam Erne is a name on the list that flashes, would he be okay with a 14th forward role, a big winger who's called up situationally, when injuries strike? Kieffer Bellows' name pops also, although not his stats in the NHL. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare can Frenchify us, and bring some Bottom 6 grit and championship experience, a leftie centre for added depth, and for when Jake Evans gets conkied again.
We could take a chance on Julien Gauthier, in the faint hope clause, at minimum wage. If we ever unload Joel Armia, we could plug and play Julien in his role of the disengaged 6'4" fourth-liner, and reap the savings.
Any other ideas out there?
