Confirmed with Link: Jake Allen signs extensions with the Canadiens (2 years, $3.85M AAV)

[salbutera]

A bit mixed feelings on this....

With the number of win-now contenders with shaky goalie situations, kinda wish they had kept this in the back burner until the spring. If he's having a solid season, as a ufa on a sub-3M expiring deal, a first from a playoff team needing to bolster the goalie situation heading into the post season stretch was a possibility.

If not, you extend him in February and maybe pay a bit more for the delay.

They must really value his locker room precense and fit with the coaching staff to have prioritized the extension this early... 3-5M gets you a similar 1B goalie most offseasons.

Not opposed, but imo how this signing plays out will be a good litmus test of the quality of their player & culture evaluation. Hope he does provide the intended veteran stability and solid/stable performance through the next 3 yrs that this decision banks on

Should read LeBrun’s The Athletic article, HuGo do not under an any circumstances want to chance losing culture seeping in through the “retool” which is the term Hughes uses. GM also states if Price was healthy there would be “no retool / rebuild”

 

[BaseballCoach]

Allen is a solid goalie.
I don’t like this.
He helps push us further from Bedard.

Allen isn’t good enough to effect change. He’s good enough to make a 5-2 loss into a 4-2 loss so it’s less embarrassing for the kids.

@Sterling Archer Please stop humoring nonsense.

First of all, Allen's extension is for 2023-24 and 2024-25. Bedard will have already have been drafted.

But the whole idea that one opposes things that might make the team even slightly better is sick. Might as well fire the development coaches,

 

[Halakitlikethat]

I like it. It didn’t make sense to trade him this year at the deadline given that the return would not be worth throwing prospects to the wolves as he is really the only NHL goalie in the organization.

 

[Sterling Archer]

@Sterling Archer Please stop humoring nonsense.

First of all, Allen's extension is for 2023-24 and 2024-25. Bedard will have already have been drafted.

But the whole idea that one opposes things that might make the team even slightly better is sick. Might as well fire the development coaches,

Did you bump your head or something? Why are you dragging me into this debate?

I WANT the Habs to do better. How does signing Allen to an extension help make them into a contender??

I think you completely misread my post and it’s intent.

 

[Treb]

A bit mixed feelings on this....

With the number of win-now contenders with shaky goalie situations, kinda wish they had kept this in the back burner until the spring. If he's having a solid season, as a ufa on a sub-3M expiring deal, a first from a playoff team needing to bolster the goalie situation heading into the post season stretch was a possibility.

If not, you extend him in February and maybe pay a bit more for the delay.

They must really value his locker room precense and fit with the coaching staff to have prioritized the extension this early... 3-5M gets you a similar 1B goalie most offseasons.

Not opposed, but imo how this signing plays out will be a good litmus test of the quality of their player & culture evaluation. Hope he does provide the intended veteran stability and solid/stable performance through the next 3 yrs that this decision banks on

But can we find a 1b goalie for that price that buys in the plan, wants to come here, is well liked in the room and has been a good leader for the younger goalies?

Goalies don't really get much at the TDL (in fact they barely get traded at all). If we wanted top value for Allen, it was back in July before FA at 50% retained to a contender needing a backup.

 

[JianYang]

He routinely let's in horrible goals that have no right going in. It'll be hard for the team to play well when they know that any tiny mistake they make will result in a goal.

You're right that it's backup money, but the team would still need a starter. Maybe next summer they'll sign someone. Or maybe they'll still think Primeau is the future despite him never looking like an NHL player.

I just want a goalie in nets that I'm not worried will cost the team a game every time he plays.

I know we were spoiled with Price but this is the total opposite.

Allen is fine at that cap hit. I think the knock on him would be that you can't give him too much of a meaty workload because that seems to be when his play suffers. He's good for a 1a/1b type of goalie rotation, though.

It keeps the door open for a good chunk of starts to become available to other goalies in the system who you would hope become better than Allen one day.

 

[Twisted Sinister]

Should read LeBrun’s The Athletic article, HuGo do not under an any circumstances want to chance losing culture seeping in through the “retool” which is the term Hughes uses. GM also states if Price was healthy there would be “no retool / rebuild”

I don't like this move.

They seem to be unwilling to go all in on the rebuild. Considering Gorton has actually done it before, witha letter and everything, I'm sensing Molson's grubby paws on these decisions.

Gotta sell those beers!

 

[JianYang]

Serge Savard once said, goaltending is no big deal, until you don't have it................this is where we are. The fact that we were spoiled for so long with Price is now right in our rear view mirror.
Allen is ok if he plays 25 games.......................if he plays more he is a sieve at times............the only difference moving forward is HuGo is building a better team out front of him, and the others....................so we may score our way out of things at times.............

It does give the HuGo tandem time, to think on what to do as we move forward. I still think Primeau is the guy but I am wavering....

The elite goaltending goes back a long way. Patrick Roy was there in the 90s, with Jose Theodore already in the system at the time. Hackett was very good in the late 90s and early 2000s while Theodore was rising. Vokoun was also in the system during this time but they lost him in the expansion draft.

And when the wheels were falling off on theodore in the mid 2000s, the Habs had price in the system which gets the Habs to present day. For that brief time that price was still working his way through the ranks, huet came out of nowhere and providing very good goaltending, and halak was performing well too.

The amazing quality lineage of goaltending has been almost continuous since the mid 80s.

 

[Player 61]

I had Season Tix to the Verdun Jr's back on 08, Said to my Girlfriend that this Guy is NHL callibur Pro. Glad he ended up back on our Island!

 

[Rapala]

GM also states if Price was healthy there would be “no retool / rebuild”

Carey saving our asses once again.

 

[LaP]

He's also arguably better than all of them.

He's not better than Talbot.

 

[Treb]

I don't like this move.

They seem to be unwilling to go all in on the rebuild. Considering Gorton has actually done it before, witha letter and everything, I'm sensing Molson's grubby paws on these decisions.

Gotta sell those beers!

You do understand they still need to ice an hockey club, right?

This is actually pretty on par with a rebuild. Letting Allen go/trading him would open the spot for a starter goalie.

Now, we know it's Allen + Montembeault/Primeau for the next 3 years unless they give up on Primeau.

 

[Treb]

He's not better than Talbot.

Talbot is also due for a new contract, so we will see how much he signs for.

 

[LaP]

A bit mixed feelings on this....

With the number of win-now contenders with shaky goalie situations, kinda wish they had kept this in the back burner until the spring. If he's having a solid season, as a ufa on a sub-3M expiring deal, a first from a playoff team needing to bolster the goalie situation heading into the post season stretch was a possibility.

If not, you extend him in February and maybe pay a bit more for the delay.

They must really value his locker room precense and fit with the coaching staff to have prioritized the extension this early... 3-5M gets you a similar 1B goalie most offseasons.

Not opposed, but imo how this signing plays out will be a good litmus test of the quality of their player & culture evaluation. Hope he does provide the intended veteran stability and solid/stable performance through the next 3 yrs that this decision banks on

Winning teams with shaky goalies want a real number one. I think our fanbase is a bit delusional about Allen. He's a good backup that's about it. He has proven in the past to not be able to sustain the workload of a number 1. He's not young either.

If i was a winning team looking for a solution i'd rather roll the dices on guys like Samsonov or Georgiev than acquiring Allen. Allen is worth what we paid for him and he is certainly not worth more than Georgiev (3rd round pick) who is still young enough to develop as a number 1.

KH wanted stability keeping a decent vet goalie who is good enough to keep games close but not good enough to jinx the rebuild. For him it's worth more than a 3rd round pick and i can't say i disagree with that. Goalies value has always been significantly lower than other positions.

Now if KH stupidly extends Edmundson we'll have a talk for sure.

 

[A55P2]

I just read what he said in the press conference. Talk about a well grounded guy! Got his priorities straight. Well aware of who he is as a player

 

[Team_Spirit]

Low aav, short term..what's not to like?

2023 ufa goalies are old ones like Varlamov, Quick, Andersen so this was the best move imo.

2023 NHL Free Agents Tracker

Tracking the status and signings of all 2023 NHL free agents.

www.spotrac.com

 

[dasahgah]

Should read LeBrun’s The Athletic article, HuGo do not under an any circumstances want to chance losing culture seeping in through the “retool” which is the term Hughes uses. GM also states if Price was healthy there would be “no retool / rebuild”

So different, so refreshing! lol

 

[Sagikev]

Also with all the ELCs coming up, we need some salaries haha we're in cap hell right now, but I suspect it'll change within the next few years

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Good contract. Short-term & eminently tradeable if we do want to go in that direction. He gives us a veteran goalie to offer some protection for the kids

 

[JoelWarlord]

I don't like this move.

They seem to be unwilling to go all in on the rebuild.

I'm seeing this sentiment a lot here and in other discussions with Montreal fans and I truly don't understand where it's coming from. The Canadiens finished last place in 21-22 and they've traded Toffoli, Lehkonen, Kulak, Chiarot, Petry, and Romanov with only Dach and Matheson coming back as intentionally "good" roster players. Otherwise, the only veteran replacements to the outgoing players were Dadonov/Monahan, who represent franchise player money at 11M combined for two cap dumps we ate for futures/long-term cap flexibility. They retained Montembeault after 38 games of .891 play and made no efforts to clear salary this offseason to address roster holes. What exactly is signalling to you that they aren't in this for a rebuild?

Rebuilding is a team-level strategic decision to spend a period of time focusing on accumulating long-term assets and cap flexibility at the expense of short-term competitiveness. Drafting high is a part of rebuilding, but rebuilding does not require optimizing your decisions for the highest draft lottery odds possible at the expense of all other concerns. The front office determining that the development value of having a single credible veteran goalie on a team where you're going to be cycling in 4-5 different rookie defencemen this season is more important than the marginal few percent increase in lottery odds from finishing eg. 30th vs 29th does not mean they are unwilling to go all-in on a rebuild.

The new odds have changed the strategic framework for tanking significantly. It isn't worth actively trying to finish as low as possible unless you can guarantee 32nd place. Your odds at the 1st pick are 25.5% if you finish in 32nd, and it rapidly drops to 13.5, 11.5, 9.5, 8.5, 7.5 etc for the 31-27th places and so on. The juice just isn't worth the squeeze unless you can guarantee a 32nd place finish and I don't think that's a reasonable goal without doing active harm to the roster given how bare Arizona's roster is.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

He's not better than Talbot.

An argument can be made for Allen being better IMO. At the very least it's close enough for rock and roll.

 

[Habby4Life]

Solid contract and in two years Primeau will be ready to be our starter.

Primeau will be nothing more than a backup, if that.

 

[jrom]

it was probably a trade off for the team friendly contract but it seems Allen got a partial no-trade clause. I’m fine with it, Allen will be a good transition goalie.

 

[Runner77]

I don't think they know exactly what the opportunity will be yet.

My guess is that all they know is they like Allen as a leader and a stop gap. Which is probably the right choice given the alternatives internally and externally right now.

I don't think they've identified anyone internally yet as an heir apparent. I forget who said it but I think they were on record saying they don't believe they currently have anyone in the system who can be a #1 goalie. I think highly of Dobes but he's only had one good NCAA season under his belt and we'll need to see how he replicates that.

I also forget who said it but I believe it was Lebrun, who said he wouldn't be surprised if the Habs invest more than one high draft pick this year in a goalie prospect. I'd be looking at the Habs potentially taking Hrabal and Fowler this year.

I hope that happens. I’m not sure that Primeau could ever be more than a no. 2.

 

[Treb]

it was probably a trade off for the team friendly contract but it seems Allen got a partial no-trade clause. I’m fine with it, Allen will be a good transition goalie.

I mean a 7 and 3 teams NTC isn't that prohibitive. I assume most teams on that list will be teams he probably doesn't want to be on like Arizona for example.