Follow me on Twitter by clicking the following link for all Habs updates! Follow @KarineGHG
When Ben Chiarot accepted J.T. Miller to fight on March 10th in a game that the Habs were largely dominating, he didn’t think that he would break his hand. No, he thought of “the code…, he thought that if he was the one trying to spark some life in his team, he’d be grateful if someone accepted his invitation, just like Tyler Myers did when he asked him to fight earlier this season.
Now, though, Chiarot will be out for 6 to 8 weeks after undergoing surgery on his right hand and the Canadiens will have to find a sustainable solution. So far, Victor Mete has been inserted in the line-up, but he’s not the solution and Ducharme knows it, as evidenced by his decision to put Xavier Ouellet in tonight while Mete sits again.
If this team is to make the playoffs and have a chance to be competitive, they need a better solution. There is no doubt that Chiarot will be doubt for 10 games or 24 days and he’s therefore eligible to be put on the long-term injury reserve list. What does this mean? Well, it means that the Canadiens can get some cap relief by putting him on there and perhaps be able to trade for a more permanent solution.
As suggested by Cap Friendly, if Montréal was to recall Josh Brook for one day, they could maximize the cap relief they would get. The cap relief is calculated by subtracting the current cap space from the cap hit of the player you put on LTIR. So with a current cap space of $801,710 – Brooks’ $795,000 = $6,710 in space, which means that relief would be $3.5M - $6,710: $3,493,290. With Ouellet’s salary, the cap relief becomes $3 435 790, we should have the full details at 5:00 PM on that front. With the cap space thus created, I believe it’s time for Bergevin to go shopping on the market, if of course he is still of the view that his team can perform. From what’s available right now according the rumours, Mattias Ekholm would probably be the best option. While a case could be made that the Habs need a veteran centre to pivot the 4th line before the playoffs, I think the Chiarot injury makes the need for a solid regular blue liner more important. Of course, recalling Cale Fleury could also be an option, but there's no sign that this will happen for now.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few days, starting tonight. Josh Anderson guaranteed yesterday that his team would be more intense and come out flying against the Jets, we’ll see if he remembered to tell his teammates. Carey Price will be in net for the game and Philip Danault will be a game-time decision after the warm-up. Finally, Cole Caufield and his Badgers face Penn State today at 4:30 to see if they will make it to the Big 10 final tomorrow night.
Combat entre Chiarot et JT Miller un seul coup de poing mais les deux joueurs se sont fait mal Chiarot au poing et JT Miller à la tête. #MTLvsVAN pic.twitter.com/gTuTTNoXNT
— Jeudepuissance (@jeudepuissance) March 11, 2021