Of the nine Canadiens players who were facing unrestricted three agency at the end of the year, five have received contracts for the coming season. The Canadiens re-signed three of them. Mathieu Darche, Andrei Kostitsyn, Chris Campoli and Jaroslav Spacek are still awaitiing offers.
The biggest task the new Canadiens general manager will face in his first months on the job will be repairing the depth at the left wing position. It is clear after closely examining the team;s depth chart that the only options will be the free agent market, trades or bandaid solutions such as playing players out of position..
In late November Max Pacioretty admitted he was confused about the criteria the league was using to adjudicate ‘head shots’. He had just been hit with a three game ban for elbowing Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang. Five months later and the rest of the hockey world is still trying to figure out how Shanahan makes his decisions.
The Canadiens traded forward Andrei Kostitsyn to the Nashville Predators in return for a second round draft pick, their only move on the NHL level on ‘trade deadline day’. Late in the day they returned forward Louis Leblanc to the Hamilton Bulldogs and called up Blake Geoffrion. Geoffrion was acquired from the Predators a week and a half ago as part of the deal that sent Hal Gill to Nashville.
The Canadiens have re-signed leftwinger Mathieu Darche to a one year 700 thousand dollar contract and increase over the half million dollars he received last year. Darche logged an average of 13 minutes of ice tiime last season under almost every circumstance and at age 32, added a leadership component in the dressing room. Last season was only the second time in his eleven-year professional career that he logged a full NHL season.
RDS reports that Mathieu Darche has undergone abdominable surgery which will keep him away from any training for four to six weeks. Darche probably suffered the injury in February. He missed fifteen of seventeen games between February 10th and March 24th and then returned to play in the final eight games of the season and all seven playoff games.
In his ten years since graduating from McGill, Mathieu Darche has played for five NHL organizations and thirteen different professional teams including a year in Germany. The Canadiens signed him last year to add veteran depth to their Hamilton Bulldogs farm team. He played the first 32 games with them. Then Andrei Kostitsyn got hurt in Montreal and on January 22nd Darche was called up. That night, in his first game in a Canadiens uniform, Darche scored a goal and an assist and he was on his way.
Defenseman Jaroslav Spacek and forward Mathieu Darche were quietly placed on the Canadiens injury reserve almost immediately after they were hurt, which should have been the first sign that their lack of availability was not going to be short term. Spacek faces arthroscopic surgery and will be gone for six weeks. Darche has a troublesome groin injury.
It turned out nicely after all, at least on the ice. The week’s schedule featured three games in less than four days (67 hours). It started with that home game against Edmonton Wednesday in which the Canadiens blew a 3-0 lead, losing 4-3 in overtime. The Canadiens came back the next night with a 5-1 win over the injury plagued and struggling Devils in New Jersey before returning home to grind out a 3-1 win over San Jose Saturday afternoon. In the end, the Canadiens took five of a possible six points
It’s about chemistry, or in this case lack-of-chemistry as it relates to Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta and the six or seven players who have played left wing on their line this season. Against Phoenix last night Benoit Pouliot, Travis Moen and Tom Pyatt saw almost equal time on the Gomez line. Tomorrow night Jacques Martin will again start the game with Pyatt on the left side. How long it lasts is anyone’s gue
