Phillip Danault has signed a new contract with the Montreal Canadiens.

Awesome deal. Very handy player to have in your line-up. Ideally a 3C, but has the capabilities to step higher in the line-up if need be. And the AAV is amazing.

Good signing. I think the term is a little short, considering what he has done to this team, but the cap hit is just perfect. If I were Marc Bergevin, I could've easily given him 4 or 5 years. But 3 was the minimum.

Exactly what I thought he was going to get. I'd like it to be a bit longer but oh well. 3 years is fine anyhow.

I'm fairly certain he will have to play higher in the line-up....if ya know what I'm sayin.

HONEST OPINION

Yes - This is contract is good value for 3 years.
Yes - Domi's contract is good value for 2 years.
Yes - Armia's contract is good value for this year.
Yes - Gallagher's contract is good value for 3 more years.

But do you know what Montreal will definitely not be worrying about for the next 3 years? Cap Space.

They're in the middle of a "re-tool" and if everything works out perfectly, they'll be a cup contender again in about....3 Years.

And if things do go perfectly....Danault, Domi, Armia and Gallagher will all be huge contributors to that success.

Which means the best case scenario has all 4 of them receiving massive raises in near future....because they took short-term CapFriendy deals while we had plenty of cap space.

So we can look forward to those pay raises in 3 years....but at the same time:

Weber - will be a geriatric care patient making $7,900,000 for another 5 years.
Price - may or may not look like Carey Price, but will still be making $10,500,000 for another 5 years.
Alzner - will have completed his transformation into a traffic cone, but still making $4,625,000 per year.
Shaw - will be the leagues wealthiest 4th line grinder, and still making $3,900,000 per year.
Mete, Poehling, Kotkaniemi, Juulsen, etc. will be finished or finishing their ELC's and looking for cash.

So ya....based on the Montreal's current situation....I think Bergy should've tried to get these guys on long-term deals....even if they were more expensive (and he definitely should have locked up the guys with consistent NHL track records....some of them were ripe for long-term discounts).

But if I'm being honest....I don't believe he thought about any of this before negotiating....because they all got signed pretty quick.

And I don't think he has a plan to get rid of the albatross (and future albatross) contracts on the roster....which will only get harder to move with time.

So now I'm worried that any glimmer of a bright future will eventually force Bergevin to purge that future away.

And I can only guess how those trades will turn out with Bergy at the helm.

Play like Marcus Kruger, they said. Be Marcus Kruger's replacement, they said. Be traded so they can keep Marcus Kruger, they said. Get the SAME contract as Marcus Kruger, they said.

So weird...

Decent deal. He should be a 3c, but will likely be the #2 this year. He need to be more like the 40 point guy than the injured 25 point guy for this team.

Great signing. Danault is a great player and the AAV is fairly cheap for what he does. I would have rather him be signed for 1 or 2 more years, but I get that Danault would want to prove himself and make more on his next deal. Love it anyhow. I'm very glad we have him and Romanov over Fleischmann and Weise.

I'm a little bit confused why we are calling him a great player? The kid has 75 points in 187 games. He's played basically three full season in the NHL, and scored 40 points in his only healthy season. Good player. A player I really like, and I saw him come into the AHL. Not great.

Yeah, but he does the little things on the ice that you won't notice, but that are crucial in order to win hockey games. Things that Alex Galchenyuk won't do, like defensive coverage, winning faceoffs, and driving the play. He's the poor man's Patrice Bergeron. It's not just the points, man.

So, I don't think he will move Weber, Price and Shaw, because they are part of his core, and he is proud to have all three of them, which is kinda perplexing in the case of Shaw when he could've had Samuel Girard or Alex DeBrincat instead. But Alzner can be moved if Bergevin accepts to retain salary and if he includes a good player in the deal, which Winnipeg did with Zach Bogosian and Evander Kane. It turned out to be one of the best deals that Kevin cheveldayoff did. He still can be a servicable 5th or 6th defensman. I think he regrets the signing of Alzner. No wonder why he didn't sign a free agent to a hefty contract this summer.

Well his injury was getting a puck in the head from a Chara slapshot....can’t really blame the guy lol and pro-rated his 25pts in 52games becomes 39pts, so i think he’s been a pretty consistent 40pts Center over the past 2 seasons.

However i do think his offensive game is a little overrated, but that his defensive game is hugely underrated. I’ll have to look it up, but i heard a lot of league wide defensive stats, he was top 10. One with him being 1st was successful stick checks.

Oh, I completely agree. And I think he is a fine player. They just need him to play all the games, so he can be their best center. No saying it's his fault for getting injured...

Also, you can't pay a guy because he is good defensively. Everyone (especially fans) look at offense, and if you're handing a guy $3,000,000 a year, he better be able to score. You can find guys for half that that can be your defensive players. Save your big money for guys that will fill the net.

You can find guys that are good defensively for low prices, but most of those guys create an even bigger drag on their own teams offense than they do on the opposing teams offense. Hockey is fluid, and about transition, so good defensive players who either don't slow down their teams offense, or even add a little to it, are important.

Danault at his term and contract are a perfect fit. He is a solid contributor offensively, good enough that he doesn't slow down better players if he plays with them, and can contribute a little on his own. I like these types of deals being 3 years. He is quite good, but if either side of his game starts to slip, he is a 4th liner pretty quick. Good 3rd liners can fall off quick, and his upside isn't going to create too much of a contract issue, as the league is skewing more and more toward having depth players get shorter terms, and less cap dollars, so competition for those jobs makes it pretty easy to keep extending your own guys if you want to keep them.

Danault will look even better if he can play decently as a 3rd liner centre. More than anything the Habs need Poehling and Kat0katneimi to be good. NHL centres and soon.

And prove himself he has. Now I’m really wishing they would have been able to sign him to the 5 x $3.2 million I was signing him to in the spring/summer of 2018. 😜

Little did I know how good Romanov & Danault would be.

i wonder where he is gonna go this off season

Hopefully he signs a team friendly deal in Montreal after this abysmal season