Hello there and welcome to Episode 2 of Canadiens Time I'm D.F. Pendrys your solitary host on this little adventure we're going on so let's get into it. A lot of Canadiens news over the past week. First of all big big news for the Canadiens Marie-Philip Poulin, Marie-Philip don’t want to get wrong, has joined the club in a part-time capacity to work with player Development. This is just big news. Probably the best women's hockey player in the world joining the Canadiens. Now I I I don't use the term women's hockey myself very often because women's hockey also encompasses pretty much anyone who's not a man and so that could include any trans players as well and so that becomes a difficult term when you're using as a catch-all but for now just we'll just say women's hockey and keep it like that keep it simple but it's just everything it's really non-male hockey realm but getting back to Marie-Philip Poulin she is taking this part time so she can continue to play, continue...to continue her career which makes a lot of sense. And Melissa Boyd wrote an article about it for The Hockey Writers and I'll just read a quote that she put together. “As a remarkably skilled player herself, she’ll be able to pass on some of her go-to moves, how she sees the game, the little details in particular, and anticipates plays as they develop thanks to her high hockey IQ. Not to mention that she’s a proven leader who commands respect and who inspires everyone she crosses paths with.” I mean that just that sums it up right there. That's a fantastic quote that tells you what the Canadiens are getting and so I I don't think there needs to be much more sad I think that just puts puts it into a great perspective. 
Meanwhile in the AHL, The Laval rocket are continuing in the playoffs and they're taking on the Springfield Thunderbirds. Three games been played so far. The first two games were played in Springfield and there was a split. I invite you to read the Habs Eyes on the Prize Recaps to get into detail about what happened and and but but just in brief, Springfield won the first game 2-1 in overtime. Danick Martel had the first, the only goal for Laval. Laval actually had the lead till very late in the game but then Springfield was able to tie it up and win in overtime. Laval took the second game 4-2 to Brandon Gignac, Jessie Ylönen, Alex Belzile,  Raphael Harvey-Pinard had goals for the Rocket. Game three too place in Laval Springfield won 6 to 3. Harvey-Pinard, Corey Schueneman, Nate Schnarr Nation had the goals for the Rocket and there's you can get more on that also from locked on Canadiens episode 633 if you're looking for it so I'd recommend both of that sources. So it's Springfield leading that series but there's a lot of hockey to play in that and hopefully the Rocket can turn things around. I was at the first game up in Springfield I live in Connecticut much like The Builds’ Ian Boisvert and the teams look very very evenly-matched I mean they have both have great goaltending they both have a lot of offensive weapons and it's just look they looked very very even and so it's not surprising that this this may very well be some sort of seven game series or something like that because they just that it just looked like they were really even. 
So also in other news the Carey Price of course won the Masterton Trophy winner...trophy award this got a lot of press. I think a lot of people in Canadiens circles knew that this happened. It's I'm not going to get into a very much because I think it's ground that has been covered by practically everybody but I did want to know that that on another podcast, The Build which has hosted by the aforementioned Ian Boisvert there are the very valid critique of the award voting process which I invite you to go look and listen to which I just felt there was a...there's a lot said over on that podcast it's worth listening to about just how awards are chosen and out of the Masterton is it sort of just what it what its origins are and just what its what its about and that's not to take away from the winners of the award. And whether its Carey Price or anyone who's won it overall it's just it's just I found it it's it's it's a it's an interesting question about why why why they're that awards exists and what is premise is and so that'll be in the show notes as well. 
So then there's a lot of...lot of off season moves potential or that have become reality sort of being discussed in the in The ether out there. One interesting discussion that came up is was put up there in an article by Jimmy Murphy of Montreal Hockey Now. He said that Hurricanes Defenseman Ethan Bear could be a good fit for the Canadiens and Bear is going to become a UFA and I actually thought this would be an interesting fit as well. So Murphy knows more about hockey than I do so a credit to Murphy on this but this would be a very interesting. The the Hurricanes didn't really use Bear that much but be very very nice to see Bear end up with a shot at the Canadiens just given that he knew he was injured recently and then Murphy notes that in his article but assuming Bear gets healthy it might be a good pick up cuz bear is young and could be just a valuable...just a new piece to add to the defensive mix because I mean nothing is certain with you have a lot of prospects in the mix for the Canadiens and you still sort of don't know what your veteran core is going to look like.  So it might be just a useful just a useful move to bring in somebody like Bear to the defensive corps. 
Speaking of the defensive corp, the Canadiens signed Chris Wideman to a two-year extension and as Jimmy Murphy again notes in his article about that signing... “Wideman had a solid season for the Habs with four goals and 23 assists in 64 games.”  and the assists were sort of sort of throughout flew under the radar there and it was was it was it was it wasn't a bad season. So it's going to be I think it was a solid pick up when when when the Canadiens is really trying to sort of solidify some some positions and I think that especially when you consider the sort of their there was this the sort of early Ducharme where things were not going so well and then he thing picked up under St. Louis. I think we don't don't know maybe Wideman is just going to have a the ability to sort of pick up as well so I think it's it's it's a it's just a good signing. I think Wideman was a stable force and the you could sure use stability. 
Another good interesting article about who the Canadiens might pick up was sort of this was there there was Elliot Friedman sort of stirred the pot talking about restricted free agents that might not get offered qualifying offers and this led to some articles being written about some of the listed qualify the agent free agents that might be on might be on that list of Friedman noted and Blain Potvin in The Hockey Writers talk about a few of those that maybe the Canadiens could Target and his list included Dylan Strome, Pavel Zacha and Vitali Kravtsov and I urge you to go read the article for the rationale for that. And I'm only going to talk about Zacha because I want you to read the articles I mentioning I'm not going to just steal people's thunder here. Zacha is under performing in New Jersey compared to expectations but could be a piece that the Canadians could use and Potvin notes in and I quote “At 6-foot-3, 210 pounds, Zacha, like Strome, has the size and strength to make him tough to move off the boards or away from the front of the net. He also has an excellent shot and hasn’t had his breakout season yet,“ and that's so there's still a lot of potential for Zacha and so and he's certainly shown promise but just has not exploded like a lot of other players on the Devils. Having...a Devils have a lot of young players who have really really stepped up so it but it might be a change of scenery might give him the chance to to fit in Montreal and Montreal could sure use some influx of some some young energy. Also on that note so Jimmy Murphy also wrote an article about about the RFAs and also talked about Strome and Zacha as well so there's there's some there's some some similar lines of thought about those two and Zacha his name especially has been floating around since the since the trade deadline so there there there isn't there there that's not an unusual there. 
And now turning to a bigger issue which I mean everyone is sort of familiar with its not not been not going to be a surprise to anyone is Jeff Petry and again Jimmy Murphy's been all over all over this all over this podcast today. There was an article about how Pierre LeBrun reported a rumor that if Klingberg goes out of Dallas, Petry might be a valuable pick up to the Stars and so that might be interesting and...but on the other side of things when I was listening to The Build podcast it was on the other side of things with the question of whether you want to let Petry go because Ian had pointed out that Andrew Berkshire...Berkshire I want to make sure I get that right I'm not entirely sure and I should should have should have pre checked that cuz he's on game over every night. I could really check that one so apologies for getting that wrong if I get it wrong. I will not make that mistake again. And any way there the there was what was was Petry was studied and it was found the Petry had the “highest positive on ice impact” of all the Canadiens and so when one is looking at Petry's value that should be considered and also that and it was also mention on The Build to Montreal doesn’t have a player to replace him currently and so they would need to bring one in and so there's so so and also Dallas was also suggested as a trading partner as well on The Build so Dallas is seen as a potential trading partner to multiple people now so the Jeff Petry Saga does rolls on. It says it'll be interesting to see whether he will finally end up in getting traded back to the United States or if just something is worked out because he's a very valuable player and he really was able to get back on the horse once Marty St. Louis became coach in the saddle and I just use a lot of horse references. 
Speaking of back in the saddle, now Brett Kulak who was traded to Edmonton but will be a free agent might return as was talked about on Locked On Canadiens. They mentioned that Kulak didn't rule out coming back to the Canadians and Scott Matla on the program had mentioned...he said that Kulak is "Sneaky underrated piece," and also referred to as a “swiss army knife” as a player that could be another stabilizing player on the defense to an end. Kulak played some really solid minutes for Edmonton in the in the regular season and it got all the playoff action so Kulak could certainly be definitely welcomed back in Montreal if they chose to go that way. 
Turning to sort of that the young'uns and there's a there's the the Junior action still going on is a lot of junior playoffs, Arber Xhekaj and Jan Mysak are playing in the OHL finals for the Hamilton Bulldogs and their next games are June 10th and June 12th so that's series is still rolling on and Kaiden Guhle is playing in the CHL playoffs and it's Marco...Marco D'Amico one of his recent articles for Montreal Hockey Now said “he had 40 points in 42 games in the regular season and he posted seven goals and eight assists for 15 points in 16 games” and I'm not sure if that's the most updated number but that's what I have in the most recent article I read from Montreal Hockey Now. And another article from Marco D'Amico had had the Canadiens showing interest in and I'm going to be careful with this name is Jonathan Lekkerimäki and I'm not sure about the pronunciation about that one I should have gone to elite prospects before I started and I apologize for that and if I get it wrong I will make a note in the show notes cuz elite prospect does have pronunciations and usually that's what I need to do. I'll usually I'll make every every attempt to get these pronunciations right the first time. None the less he has been seen as a target for the Canadiens and there's a quote in here from D'Amico now that “Lekkerimäki is one of the best goal-scorers in this draft and took the Swedish J-20 league by storm this season, posting 20 goals and 15 assists for 35 points in 26 games.”  So that's that'll be interesting to see if that's a player that the Canadiens end up with... not with the first pick obviously but in later pics. 
And finally with talking more prospects just just a heads up that if you're looking for more prospect talk Habs Unfiltered in their recent most recent podcast had the Kingston Frontenacs play-by-play person on who talked about OHL prospects in detail and of course as part of that talked about Shane Wright but then when it was talked about plenty of others before the Shane Wright discussion so there was a lot of great info there so just thought I'd mention that. All right so that's a lot of ground covered. Thank you for listening and stuff. Done a lot of talking and thank you again and now that's all for now.