The Canadiens have found a band-aid to put over their catastrophic defenseman situation, Marc-Andre Bergeron. Bergeron, 29, signed on with the Canadiens on Tuesday to a 1-year deal, reportedly worth $700,000. He was an unrestricted free agent and looked to be priced to move into the Habs dressing room, filling in some of the shoes left behind by Andrei Markov and his injury situation.Bergeron scored 14 goals and 18 assists in 72 games with the Wild in 2009, ranking in the top 50 among scoring defenders. Obviously, he doesn't rank in the same class as Markov, but for the time being he'll have to do.
The Habs were getting quite comfortable up against the cap ceiling the start the year, but three months worth of savings on Markov's $5.75 million cap hit should be more than enough to fill in Bergeron's $700,000. In a very rough calculation, the Habs are looking at savings of $2.5 million against the cap this year, thinking in weeks and not days, exactly. That's three months worth of action missed. So, the Habs can afford a guy like Bergeron to come in and take the spot on the blueline.
Like I mentioned, Bergeron is not a scoring equivalent to Markov, but the Canadiens are going to be in need of a power play defenseman, which Bergeron does have on his resume. If the power play is to be as good as it looks on paper, Bergeron may be a nice pick-up on the free agent market in your pool, if you're allowed to do such a thing. Even if it is only temporary.
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