When teams go on a losing streak — and the Canadiens are winless (0-4-1) in their last five games after losing 5-3 to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday — the rumour mill goes into high gear.
I seldom pay attention to rumours until they become reality, but I couldn’t help looking at some of the scuttlebutt clogging the internet and came to the conclusion that there is little the Canadiens should do if they have faith in their rebuilding plan.
We’re told the Canadiens are looking for a top-four defenceman who is a right-handed shot.
Really?
Mike Matheson is hands down the team’s best defenceman, a smooth skater who eats up minutes in every situation. The only right-handed shot in the top four is veteran David Savard, who offers a physical presence and is one of the NHL’s top shot blockers.
And then you have the kids, Kaiden Guhle and Lane Hutson, who have to play.
The Canadiens already have some right-handed defencemen — Justin Barron, Logan Mailloux and the injured David Reinbacher. They all displayed enough talent to be first-round draft choices and the goal should be to develop that talent.
Mailloux, incidentally, heads into the weekend as the second-leading scorer for the 8-1 Laval Rocket with three goals and six assists in only four games.
The Canadiens are reportedly looking for a physical forward. There’s no doubt this team needs scoring, but the solution should be in the wings with a healthy Patrik Laine and Ivan Demidov, who is thriving in the KHL even though the coach obviously doesn’t like him. He’s the third-leading scorer for SKA St. Petersburg with six goals and 13 assists in 25 games, but his ice time is limited, averaging only 11 minutes a game.
As for the physical forward, there is speculation the Canadiens are interested in Boston’s Trent Frederic. For starters, the Bruins are unlikely to deal with a division rival and, from a physical standpoint, Frederic is not an upgrade on Michael Pezzetta, who has spent most of this season watching the action. He was No. 1 in hits per 60 minutes with nearly three times as many as Frederic.
There is ongoing clamour for the Canadiens to trade for Trevor Zegras. Things haven’t gone as well as Anaheim expected when they drafted him ninth overall in 2019, and the Canadiens are unlikely to gamble that a change in scenery will produce a change on the ice. You want a centre who is defensively responsible and can win faceoffs, and that isn’t Zegras.
The Canadiens should be considering an upgrade in goal.
After several seasons playing in the shadow on Jake Allen, Sam Montembeault has a chance to prove he can be a No. 1 goaltender but he hasn’t taken advantage of that opportunity. Montembeault and Cayden Primeau are both outside the top 50 in goals-against average.
The goaltenders don’t bear all the blame for Montreal’s dismal defensive record. The defencemen — young and old — have difficulty grasping the defensive system, but outside of Montembeault’s first two games of the season, we haven’t seen a goalie steal a game.
There’s no urgency to bring in a goaltender this season, but it must be a priority if the Canadiens are poised to make a move next season.
And fans can’t wait to see whether Boston College sophomore Jacob Fowler is the Canadiens’ goaltender of the future, because U.S. college goaltenders are a hit-or-miss proposition.
Connor Hellebuyck won the first Mike Richter Award as the top collegiate goalie in 2014, and he has won the Vézina Trophy twice. Two other Richter Award winners — Boston’s Jeremy Swayman and Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko — are No. 1 goaltenders.
But the Richter Award winners also include Primeau and two-time winner Devon Levi, who are struggling as backups.
Will Kapanen be back?: The Canadiens shipped Finnish rookie Oliver Kapanen back to the Timra IK in the Swedish League. He had two assists in 12 games and had a better faceoff percentage than Kirby Dach or Alex Newhook. The Canadiens feel he’ll benefit from more ice time in Sweden, but he could just as easily get lost.
Montreal recalled Lucas Condotta to replace Kapanen, which doesn’t fit the concept of a rebuild. Condotta, who turned 27 on Wednesday, doesn’t fit into the team’s long-range plans and the Canadiens could have given Joshua Roy or Owen Beck some NHL minutes.