Hockey Talk

Canadiens Bound to Lose a Player

I know I've been talking about the Montreal Canadiens a lot especially since making a deep playoff run this season.

Note that lineup regulars, Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Alexander Romanov are exempt from the draft.

There's really one issue I want to discuss. The protection of defencemen. The four defencemen of Weber, Chiarot, Petry, and Edmundson were really the entire defense for the Canadiens. But with the two protection options it would not make sense for all four of them to be protected. If all four were protected than that would mean only four forwards could be protected. Protecting their top four forwards would not be worth losing a forward. Because the top spots given o forwards would most likely be, Anderson, Gallagher, Toffoli, and Kotkaniemi. Not worth it.

It should be an obvious that Shea Weber, their captain will be protected. It's not just his captaincy that's keeping him there. He has had the best season of any of the defencemen on the team with the most shots on goal and scoring chances from a blue liner. The other protection that would make the most sense is Jeff Petry. Aside from dealing with injuries this season he is the most offensive blue liner on the team.

There is the option of leaving Weber unprotected assuming that the Kraken do not want his $7.9 million AAV. But that is very unlikely to happen.

Which leaves us with either protecting Chiarot or Edmundson and I can make a strong case for both. U think both have been great. However I'm going to go with Ben Chiarot. I think that he will fit better in the plans for the team. He does a great job clearing in front of the net and blocking shots. Not to mention how well him and Shea Weber are on the top pair. He also plays a crucial roll on the PK. I don't see any other defender being able to take his place anytime soon. If Chiarot is left unprotected I think he may very well be the one Seattle chooses to take.

So Canadiens fans can hope that even with Edmundson unprotected that he isn't the one Seattle chooses to take. So in the end it is the a matter of minimizing the amount of damage done but no matter what it will be a loss for the Canadiens, no matter who Seattle chooses to take.