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For such a long time, the Canadiens were a one-man team, Montreal’s fate was resting solely on Carey Price’ shoulders and it showed. Each year we were told, you’ve got to aim to make the playoffs and then anything can happen. In other words, we may not be contenders, but Carey Price can give any team a chance to win the big prize. Now that Price is gone and that Marc Bergevin has walked the plank, the new regime is focused on building a perennial contender and not a cult.
Kent Hughes said it when he took the helm, his Canadiens would be an offensive minded team in an ideal world and when the time came to pick a new coach, he went for an offensive wizard in Martin St-Louis. While a coach who adheres to his strategy is an essential element of icing a team focused on attacking, he needs to have players who can deliver the goods and that’s exactly what Cole Caufield is.
In his end of season media availability, Caufield said that he hasn’t proven anything yet and that he hasn’t been able to play a full NHL season to date, but the fact is that on an offence starved Montreal team with limited firepower, he was scoring at a near 50-goal a season pace. Whichever way you look at it, a bona fide sniper is an essential ingredient to build a contender and the Canadiens need to ink Caufield as a matter of urgency.
Say what you will about Marc Bergevin, but he did manage to sign Nick Suzuki to a rather reasonable and team friendly deal. The captain is here for 7 more years with a cap hit of $7.875 million and if he keeps improving and putting up new career highs, he’ll be thoroughly worth every penny.
The secret to building a contender is to make sure that you’ve got enough money to go around to build a real team and not just a bunch of players which include a couple of stars and sidekicks who don’t have the talent to ride with them. This is where Kent Hughes can show us what he’s really made of.
Chances are, the Canadiens are hoping that Cole Caufield will be a perennial contender for the Rocket Richard trophy in the long run, that he’ll score goals at a David Pastrnak pace, but they don’t want to have to sign him to a Pastrnak like contract. The Boston forward scored 61 goals this season and signed a new contract early in March with an AAV of $11.250 million. Montreal cannot afford to give Caufield that kind of deal, it’s too much to give a single player for one and it’s too much compared to what Suzuki is earning, you’ve got to find a way to keep a viable salary structure.
Prior to the start of the season, the Dallas Stars signed Jason Robertson to a 4-year deal with an AVV of 7.750 million. In the first year of this new deal, Robertson put up 109 points (46 goals and 63 assists), that’s the kind of deal the Canadiens need to ink Caufield to, a bang for your buck kind of deal. In an ideal world though, you want to sign him for longer than 4 years, but that kind of commitment comes at a premium.
Both the team and the players have said that they want to reach a deal and it’s probably only a matter of time before they do, but the sooner the better. After all, come July 1st, Caufield will be a restricted free agent and could receive an offer sheet, we do not need a repeat of the Kotkaniemi saga. Especially since the Canadiens need to plan and a hostile offer would have very little regard for the team’s salary structure. You can always match the offer, but it’s never a desirable outcome… Just think of how much the Flyers offered Shea Weber and what it meant to the Predators to match it. Time is of the essence in this matter and Hughes really needs to put pen to paper ASAP with his young sniper.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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