Montreal Canadiens: Newly acquired Joel Edmundson gets an extension
By Nick Herrera
After trading for Joel Edmundson, the Montreal Canadiens handed him a four-year extension.
Wednesday evening news broke the Montreal Canadiens reached an agreement on a new four-year contract with newly acquired Joel Edmundson. The deal is reportedly worth $3.5 million per year. Montreal traded a fifth-round draft pick to Carolina for the 27-year-old defenseman on September 12th.
Despite the spark that Edmundson gave the Canes against the New York Rangers in the qualifying round they felt they should snatch up a late-round draft pick instead of letting Edmundson walk into free agency. When the Canes season ended they had nine defensemen who played over 40 games in the shortened season (some with other teams).
Montreal on the other hand had consistency in their blueline presence, but not as much depth. The Habs’ top two defenders are solidified with Shea Weber and Jeff Petry. Both are right-handed shots and put up 36 and 40 points respectively. Petry maybe could be trade bait next season as this is his contract year, but it would be hard to even imagine a team being willing to take on Weber’s contract.
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Playstyle wise, Edmundson is more like Ben Chiarot. Each are defense first, physical players, and each are left-handed shooters. Each is also earning $3.5 million annually. Putting a defensive-minded Edmundson or Chiarot with the higher point producing Weber or Petry makes for a solid top four defensemen for the Canadiens.
If the Manitoba native is going to be inserted into Montreal’s top four, who gets the boot? If we look at dependability and time on ice numbers from last season it would appear that either Karl Alzner or Xavier Ouellet could be moved or made the team’s seventh defenseman. Both averaged around 13 minutes per game last season. Alzner however is making $4.6 million, while Ouellet is a pending restricted free agent.
Alzner is most likely too expensive to move, and Ouellet could be an affordable resigning. Both could split time on the third pairing next to Brett Kulak. This would provide Montreal with not just depth and flexibility, but experience throughout the defensive lineup.
Where does that leave Victor Mete? The 22-year-old former fourth-round draft pick has proved that he is an NHL player. But with only four goals in 171 career games, Mete does seem expendable. Mete is a restricted free agent and Montreal has control over his signing rights. However, young, dependable NHL defenseman are not easy to come by and not easy to acquire.
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Should Montreal take advantage of Mete’s youth and see what kind of assets they can get for him, teams like Detroit, Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Ottawa are all rebuilding, and all need to work on their bluelines. As far as Montreal goes, each of those teams drafts early in each round. The rights to resign Mete could draw a high forth or even high third-round draft pick from the right buyer.