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Cole Caufield was sitting in his locker Sunday afternoon following the Montreal Canadiens’ first practice since Sean Monahan was traded to the Winnipeg Jets on Friday in the middle of All-Star weekend. He had answered numerous questions about the void Monahan’s departure would leave in the Canadiens lineup and their dressing room, one that now has one fewer veteran voice and an empty locker right in the middle of it.
It was pointed out to Caufield that the Jets’ 2024 first-round pick didn’t appear to have a locker assigned to it in the aftermath of the trade. Caufield broke out laughing.
“It can take Sean’s right there,” Caufield replied.
There is no nameplate on the locker, no equipment hanging in it — just a void. Monahan played less than one full season’s worth of games in a Canadiens uniform, but he clearly left a mark. And now he is gone with nothing to show for his time in that dressing room, at least not anything these players, dealing with this season and trying to win games in the present, can feel.
GO DEEPER
Canadiens take advantage of a pressure point to get ideal price for Sean Monahan
“Obviously everybody talks about the future, and everybody in the room does it day by day. So it’s hard kind of looking in the future,” Caufield said. “But at the end of the day, it’s a business. You lose good guys every year, I’ve gone through it a couple of times. But the league doesn’t stop, the league doesn’t care, and we just keep moving forward. Everybody learned a bunch from that guy, and even though we lost him I think everybody can bring a little bit of him to everyday life.”
The bridge between the future and the present is something Canadiens management understands is important, because there are players like Caufield, Nick Suzuki and others who have seen players like Monahan walk out the door with nothing tangible coming back for quite some time.
This is why no one should be surprised to see the Canadiens aggressively adding pieces this offseason, and it won’t necessarily be limited to Kirby Dach or Alex Newhook-style deals in which draft picks are traded for young, largely unproven talent. It could be talent that will help in the shorter term, because there appears to be a real desire from management to put players like Caufield in a competitive environment so he’s not answering questions about draft picks getting lockers for much longer.
“To me, it’s having a big vision, not a small mind. Big difference,” coach Martin St. Louis said Sunday. “(It’s) not easy news for any player to see, a player like Monny leave. He’s a well-liked guy, these young guys that have seen him for a couple of years, that’s not lost because he’s gone. He’s had a chance to impact some of these young players, and that’s a big reason why we brought him in. It’s big-picture stuff that you have to keep in mind, and that’s what we’re going to do. You just keep going. And we have a great opportunity here just to keep going, collectively, just keep improving our collective play.
“They’re conversations, but they have feelings. It’s normal.”
Those feelings are top of mind for the Canadiens right now. Though the Monahan trade and perhaps others that will follow in the coming weeks heading into the March 8 trade deadline will not reflect that, there is a real sense that this offseason will reflect a shift in how the Canadiens think about their roster, how the future may remain the primary concern, but also how the way the present may shape the future will be a concern as well.
General manager Kent Hughes mentioned Friday after the trade that they didn’t have a good enough sense of the Canadiens’ future to be in a position to offer Monahan a “reasonable” contract. The floor for reasonable in this instance is probably four years at $5 million a year, a floor Monahan could easily eclipse with a strong performance for the Jets through the end of the season and postseason.
But even if the Canadiens couldn’t make an offer like that to Monahan right now, the first-round pick they added could be converted into a player they will be able to make a contractual commitment to. That pick should be seen as trade ammunition more than anything else, something this front office has already demonstrated it is able to monetize at the draft.
“You trust those guys that are working for you, and everybody’s job is on the line,” Caufield said. “At the end of the day, it’s a business and they put their best foot forward. Sean gave us a lot of good memories, a lot of good learning experiences and we’re going to miss him.
“But at the end of the day, we got a lot for him. And that’s all we can ask for.”
The Canadiens are not shopping David Savard, but that doesn’t mean he is not on the market. (David Kirouac / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
What’s next?
Words are important, and the way Hughes answered a question Friday about his willingness to trade David Savard before the deadline was a perfect example.
“I can’t tell you right now that we are looking to trade David Savard,” Hughes said.
That is not a denial that he is willing to trade Savard, only that he is not looking to trade Savard. Those are two different things.
The Monahan trade showed how Hughes is willing to allow market forces to dictate the timing and aggressiveness with which he will pursue and close a trade. If market forces dictate a Savard trade makes too much sense, there is little doubt the Canadiens will entertain it.
But with Monahan gone, there is some concern about the leadership in the room. The same concern might dictate a Jake Allen trade at some point, because both he and Savard are positive influences in the dressing room, and Savard in particular is seen as a big help for the Canadiens’ young defencemen.
But, as was the case with Monahan, it is possible the Calgary Flames will dictate what happens with Savard. The Flames trading Elias Lindholm to the Vancouver Canucks set the market for two-way centres who can play on the power play and penalty kill and win faceoffs. It is entirely possible the Canadiens would not have gotten a first-round pick when they did for Monahan without the Lindholm trade setting that market.
When the Flames trade Chris Tanev — and it really seems like more of a when than an if situation — it could have the same impact on the price of Savard. And if that price gets too high, the Canadiens may not be able to resist.
Unlike with Monahan, the Canadiens can afford to wait on Savard, which only increases their leverage. He has a year left on his contract, there is a need for him in the room, there is no need to be desperate to trade Savard away.
But when you are in that position, you are also in a position to extract the highest possible price. This will be worth watching over the next month.
Juraj Slafkovský will miss Sean Monahan’s veteran presence, but he wasn’t the only one helping him develop. (David Kirouac / USA Today)
Slafkovský’s different sources of inspiration
One player who has always said Monahan was a positive influence on him is Juraj Slafkovský. When St. Louis talks about why they brought Monahan back, Slafkovský is Exhibit A of that. Every opportunity Slafkovský has had to talk about Monahan, he has been nothing but glowing in his praise. Sunday afternoon was no different.
He expressed how upset he was to see Monahan go, how important he was to him, how he enjoyed his sense of humour and just having him around the room. But in terms of his play on the ice, every time Slafkovský was sitting on the bench watching Monahan play, he was taking notes.
“I would just watch him, where he goes on the ice, all the little things he does, the little stick lifts, the little poke checks,” he said. “He knows where to put the puck, and it was just trying to copy that stuff.”
But Slafkovský is not only getting help from veterans. He’s also getting it from his former centre.
Kirby Dach was recently on an episode of the “Raw Knuckles” podcast with Chris Nilan and talked about how he would point things out to Slafkovský when they weren’t going so well. Dach, remember, just turned 23 a few weeks ago. He’s not exactly a veteran. But he’s also having an influence.
“He was just watching my game and he was just telling me some stuff, nothing crazy,” Slafkovský said. “It was just little things that could help in my game and build my game back. I was obviously struggling after he got injured. And off the ice, like, don’t care about what the media says and stuff like that. But other than that, we were just talking about my plays on the ice, like how I could maybe recover the puck better, where to go, stuff like that.”
Dach’s injury was referred to often Sunday as a comparison to what it is like to lose Monahan. Whether it’s an injury or a trade, if a player is lost, he’s lost. But for Slafkovský, losing Dach in the second game of the season was perhaps even more impactful than losing Monahan will prove to be.
“I remember the first two games we played it was pretty good, and then I just struggled for like 10 or 15 games after he left,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything out there. So obviously it was really difficult. Like, you have a centre that carries the puck and is great with the puck, then all of a sudden, everything changes and you don’t have that guy on your line, someone else has to compensate for that or do that, and obviously it’s not the same.
“So it changed a little bit, but then, thank God I was able to find my game back.”
When thinking about the contrast between the present and the future, Slafkovský is a relevant middle point between the two. But when he thinks about Dach, the future looks bright to him.
“I can’t wait for him to be back and (to) just get to play with him again,” he said.
The present as a reward for the past
The biggest winner in the Monahan trade was undoubtedly Brandon Gignac, who has been one of the best forwards in Laval but was stuck there because he had an AHL contract. Signing a two-way NHL contract with the Canadiens on Sunday gave him a spot on the roster, and the fact he will need waivers to go back to Laval gives Gignac a good chance to stick on the roster the rest of the season.
This is an unlikely development for someone who was in the ECHL in 2021, someone who was at serious risk of having a Moonlight Graham NHL career — one game played, one shot on goal, and that shot coming on his first NHL shift.
He did not get another shot attempt in that game on March 9, 2019, let alone a shot on goal. He was on the ice for a New York Rangers goal on his last shift of the second period and his first shift of the third period. It did not go well, and Gignac made a promise to himself that he would not be going out like that.
“I got my one game in the NHL and told myself I refuse to believe I’m only going to get one in my career,” Gignac said. “So I stuck to that and told myself I would do everything I could to get back to where I was before.”
Gignac has had his most productive professional season in Laval this year, even more productive than that ECHL season in Jacksonville, but because of his contract it was difficult for the Canadiens to reward him for it. Monahan’s departure not only left the Canadiens with two viable options at centre, but it also eliminated an NHL contract, creating room to fit Gignac under the 50-contract limit.
Gignac had opportunities in Europe, but he wanted that next NHL game. He will get it on Tuesday in Washington.
“I never stopped believing in myself,” he said. “Even in the ECHL, I could have given up, told myself I didn’t deserve this and just feel sorry for myself. But I think it gave me a bit of a kick in the ass and made me understand that anything can happen in hockey.”
He is now in a situation where he is re-entering the NHL under a coach who probably has a better understanding of Gignac’s mindset than any other coach. St. Louis also had to continuously believe in himself despite the unfavourable circumstances of his career, so he can see something in Gignac that few other NHL coaches would.
“He competes on the ice,” St. Louis said. “Not that it’s rare, but it’s amazing what kind of career some guys can have when they compete like that. I think we’re in a phase in hockey where we talk about skill so much. What is skill? Yeah, it’s part of it, but I’ve seen a lot of skilled guys who don’t have as long of careers as guys who just compete that are probably less skilled. I’m not saying Gignac is not skilled, but those two elements that he has, those are NHL elements to me, the way he competes on the ice and his speed.”
And that belief Gignac had in himself is what makes him special, and still gives him a chance, as far as St. Louis is concerned.
“The league has gotten younger, that’s for sure, but I feel when guys get to a certain age, some of them probably give up a little too soon,” he said. “They just let everybody’s perspective on them affect how they keep evolving. And it’s not an easy thing to do. It’s hard. But the first day you kind of give up on yourself, so to speak, it’s hard for other people to not give up on you. So to see older guys get an opportunity later in their career or life, it’s not the norm, it’s the exception because usually the mindset gets in the wrong place because of what they hear from the outside.”
(Top photo of Sean Monahan scoring against the Jets: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
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