The Canadian wants to add a right-handed defender

With the departure of Jeff Petry, the Montreal Canadiens now have a glaring lack of depth on the right side of their blue line. A week ago we believed that the problem was more on the left, but the arrival of Mike Matheson changes the situation.

Here is the team’s defensive roster as of now:

joel edmondson – David Saverd

mike mateson – chris wideman

corey schuenemann – justin barron

jordan harris – madison bowey

Kaiden Guhle

Otto Leskinen

On the left, the club has something interesting on its hands. With veterans like Edmundson and Matheson being able to play big minutes, there will be a lot less pressure on young defenders.

On the other hand, the story is totally different. There’s no depth, and in an ideal world, Wideman wouldn’t play second pair. In a press conference, Kent Hughes explained that Matheson, Schueneman, Harris and even Leskinen could evolve on his bad side. but this is obviously not desirable.

In the last year, the team has lost five regular defenders. They are Ben Chiarot, Alexander Romanov and Brett Kulak on the left and Shea Weber and Jeff Petry on the right.

Those losses have only been partially recovered, but at least several young full-backs appear to be moving up the ranks.

In the meantime, the Habs will have to find a solution. At a press conference this afternoon, Kent Hughes explained that the team was interested in incorporating a right back.

He said it could be done through a trade, waivers or the free agent market.

Right now, the options through unrestricted free agents are slim. The only ones who played in the NHL last year are John Klinberg (too expensive), Anton Stralman, PK Subban, Paul LaDue, Greg Pateryn, Michael Stone and Alex Biega.

Could we see the return of number 76 to Montreal? Personally, I vote yes.

But if Kent Hughes wants to make a takeover in the coming weeks, he will still have to post salaries. He also said today that he was still working on this file.

Despite all the trades made, the Habs only have $1.248 million in cap space. Remember, though, that Kirby Dach and Samuel Montembeault are yet to be signed. Although they won’t earn big salaries, CH doesn’t have enough room right now to sign both of them.

Obviously, the Carey Price case could drastically change the situation. Unfortunately, the team is still waiting for an answer and it could be a long time before they have one…

Over time, the situation will improve with the expiration of the contracts, but in the short term this remains problematic.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise if the trade rumors continue in the coming weeks. So the possibility of Josh Anderson, Mike Hoffman or Joel Armia leaving is to be expected, but Hughes will have to get very creative to do so.

Otherwise, Christian Dvorak could also be transferred, but his departure would leave a big hole in the center. His situation is therefore closely linked to that of Pierre-Luc Dubois…

A lot of

– Will continue tomorrow

– A player who will have had a big impact in Montreal.

– Interesting

– Mike Matheson will speak to the Montreal media on Monday.

– The club would need it!

LATEST NEWS 4:40 pm #CFMTL According to my information the game is almost sold out, there are few tickets left. 19:30 tonight Stade Saputo #cfmtl against #tfclive

– 🎙️Gavino De Falco (@GavinoDe_Falco) July 16, 2022