Pool Outlook for Montreal

The Canadiens were supposed to have quite the storybook season in 2009, being that it was their 100th anniversary season. Sadly, expectations were not lived up to, thanks in large part to injuries and growing pressure from the outside looking in that led to many inconsistencies throughout the line-up. With all of that being said, there wasn't a lot to cheer about when you looked at the players individually, in accordance to your fantasy hockey team. Only three players on their roster finished with 80 or 81 games, no one finished with 82. Wins came at a premium, which had them finishing eighth in the East and victims of an early first round exit.

It was a two-horse race for the top spot as Montreal's best pool player, but it was Alex Kovalev who earned the title in the end. Sadly, it was with only 65 points in 78 games. His time away from the game also included a team-mandated sabbatical, to get himself re-focused on his game and his goal scoring ability. It did seem to work for a short period of time, but in the overall sense, he wasn't nearly as dominating as he was the season previous.

Of course, the remainder of the forwards were the ones who were hit by lots of injuries, some of them were fairly long-term. Saku Koivu only played in 65 games, registering 50 points. Andrei Kostitsyn missed 8 games and had 41 points. Newcomers Alex Tanguay and Robert Lang each managed to play in 50 games, with 41 and 39 points, respectively. You can see where I am going with this. Tomas Plekanec did play in 80 games this season, but he was grossly inconsistent, in comparison to last season, scoring only 39 points in total. It was an awfully tough year for the Canadiens up front, which caused the team to swap around their lines a fair bit, which in turn, really made the offense suffer.

A bright spot on the backend was Andrei Markov, who finished in second in pool points to Kovalev, as he boosted his ratings with a 64-point season in 79 GP. Markov benefitted from more time on the power play and was relied upon heavily for some big minutes. His big season jumped him up to 68th place in the overall rankings, 2nd among defensemen. Markov did have some reasonable support from Roman Hamrlik, who finished with 33 points in 81 GP and Mathieu Schneider, who arrived late-season, finishing with 32 points in only 67 GP. All three of these defenders were pretty decent pool picks in the grand scheme of things.

In goal, it was an overall bad year for Carey Price, who couldn't seem to keep any stretch of good luck together throughout the season. Price had his ups and downs through the year, only managing to win 23 games, one by shutout and register an assist for 49 points. For your number one goalie, that's a pretty sub-par year. If Price was out, then in was Jaroslav Halak, who actually performed admirably in place of the starter. Halak finished with 18 wins and a shutout for 38 points, which is pretty good for your back-up goalie. Halak was actually quite close to earning the number one job there for a while, but Price did manage to snag it back in time to be the starter in the playoffs.

2010 Season Outlook
Well, there is plenty of work to be done in Montreal. The number of players signed onto the roster for next season is quite low, thanks to a large amount of UFAs that are going to hit the market in July. There is no way to tell what the team will actually be like come next season, as there is an equal chance for change and staying the same.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Andrei Kostitsyn	Andrei Markov	Carey Price
Max Lapierre	Roman Hamrlik	Jaroslav Halak
Sergei Kostitsyn	Josh Gorges
Glen Metropolit	Ryan O'Byrne
Georges Laraque

Well, the team has their two goalies under contract, two of their top defenders signed and a light dusting of depth players coming to a total of eleven signed at an approximate cap hit of $23.5 million. This being said, they should have plenty of money to spend to build the team up from this small core of eleven, but team chemistry could be an issue if the team decides to introduce more than their fair share of new faces.

I think I will start with all the UFAs that they have becoming eligible on July 1st, as that seems to be the most amazing list. Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu, Alex Tanguay, Robert Lang, Mathieu Schneider, Tom Kostopoulos, Patrice Brisebois, Mathieu Dandenault, Mike Komisarek, Francis Bouillion and Marc Denis will all hit the market at the same time, if the Habs decide against offering them some new extensions.

Under the RFA monikers, you'll see Tomas Plekanec, Guy Latendresse, Christopher Higgins, Matt D'Agostini, Kyle Chipchura and Gregory Stewart, who will all likely find new deals with the team or be part of a deal out of town to get some fresh faces or better draft picks in the organization.

The Canadiens did give a brief preview of what Max Pacioretty can do last season, but the 2010 season could be his breakout year with the club and should be someone to look out for, more likely in the middle part of the season, rather than taking a chance on him right away. You may see the Habs go out and look for players that might be better suited to his game, in order to ease him into NHL life a little easier. On the back end, there could be a race for spots between PK Subban and Yannick Weber, who are both mobile defenders, but neither come with great size. Weber already saw some time with the big club this season, while Subban finished another year in junior, so look for Weber to hit the scene faster.

I don't think there were many people who didn't think that the Canadiens would be better than they were this past year, much like the Ottawa Senators. In Montreal, they have a good opportunity to put a new team together, likely incorporate some of the more familiar faces, but try again from the backend out. We may also be able to sum up Carey Price's problems to the sophomore jinx, so I might be a little less hesitant to pick him due to his numbers than others might be. Watch the forwards carefully and if the lines pan out to be something interesting, I would jump on that bandwagon for points pretty quickly.