Kent Hughes Off-Season Work Not Completed Yet

August 26, 2022 ~ faamtl ~ Leave a comment

Kent Hughes Off-Season Work Not Completed Yet

Written by Fred Arshoff

Before diving into the article I would like to thank Marlene Wall very mite once again for the merging of the two photos to make the cover photo of this article.

Although at the press conference Kent Hughes had on Zoom, after the Montreal Canadiens acquired Sean Monahan was done from Hughes home, his off season work isn’t complete yet as there are still two players unsigned. Kirby Dach, who they acquired at the NHL Entry draft by a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks and also Cayden Primeau is still unsigned as well. Before you have a panic attack both players are RFA’s and are qualified so if another team makes those players an offer sheet the Canadiens would be compensated.

To say what the delay is, in getting these last two players under contract for at least the 2022-23 season, I don’t have a clue. It could be several different things. It could be the length of the contract, the dollar amount or if it’s a one-way or two-way contract

Kirby Dach

Dach is coming off a three year (Entry Level Contract) two-way contract he signed with the Blackhawks. For the 2021-22 season, that just ended, Dach got paid $925,000 at the NHL level. That also had performance bonuses in it as well as a signing bonus. At the AHL level he was making $70,000 but no matter where he played he got the signing bonus. If he qualified to make his performance bonuses I have no clue. That was his first professional hockey contract. In his three seasons with the Blackhawks Dach has played in 152 NHL games scoring 19 goals and had 40 assists.

When the Canadiens made the trade to acquire Dach they said he would be the team’s number two center. With that being said I would offer him a 3 year 1.5 million dollar contract. That would be a nice raise for Kirby and in the three years if he is the number two center Hughes believes Dach can go after a longer term contract for a lot more money. You do have to prove yourself, and being in a different organization he will have to adjust to head coach Martin St. Louis’ system. After the three year contract I suggest Hughes will have more available to offer as several bigger contracts will have expired and I don’t believe will be extended. Personally I believe Dach will be the big number two center the HABS have been looking for several seasons.

Cayden Primeau

This I believe will be a very hard contract to get signed as both Primeau and Hughes have strong arguments for a pay differential.

The 2022-23 season will be Primeau’s fourth with the Montreal Canadiens. Most goalies need three years to develop. I can understand Cayden needing a bit more as he was bouncing up and down, a few times, between the HABS and the Laval Rocket and not playing all games to fully develop. His numbers with the Habs weren’t very good at all. In 12 games his numbers were GAA (Goals Against Average) was 4.62 while his Save Percentage was .868. Of course we’re all aware of the Habs woes last year so I’m not worried about the numbers.

In the playoffs for the Laval Rocket he had great numbers. In 14 playoff games his GAA was a sparkling 2.17 and Save Percentage was .936. From listening to the games that were on radio, and they’re only the Laval Rocket Home Playoff games, he played very well.

To make a contract you will have to know which Primeau will be playing. The one that played excellent, for Laval, or the one that played poorly for the Habs.

Also Hughes owes Primeau no loyalty as he was drafted by the Canadiens in the 2017 NHL Entry draft when Marc Bergevin was General Manager. I will admit Bergevin made a trade to get him in the 7th round and he was the 199th overall player chosen in that draft. Primeau won the Mike Richter Award in 2019 (Goalie of the Year in NCAA). He does have to show he can play like that game in and game out at the NHL level.

also very sure Primeau knows what happened to other goalies in the Montreal Canadiens organization who are with other teams now such as Charlie Lindgren, Michael McNiven, Zach Fucale and Dustin Tokarski. So I’m very sure he wants to ensure he will move up the ladder to be the real number one goalie with the HABS now that Price

Primeau does have an ace up his sleeve as beside Price (Injured), Allen and Montembeault) the Canadiens don’t have any other goalies on an NHL contract but do have three on Laval Rocket contracts that won’t be able to play for the Habs unless they change their contracts to NHL contracts.

What I believe would be a fair contract is 2 years. The 1st year (2022-23 season) being a two-way at $800,000 at the NHL level and $100,000 in Laval with a guarantee of $150,000. The 2nd year should be a one-way contract at $850,000.

The reason I believe a two year contract would be best is as of July 1, 2023 Jake Allen will be a UFA and there is no guarantee that he will be extended with the HABS. Also on July 1, 2024 Samuel Montembeault will be a UFA

In closing I hope these signings can be done before the Montreal Canadiens training camp starts. All players will be under contract and give Martin St. Louis a chance to see them in preseason games..

Sources

Montreal Canadiens salary cap
https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/canadiens

Kirby Dach salary and stats
https://www.capfriendly.com/players/kirby-dach

Cayden Primeau salary and stats
https://www.capfriendly.com/players/cayden-primeau

Cayden Primeau 2021022 playoffs stats
https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=196138

No Captain Yet Don’t Panic

August 24, 2022 ~ faamtl ~ Leave a comment

No Captain Yet Don’t Panic

Written by Fred Arshoff

Before diving into this article I would like to thank Marlene Wall very much for the merging of the two pictures to make the cover photo of this article.

I wrote this article as some people are concerned that the Montreal Canadiens haven’t named their new captain yet. Kent Hughes said, when he was hired as General Manager, the HABS would have a playing captain for the 2022-23

seaFirst off let’s remember the Montreal Canadiens rookie camp hasn’t even started yet, the HABS annual Golf tournament hasn’t taken place, training camp hasn’t started much less preseason games. Then even if preseason games started no player would be playing all the games. Let’s be realistic.son.

First off let’s remember the Montreal Canadiens rookie camp hasn’t even started yet, the HABS annual Golf tournament hasn’t taken place, training camp hasn’t started much less preseason games. Then even if preseason games started no player would be playing all the games. Let’s be realistic.

Also what if the Canadiens make another trade and the person they were planning on naming as captain was part of that trade, how would that look, I don’t think very good at all.

Or what happens if in a preseason game the person who was to be captain gets, God forbid, a season ending injury and Hughes did say they would have a playing captain this year. Again that wouldn’t look good at all.

What I’m very sure of is that Jeff Gorton, Kent Hughes, and Martin St. Louis already have had discussions on who they want to name as team captain.

What I believe will happen, as the Montreal Canadiens have always been a class act and I’m sure none of us see that changing, as the Canadiens’ first game of the regular 2022-23 season is at Home for the first time in several seasons and the Habs, as is their tradition before their home opener, have a big ceremony. In that ceremony I can picture them announcing who the new captain will be. The players will be told ahead of time but told to keep it quiet especially to the media. What I can see happening, in that ceremony, is have the past captains of the HABS passing the torch, in order of when they wore the “C”, to each other until the torch is passed to the newly named Captain of the team.

Video of a HABS season opener ceremony( (roughly 12 minutes)

The Impact Of Carey Price’s Injury

August 20, 2022 ~ faamtl ~ Leave a comment

The Impact Of Carey Price’s Injury

Written by Fred Arshoff

As most of you probably know by now on Thursday August 18, 2022 Montreal Canadiens General Manager Kent Hughes announced Carey Price will “most likely” not be playing in the 2022-23 season or do any rehab on his knee, at

least on ic

I also know full well, for all of us that are Montreal Canadiens fans, this wasn’t the news we wanted to hear at all. Let’s also be honest this isn’t the way Price wanted to end his hockey playing career. Again let’s be honest “does he want to be in pain”, simple answer NO. I’m sure though he will do whatever he can to ensure he has a good quality of life with his wife Angela and their children and not be confined to a wheel chair.

For the HABS this injury has many negative impacts but perhaps one positive impact. I will first dive into the negatives, and there are several, as I’m sure you all know too well.

Negative Impacts

The first major impact of Price’s injury, for the Montreal Canadiens, is there is no way to replace who many believe, myself included, to be the best goalie in hockey. The only major trophy Price doesn’t have his name on is the Stanley Cup and you can’t really blame him for that as that’s a trophy you win as a team as it’s the sum of the collective parts. The goalie can save all 100 shots fired at him but if his team doesn’t score a goal the team doesn’t win the game either.

Then there is Price’s character in the dressing room. He was always calm, got along very well with his teammates and cool as a cucumber and that rubbed off on his team. The players also knew very well when Price started a game there was an excellent chance they would win as Price can and has stolen games for them. Price was a team leader on and off the ice.

The defence knew if they made a mistake there was a very good chance that Price would bail them out.

The Positives

One of the positives that will help HABS GM Kent Hughes, is knowing before training camp even starts that Price won’t be playing thus he can start to look for alternative things to do to replace him, to have a very solid goalie tandem. I’m not saying that Jake Allen and Samuel Montembeault didn’t play well last season in Price’s absence, but perhaps Hughes and other members of the hockey operations can find one better or another young goalie they can start to develop for the future.

With Price being placed on LTIR (Long Term Injured Reserve list), that will leave the team with a lot of money to spend as 10.5 million will come off the salary cap.

I’m sure when Kent Hughes made the trade to acquire Sean Monahan it was due to that fact. See my article on this at https://montrealsportsblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/19/montreal-canadiens-acquire-sean-monahan-from-calgary-flames

What I Would Do

With Price out that means the HABS have two goalies on their roster Jake Allen and Samuel Montembeault. Now where the problem lies is with the Laval Rocket. Cayden Primeau is on a two way contract thus if both Allen and Montembeault get injured, at the same time, the HABS will have to act very quickly to get a backup goalie. The Laval Rocket do have Kevin Poulin but he was strictly on a Laval Rocket contract. What I would think Hughes will do is watch the waiver wire and see if there is a goalie that is on an NHL contract that he could claim so they will have two goalies available if injuries arise. That happened last season. They had to first call up Primeau, then later Micheal McNiven to serve as Primeau’s backup. One never knows in advance when injuries will strike. There are also two goalies under Laval Rocket contracts who are expected to be playing for the Trois-Rivières Lions, but like Poulin won’t be able to be called up as it’s not an NHL contract.

In closing I would like to wish Carey Price all the best and hope and pray that he will have a good quality of life with his knee problems and enjoy his life with his wife Angela and their children. Also thank you for all you did Carey for the Montreal Canadiens organization. You were always a class act.

vIDEO OF cAREY pRICE’S BEST SAVES

Sources

Report on Price not playing in 2022-23
https://www.nhl.com/canadiens/news/kent-hughes-shares-updates-on-carey-price/c-335318772

HABS salary cap
https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/canadiens

Montreal Canadiens Acquire Sean Monahan From Calgary Flames

August 19, 2022 ~ faamtl ~ 1 Comment

Montreal Canadiens Acquire Sean Monahan From Calgary Flames

Written by Fred Arshoff

On Thursday August 18, 2022 the Montreal Canadiens announced they made a trade with the Calgary Flames acquiring center Sean Monahan and a conditional first round draft choice in exchange for future considerations. I will not attempt to decipher the conditional first round draft pick as it’s much too confusing for me.

For those wondering how Monahan’s $6,375,000 salary cap hit fits into the HABS salary cap. Presently Monahan is on the IR (Injured Reserve list). Not sure if he’ll be activated or put on LTIR while his right hip is healing following surgery he had this spring. Last year he had surgery on his other hip. He says he’s ready to go.

At the press conference following the trade Habs GM Kent Hughes said he doesn’t expect Carey Price to play or have rehab. That would mean once the team’s training camp starts and the players have their medicals (done every year at start of training camp before the first on ice session) Price will be placed on the LTIR thus freeing up $10,500,000 from the teams cap space. Of course this will be determined by the medicals and what the team Dr’s say and how Price feels his knee is. Let’s remember when Price played the final game of the 2021-22 season he said it may be his last game due to his knee.

If and when Monahan does return to play it will mean the Canadiens, for the first time in years, will have a lot of depth at center but having depth is a good thing. As we never know if another player gets injured and it’s normally easier for a center to adjust to playing a wing than a winger learning to play center. Let’s remember normally centers have more defensive responsibilities than wingers.

If the HABS do get the conditional first round draft pick this would be the third or fourth first round draft pick GM Kent Hughes has acquired through trades. Former GM Marc Bergevin, in his 10 years of service, just acquired one first round draft pick in a trade.

Depending on Monahan’s play the HABS could trade him at trade deadline for another asset. Let’s also remember that he’ll be a UFA at the end of the 2022-23 season.

Overall I really like this trade. If Monahan can come back and play like he did, before his hip surgeries, the Canadiens will have another excellent experienced center. If not they really gave up nothing. Exactly what the future considerations are I have no clue and doubt anyone else will as well.

Video f Sean Monaham’s goals in in the 2017-18 season before he had his hip problems

Sources

Montreal Canadiens salary cap
https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/canadiens

Sean Monahan salary contract
https://www.capfriendly.com/players/sean-monahan

Report on Price not playing in 2022-23
https://www.nhl.com/canadiens/news/kent-hughes-shares-

Josh Brook Signs PTO Contract With Calgary Flames

August 18, 2022 ~ faamtl ~ Leave a comment

Josh Brook Signs PTO Contract With Calgary Flames

Written by Fred Arshoff

Although I normally write on things related to the Montreal Canadiens I wrote this article as Brook was at one time a blue chip prospect for the Habs.

I’ll start at the very beginning so you can see where I’m coming from. Brook was drafted by the Canadiens in the 2017 NHL Entry draft in the second round as the 56th overall pick. At the time the Habs General Manager was Marc Bergevin. Brook’s first contract was for the 2018-19 season that had a salary cap hit of $809,107 and that included his $92,500 signing bonus. For the years 2019-20 until it expired on July 1, 2022 Brook was on a two way contract paying him $709,000 at the NHL level and $70,000 at the AHL level.

Brook is a right handed defenceman who is 6’2” and weighs in at 185 pounds.

Brook’s problem started in the 2021-22 season after he suffered a knee injury that required surgery. When he first came back they played him infrequently. Then they sent him to the Trois-Rivières Lions claiming it was for conditioning and nothing to do with his play. Once Trois-Rivières was eliminated from their playoff run in the ECHL he wasn’t one of the “BLACK ACES” recalled by the Laval Rocket. At this time Laval defenceman Mattias Norlinder was injured with a concussion, so by not recalling Brook it gave me a clue he wasn’t going to be in the Montreal Canadiens organization much longer. As I stated above his contract ended July 1st.

When other players were given qualifying offers, by Canadiens General Manager Kent Hughes, Brook wasn’t offered one.

I can see Hughes point of view as the HABS do have a full load of defence on the HABS and Laval Rocket. Usually after three years of playing in the AHL you either make the NHL team or you’re let go. Brook did have his three years so in that manner he wasn’t really shortchanged except for the games he missed while injured. Of the seven defencemen listed on the Laval Rocket roster four are on their ELC (Entry Level Contract) and five of them are waiver exempt so they could be called up to the Canadiens, if needed due to an injury, and be sent back down to Laval when the injured player returns with no need to clear waivers. Brook would have to be placed on waivers if sent back to the Laval Rocket.

Brook has no professional hockey playoff games played but has played in playoffs in Jr. hockey, with the exception of seven playoff games he played this season for Trois-Rivières Lions.

I would have thought Brook and his agent would wait to get a regular contract before signing a PTO (Professional Try Out). By having the PTO if he gets injured in training camp, or while playing a preseason game, the Calgary Flames will be responsible for any medical expenses.

Calgary may wish to have Brook, depending on what he shows, to play in their AHL affiliate as they have only 3 defencemen who are waiver exempt. I also believe as an organization Calgary is short of right handed defencemen.

Depending on Brook’s performance at the Flames training camp, and play in the preseason games he plays, he could very well be offered a two way contract by the Flames, or if not perhaps an AHL contract to have depth for their AHL team.

In closing I’d like to thank Josh Brook for all he did for the Montreal Canadiens organization. I also would like to wish him the very best of luck to get a contract from the Calgary Flames or if not them to get a contract by another NHL or AHL team.

Video of Josh Brook scouting report (10 minutes)

Sources

Josh Brook drafted by the Montreal Canadiens
https://mjwarriors.ca/article/brook-drafted-by-montreal

Josh Brook salary and stats
https://www.capfriendly.com/players/josh-brook

Montreal Canadiens and Laval Rocket contracts
https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/canadiens

Calgary Flames contracts
https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/flames

More Positions I Would Add To The Montreal Canadiens Hockey Operations Department

August 15, 2022 ~ faamtl ~ Leave a comment

More Positions I Would Add To The Montreal Canadiens Hockey Operations Department

Written by Fred Arshoff

Please remember when reading this article these are changes I would make and there is no way to know if Jeff Gorton or Kent Hughes will make any of these changes. It’s just changes I feel will help the hockey operations even more.

One of the first things I would do is remove Martin Lapointe as Co-Director of Amateur Scouting. I feel just being Director of Player Relations is a big enough responsibility. Being director of player relations means you’re working with the professional players across the entire organization including players signed to a Laval Rocket contract. By also being co-director of amateur scouting means he has to watch and oversee all the amateur scouts covering Jr. hockey and NCAA hockey. I’m certain Nick Bobrov, who is the other co-director of amateur scouts, is overseeing the amateur European scouting as he lives in Europe. I’m also sure between Jeff Gorton, Kent Hughes and Vincent Lecavalier, who is Special Advisor to Hockey Operations, they can find a person very capable of being in charge of amateur North American scouting.

While on the subject of North American scouting I would add a person to be in charge of NCAA scouting as the HABS have been drafting many players from the NCAA. Two players drafted by the Canadiens, who were drafted from the NCAA, and on the current roster are Cole Caufield and Jake Evans. If you look at the Laval Rocket there is Cayden Primeau who hopefully will make the HABS within one year.

As the HABS are based in Quebec, why not have a chief scout for the province as well as one other scout at least to cover the whole province. Presently the best prospects the HABS have, who are from Quebec, are listed by the year drafted. Rafaël Harvey-Pinard was the HABS 7th round draft choice, 201st overall selected in the 2019 NHL Entry draft. Joshua Roy, was the HABS 5th round draft pick, 150th overall selected in the 2021 NHL Entry draft.

Now let’s turn our attention to professional scouting headed by Eric Crawford. Vincent Riendeau, who is based in Europe, is the Russia and goalie professional scout and also Nick Carrière who is a scout and Director of Minor League Affiliates thus that means he is doing most of his scouting between the Laval Rocket and the Trois Rivières Lions. That would leave Crawford and Reid Simpson, Pro Scout for the West as the only two to scout other NHL, AHL & ECHL teams. That’s hardly enough in my eyes, thus I would hire at least four more professional scouts.

I do know that Kent Hughes, the HABS GM, loves going by analysis of the numbers but I feel nothing is better than a pair of eyes to see things as numbers can be deceiving. In charge of hockey analytics is Christopher Boucher and I would keep him and his staff, I just want to have more scouting with eyes in the arenas. There are also 10 Amateur Scouts.

I would also hire a director of goaltending operations to replace Sean Burke who left the organization on June 25, 2022. For further information on this

https://montrealsportsblog.wordpress.com/2022/06/27/sean-burke-leaving-the-montreal-canadiens-to-take-similar-job-with-the-las-vegas-golden-knights/

Presently the HABS will have, after Cayden Primeau is signed (they did give him a qualifying offer) four goalies under NHL contracts and three goalies under Laval Rocket contracts. I’m not sure of how many others, they have drafted, that are playing in Jr., NCAA or Europe. Someone with experience as a goalie needs to monitor them all and for the ones in the minors, or not playing professionally yet, monitor their development. Also before the 2023 NHL Entry draft watch videos of all the goalies that are draft eligible so the HABS can draft the best available goalie. Although the HABS have many goalies now I feel at the end of the 2022-23 season some will depart the HABS organization and it’s best to be ready as goalies take the most time to develop. In most cases they take three years after being drafted from Jr. or NCAA to be NHL ready.

For the benefit of those who don’t know there are no rules about how many people you can have working in your hockey operations department. It’s not as if the Montreal Canadiens’ need a tag day, to raise money, to make ends meet so let’s have as many people as needed to do the job properly and have the best available people at all positions within the hockey operations department to ensure drafting, trading is done with the best available information.

Sources

Montreal Canadiens hockey operations department
https://www.nhl.com/canadiens/team/hockey-operations

Rafaël Harvey-Pinard draft information
https://www.capfriendly.com/players/rafael-harvey-pinard

Joshua Roy draft information
https://www.capfriendly.com/players/joshua-roy

Let’s Trust HABS Hockey Operations

August 5, 2022 ~ faamtl ~ Leave a comment

Let’s Trust HABS Hockey Operations

Written by Fred Arshoff

I’m writing this article as several people on social media are still complaining that the Montreal Canadiens didn’t draft Shane Wright with their first overall draft pick.

First of all before going into any details I would like to say no matter what any of us think presently it’s too late to do anything as they won’t redo the NHL Entry draft, so come what may we do have to live with the players the Hab’s decided to draft. Secondly, of the people such as Jeff Gorton, Kent Hughes and Vincent Lecavalier only one worked the draft as an executive. Jeff Gorton did the same thing while with the New York Rangers. I know there are more but I will just list the top three in hockey operations. They are well paid by Geoff Molson to do due diligence with every hockey transaction they do.

Now I’ll try to explain the process of drafting a player. First of all you just can’t go by production (Goals, assists, total points and the players + – numbers) as the players are from different leagues and the play is different. Players who play in Jr. Hockey and are draft eligible are 18 years of age and they play against players who are 16 or 17 years of age thus have more experience and bigger and stronger. While a player in Europe can be playing against players older, more experienced and stronger than they are. Then you have the players in the NCAA who get more time off than the players from Jr. hockey or playing in Europe as in the NCAA there are no practices or games during the exam periods (that includes mid-term exams) and also there are no practices or games during the annual Christmas and Easter breaks. These players have the advantage due to that they can recover from minor bumps and bruises and come back even stronger, so the scouts do have to take all that into account.

The teams also have to look at the player’s attitude to ensure there won’t be any problems in the locker rooms between the players. There are some players who may try to put themselves in front of the team. In hockey unlike golf, tennis you have to be a team player as my late father taught me. No one player is better or worse than the sum of the total parts. You win as a team and lose as a team.

As most of you know before the NHL Entry draft they had a combine in Buffalo, New York at the Sabres facility. Not only did the players, who attended the combine, have to participate (if not injured or rehabbing an injury) the players had meetings with people from most NHL team’s hockey operations departments and were questioned by them on various things so the team’s can try to gauge the players attitude and where the player sees themselves in 10 years down the road.

You also can’t just go by the results of the combine as some players are bigger and stronger than other players, but a player who isn’t physically as strong may have much better cardio. The cardio is just as important. If you have poor cardio you may not be able to play a full 45 second shift in the NHL. The teams do bring their own team Dr’s and strength and conditioning coaches to interpret the data for them.

Among the players the Montreal Canadiens interviewed several times, at the combine as well as in Montreal a day or two before the draft, were Shane Wright and Juraj Slafkovský. What I believe happened, and I wasn’t there nor were any members of the main stream media, while interviewing Shane Wright, and then meeting amongst themselves after the interview, was they were starting to see an attitude problem with Wright and as I mentioned above no team wants an attitude problem in the locker room.

We also all know the Montreal Canadiens were in need of a big center and yes Wright is a center but not big, yet Slafkovsky is a big forward something else the Habs needed. As a group they had to decide what route to take.

What we don’t know is when the Canadiens started to talk with the Chicago Blackhawks, to acquire Kirby Dach, the talks could have even started Tuesday for all we know, but the trade wasn’t announced until later in the draft when it was official. For more information on the draft please see my article at https://montrealsportsblog.wordpress.com/2022/07/11/montreal-canadiens-draft-juraj-slafkovsky-and-trade-alexander-romanov/

Then we saw after the draft when Wright was the fourth overall pick, he came out and said he has a chip on his shoulder for not being selected earlier, shows me that Shane seems to have an attitude problem. The Habs hockey operations personnel detected that before the draft so they stayed away from him.

Who really won in this year’s draft won’t be known for several years as we do have to give the player’s time to develop. None of us know if the Canadiens will send Slafkovsky to the Laval Rocket to develop and adjust to the North American ice surface, or is Seattle going to send Wright to their OHL affiliate. Personally I can see Wright come out swinging if sent down for development with the attitude he has shown. Let’s wait five years to see who came out ahead in the draft, my gut feeling presently is the Montreal Canadiens came out well ahead but only time will tell.

All the players who were drafted should be very happy they were chosen by an NHL team. Not all hockey players get that lucky, so just remain thankful that team thought enough of your hockey ability to draft you as a first overall pick or even as the last, you were still chosen.

Changes In Video Coaching

August 3, 2022 ~ faamtl ~ Leave a comment

Changes In Video Coaching

Written by Fred Arshoff

Before diving into this article I once again would like to thank Marlene Wall very much for the merging of the photos into one to make the cover for this article. I tip my hat, to you Marlene, for another excellent job.

On Monday August 1, 2022 the Montreal Canadiens announced that Mario Leblanc is stepping down as video coach after 25 years. No worries though Leblanc isn’t leaving the Hab’s organization he will be working under Adam Nicholas in the hockey development department.

With this new role I believe Mario won’t have to travel as much. I’m sure that is something he wanted so he can spend more time with his family.

With Mario’s expertise in video’s it will be a great asset for the Player Development department, as he knows what to look for in good plays and bad plays and inform Nicholas who can work with the players on the aspects of the game that need to be improved

To replace Leblanc as video coach they have promoted Laval Rocket video coach Daniel Harvey who has been doing that job for roughly one year. Harvey replaced Marco Marciano, who left the video coaching position to become the full time goalie coach with the Laval Rocket. I personally feel in any professional hockey league a team needs a full time goalie coach, as to develop a goalie is a lot of work.

What I find very intriguing is what the Laval Rocket will do for a video coach. There are three possibilities that I can see.

The first, and the one I dislike the most, is making Marco Marciano to be goalie coach and also be the video coach again.

What I feel is the best way to handle this situation is to hire a new video coach and have Marciano remain full time goalie coach

The third option would be to hire a new goalie coach and move Marciano back to video coach. I also don’t like this idea very much as Marciano has been working with Cayden Primeau for several seasons and that would mean a new coach may wish to make changes in the way he plays. Or a new system we don’t know if Primeau would be comfortable.

I’m very sure that before a decision is made GM Kent Hughes will sit down with the Laval Rocket head coach Jean-Francois Houle to ask him what he feels would be the best route and if he has any person in mind. Let’s remember most head coaches do get to pick who their assistant coaches are, as they will want people they trust and know they can work with.

What A Video Coach Does

For the benefit of those who don’t know what a video coach does. No, it’s not watching video games. I will attempt to briefly describe their duties.

At the NHL level they will notify the head coach if they see an opponent’s goal as offside, goalie interference or the puck didn’t cross the goal line. At the AHL level it is slightly different as the coach can only challenge if the puck crossed the goal line. By using the video, of course, they get the slow motion to make it easier to see things.

Also, at both levels, the video coach will give the head coach videos of good plays the team made and bad plays and the head coach will discuss those with the players before or after a team practice. Of course during the game if the video coach sees a player constantly making the same wrong play he will call that down to the head coach so they can speak to the player about it.

In closing I would like to thank Mario Leblanc very much for the excellent job he’s did as video coach for the Montreal Canadiens over the past 25 years and wish him the very best of luck working in the Hockey Development department.

I also would like to wish Daniel Harvey the very best of luck being video coach for the Montreal Canadiens. You have big shoes to fill.

Sources

Montreal Canadiens announce changes to video department
https://www.nhl.com/canadiens/news/canadiens-announce-changes-to-video-department/c-335048246

Montreal Canadiens hockey operations department
https://www.nhl.com/canadiens/team/hockey-operations

Laval Rocket hockey operations department
https://www.rocketlaval.com/en/team/hockey-operations/