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Habs Trade Moen for Gonchar; Instant Analysis

November 11, 2014, 2:29 PM ET [729 Comments]
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The Montreal Canadiens and Dallas Stars have consummated a deal that sends Travis Moen south and Sergei Gonchar north.

According to ESPN's Pierre LeBrun, the Stars have retained 8% of the remaining $5M (prorated) on Gonchar's deal, which expires at season's end.

Moen is signed through 2015-16.

Instant analysis:

No question, Marc Bergevin's a winner on the salary cap, but both these players help their teams equally, and not all that much.

The Stars need help on the defensive side of the puck and on the penalty kill, while the Canadiens need help breathing life into their powerplay, and having another puck moving defenseman is always a positive.

Gonchar is 40, and just came off the IR three games ago. Is he going to completely fix the powerplay? No more than Moen will fix Dallas' penalty kill (currently 26th).

How will this change the Habs?

-First, it's hilarious how many Canadiens fans are griping about this already. They were begging to get Travis Moen out so Michael Bournival could get a full-time spot, and in 48 hours, Marc Bergevin has acquiesced, moving Moen for an expiring contract, and waiving Bourque to make room for Jiri Sekac.

-Why are they griping? Because they're worried about what this move means for Jarred Tinordi and Nathan Beaulieu.

Who can blame them on that front?

It's a strong likelihood one of these two players is making their way to Hamilton. And it's certainly a possibility that the other one is coming out of the lineup.

Fans aren't so trusting that Michel Therrien will play the most deserving defenseman when it comes to the internal competition this move stimulates, but that's yet to be determined.

-One has to wonder if Bergevin is considering moving another one of his defensemen; Beaulieu, Tinordi, Emelin?

-Can't help but wonder how they'll integrate Gonchar on the powerplay. Jaromir Jagr was once quoted about how Gonchar taught him how to take potent one-timers when the two were in Washington together. Gonchar may be 40, but he's still got a great one-timer.

Naturally, Gonchar's a quarterback, just like Markov is, and at the risk of being destroyed by the entire fan base, I'm going to suggest that the best move Montreal can make right now is to pair them together. They can't last more than a minute anyways, so have the powerplay run through two units. Let's not bother with labeling them.

I'm of the opinion that Markov feeding a left-hand shot is going to stimulate more. With Gonchar there, they can have Markov play the left, where he's more comfortable, and he can tee up one-timers for Gonchar, the same way he did for Sheldon Souray, the way he did for Marc Streit, the way he did for Marc-Andre Bergeron. This does not take a role away from P.K. Subban, if anything it turns him more into a quarterback on the other unit.

I'd structure it as follows:

Gallagher-Desharnais-Pacioretty
Markov-Gonchar

Parenteau-Plekanec-Galchenyuk
Subban-Gilbert/Beaulieu


Have the right-handed shots on the left. Have the left-handed shots on the right.

I'd have Pacioretty and Galchenyuk on the right half-boards to stack one-timer plays and open up cross-ice seams from left-to-right and from right-to-left.

The best Montreal powerplays over the last number of years had two one-time options on the right of Markov, both of them left-handed shooters.

It was Markov-Souray-Kovalev, or Markov-Streit-Kovalev, or Markov-Bergeron-Cammalleri. Now it becomes Markov-Gonchar-Pacioretty.

On the other unit, it's a mirror. It becomes Gilbert or Beaulieu feeding Subban and Parenteau.

Stacking sides like this--towards the top--opens up lanes and forces the penalty killing forward into no man's land.

-The real question is, how is Gonchar going to fare at 5-on-5? Knowing the Canadiens don't draw nearly enough penalties, how much opportunity will Gonchar have to help the Canadiens where they need it most?
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