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Canadiens Sign Newly Acquired Rinat Valiev As D Rebuild Continues... |
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Contrary to what some "Insiders" had mentioned a few weeks ago, newly acquired 22 year old defenseman Rinat Valiev is going to continue his career in the NHL/AHL with the Montreal Canadiens and their AHL affiliate Laval Rocket.
Vailev signed a 1 year, 2 way contract worth $650k at the NHL level and $80k at that AHL level and saw his audition with the Canadiens cut short after he was acquired due to injury.
There were statements made by some in the Canadiens media that Valiev had left the NHL for the KHL and now we know those were complete fabrications.
Many fans were completely right in their assessment that the Canadiens D was a key reason for the Canadiens struggles last season. Outside of Weber's spectacular play on one foot (until he was shut down) all parties on D struggled at some point. Despite Petry's career year last year, he struggled mightily for almost the entire first half of the season. Mete was a fantastic rookie this year, but had his own growing pains. The rest of the crew that started the season on the roster had years I'm sure they want to forget.
During the year we saw the addition of Juulsen, Lernout, Reilly, and Vailev while the offseason saw the Habs poach a couple of solid Czech blue liners in Michal Moravcik and David Sklenicka. The teams management is quite clearly showing the fanbase it was not happy with its defense last season and worked diligently to make it younger, faster, and more skilled.
And no, I don't believe Markov would have truly helped. In fact, if one thing is clear in today's NHL its that speed is the name of the game and the 39 year old Markov was already slowing down considerably on a twice rebuilt knee and was always gassed by the playoffs anyways. He would be on the books for $5 mill (or slightly more) for this upcoming season and he would struggle with today's pace. I love career Habs like Markov, but he would have struggled if we are being honest.
Add to all these additions the possibility of the Canadiens going outside the box at the draft and adding one of Hughes, Bouchard, or Dobson at #3 and the D core will be massively different for this upcoming season and beyond.
With all these adds and possibilities on the horizon its clear to me that trades and/or buy outs are on the docket for Habs Brass this offseason. The players likely to move are Benn, Schlemko, and Alzner (although I think Alzner gets another shot).
The Canadiens are looking like they are experiencing a youth movement on the back end to adapt to todays game. I just hope that sometime in the near future the Habs start becoming trend setters instead of having the game pass them by and then making adjustments...
Go Habs Go!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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