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The Canadiens will need to add players who can score


This would make a great story if the Montreal Canadiens was able to rewrite free agent Tomas Plekanec. This is for sure. What is not entirely true is if he had a beautiful ending or not.

Plekanec, after literally years of thinking that it will be his last, like Hab, finally trades up to the Toronto maple leaf in the trade deadline. Now waiting for an unrestricted free agent, the Czech center, who spent his entire 13-year career before that moment with the Canadiens, has now shown interest in returning.

If this happens, Plekanec, with 981 games played with Canadiens (total 998), will have a chance to reach 1000, becoming in the process only the sixth in the history of the team to do it. This would be an impressive achievement and, perhaps, worthy of a deal on the cheap of all by itself, "cheap", which is operational terminology.

Of course, Plekanec enjoyed a relatively impressive series of playoffs against Boston Bruins (two goals, two assists) before the Lifestyles were eliminated, but that means very little in the grand scheme of things. In any case, the Canadiens will not sign it for an exit in the playoffs. This is based on the popular opinion that he rarely appeared for the team in the last playoffs and, with the exception of the 71-point season in the standings, the Habs do not necessarily look at the long run of the playoffs. Just making them would be an achievement at this stage.


So this is his recent success in the regular season, running Canadiens would have to take a look at ... and that's not cool. He may have become as strong as Liszt, but in 17 matches of the regular season he immediately scored just two assists. In combination with his 24 points in 60 games like Hab, he actually turned out to be less than in 2016-1917, when he had only 10 goals and 18 assists, the final figures, which were 50 points per year, grew accustomed to getting From him.

The fact that Plekanets has overtaken such stars as star Austin Matthews (one goal, one help) in the playoffs is a good factoid, but one small sample size does not outweigh the hit that his statistics took over the last couple of seasons. Therefore, if he had to return, it would have to be deeper, and his contract would have to be commensurate with that role. This would mean that he took a huge piece of $ 6 million a year, which he had just earned.

Only if he is OK with this condition, negotiations should begin. It's even with an excessive amount of cap space that the Canadiens have. Because, of course, the Canadiens could probably have signed Plekanec again no matter what the price, but it should not be a priority, as the team is unstably weak down the middle.

The big fish this summer is obviously John Tavares, and that would be a huge disappointment and (further) the indictment of General Manager Mark Bergevin if all he could land was instead Plekanek.

Put it this way: it's pretty much Tavares or bust, with Paul Stastny and Joe Thornton, who act as the only free second-tier agents in the center. Underneath them is Tyler Bozak, the bodystock, who, just to put him in the proper perspective, had the same number of points as Plekanets in the past playoffs. Nevertheless, no one requires that Hubs sign it. Maybe one or two steps below it? Here you will find Plekanets.

In other words, Plekanec should be a sauce this summer, and not the main dish. Only once does Berdwin turn to his actual needs, if Plekanets becomes a priority, because re-signing the center is a turn of the story that everyone sees. This can lead to a happy ending of Plekanek's career, but probably to an end without a playoff for the team as a whole. Recently it was done to death.

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