Dobber's offseason fantasy hockey grades – Montreal Canadiens

For the last 18 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber has reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

The 19th annual review will appear here on DobberHockey throughout the summer. This is not a review of the likely performance on the ice or in the standings, but in the realm of fantasy hockey both for the season ahead as well as the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the team perform? Are there plenty of depth options worthy of owning in keeper leagues? What about over the next two or three years? These questions are what I take into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart.

Enjoy!

Gone – Corey Perry, Cale Fleury, Charlie Lindgren, Eric Staal, Erik Gustafsson, Michael Frolik, Tomas Tatar, Phillip Danault, Charles Hudon, Shea Weber(?)

Incoming – Mathieu Perreault, Mike Hoffman, David Savard, Chris Wideman, Jean-Sebastien Dea, Louie Belpedio, Cedric Paquette

Impact of changes – The Stanley cup finalists would usually be one of the first places fantasy managers would look for fantasy gems in the upcoming season, however, this Canadiens team is a little different. The team lost two of their top checking centres, one of their highest scoring wingers, and one of their top defencemen is likely going to miss the season due to injuries.

The team did bring in Hoffman on the wing to replace Tatar, and Savard on defence to replace Weber, but the centre-ice position is going to be filled in-house. What that means is that Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi (assuming the Canadiens match the offersheet) are suddenly going to have to carry a lot more responsibility. Suzuki had broken out already, while it seems like only a matter of time until Kotkaniemi also takes a big step forward offensively. Unfortunately for fantasy owners, it may not be this year that it happens.

If the Canadiens don’t match the offersheet to Kotkaniemi, then it is likely they will go out and acquire another centre. Tomas Hertl, Christian Dvorak, and the big fish Jack Eichel are the main centres whose names keep appearing in the rumour mill. Eichel seems unlikely, but the other two are plausible, and would fill in the other slot at centre. Internally, Jonathan Drouin could also be shifted to centre assuming he is back on the ice. If he is back and ready then an improved set of wingers around him could be great for his value.

The top power play featuring shooters Tyler Toffoli, Cole Caufield, and Hoffman will be lethal though, and should help patch over a bit of the loss in possession control at even strength. Last year's unit clicked at a hair under 20%, so this season we may see the team jump into the top-10 range, which would mean at least 22%. If you're looking to add some powerplay points, this may be a spot to try and buy a few more on the cheap.

Ready for Full Time –

The Canadiens don't have any new prospects ready to graduate, but they have a couple of players ready to take on full time roles after being held back a little last season.

Cole Caufield – Already mentioned above as a likely part of the top power play unit, Caufield has the potential to score 50 goals in a season, and could be doing it very soon. The electric goal-scorer should find himself on an offensive line with plenty of support and opportunities. He's going to be a fantasy stud very quickly.

Alex Romanov – The Canadiens' best defenceman under the age of 25 already played most of last season, but he wasn't given much freedom offensively, or trusted on the defensive end of things. He's ready for a big bump in deployment this year. He has high two-way potential, and could be an option to run the power play this year with Shea Weber out, and Jeff Petry logging heavy minutes otherwise.

Fantasy Outlook:

The team is returning with a lot of the same core as the year before, and most of the in-and-outs cancel each other out. The team did moderately outperform its expected B- grade last season though, so this year they're bumped up a notch, especially to account for the value of the Caufield and Suzuki duo over the next few years.

The team's depth provides a bit of an issue for fantasy managers though, as the team can roll four lines, so none of the skaters get the full ice time treatment with 20+ minutes a night. This caps the upside a little on the top skaters, but does mean the depth pieces like Joel Armia, Artturi Lehkonen, and Jake Evans can provide a little more fantasy value than bottom-sixers on other teams.

The same can be said on defence after Petry, with the other five all able to eat minutes with varying degrees of reliability. The top-five defencemen on the Canadiens are also solid bangers league options: Petry, Ben Chiarot, David Savard, Brett Kulak and Joel Edmundson all rack up hits and blocks better than your average defenceman.

Between a solid goaltending duo of Carey Price (hopefully healthy to start the season) and Jake Allen, and the well-rounded skater core, this team made the Stanley Cup Final, and they are somehow being underestimated again. The goalies should be able to provide decent ratios, but as long as both are healthy, Price won't see 60 starts, and Allen won't see 30, which caps the value of both and means you will likely find better value in your draft as the name value will drive the cost up on these two.

Grade – B (last year was B-)