Over the past several days, Laval has been getting a head start on putting their team together for next season, signing some prospects. On Friday, they added a veteran to their ranks, announcing the signing of winger Gabriel Bourque to a one-year AHL deal.
Cole Caufield had a delayed start to his playoffs but he has quickly become a fixture in Montreal’s top six. Along the way, he may very well be the biggest wildcard if the Habs are going to have success in the third round.
The late start to the AHL campaign pushed their regular season into May while a handful of unsigned prospects finished their years up as well. Here’s the final instalment of our 2020-21 three stars.
The Habs needed a win to start the week to keep their season alive. Then, for good measure, they picked up the first two against Winnipeg, starting off the North Division Final on a high note while giving them their first five-game win streak since late 2017.
Following being hit in the final minute of Wednesday’s victory over Winnipeg, the Canadiens announced on Thursday that Jake Evans has indeed suffered a concussion and is listed as out indefinitely.
The Habs have reached an agreement with one of their more intriguing defence prospects, announcing on Thursday that they’ve signed Mattias Norlinder to a three-year, entry-level contract.
While many deadlines have been pushed back due to the delayed start to the season, one that hasn’t is the June 1st signing deadline for certain prospects. That has now come and gone with the Canadiens relinquishing rights to three of their youngsters.
The Habs played themselves into a 3-1 series deficit with a pair of tough outings earlier in the week but managed to pick up two critical overtime victories to keep their series against Toronto alive with Game 7 going on Monday.
With Montreal averaging a mere one goal per game in the playoffs, a lot of attention has been given to their lack of capable scorers as the primary cause for their struggles. I think the root cause of their problems isn’t that but rather a lack of playmaking.
The Habs opened up their first-round series against Toronto this past week and while the second game was far from pretty, they still managed to pick up an important split on the road.