Montreal — The word "centre" was omitted from the press release announcing Alex Galchenyuk’s signing with the Montreal Canadiens.
Where he slots into their lineup remains a mystery, but Galchenyuk’s immediate future with the team was solidified Thursday evening with the announcement of a two-year pact worth a reported $5.6 million. He’ll be a restricted free agent once the deal expires.
Galchenyuk will have the next two seasons to show the brass where he belongs, to prove he can score at an elite level and to prove he can be the centreman he was drafted to be. He’ll be paid $2.8 million per year to do it.
Not a bad deal for him.
It’s a pretty great one for the Canadiens.
The 21-year-old Milwaukee native has scored 104 points in 193 regular-season games, and added 10 points in 22 Stanley Cup Playoff games. He’s a career plus-10. He’s edgy, he’s skilled, and he’s coming off a season in which he notched career highs in goals (20) and assists (26).
It’s not often that a career year also be referred to as an underwhelming one.
The Canadiens and their fans expected a breakout from the man they chose third overall in the 2012 entry draft. They expected that he’d have forced them to play him as a top-line centre instead of as a left winger, that he’d have seized a more permanent role on their power play by now, and that he’d have found the level of consistency a player of his potential usually finds with 100-plus NHL games under his belt.
Obviously he was close, but not so close that a long-term commitment ever seemed likely between Galchenyuk and general manager Marc Bergevin. Caution ruled on this one, much like it had with other Canadiens such as Carey Price, Max Pacioretty and P.K. Subban, who all signed bridge deals out of entry-level contracts; who all went through struggles before signing long-term deals worth mega bucks.
Galchenyuk started off 2014-15 with a bang, scoring three goals and four assists in his first seven games. He strung together another impressive stint before head coach Michel Therrien moved him to centre the top line between Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher. He hit his stride with his first NHL hat trick and nine points in nine games at the position, but he was ultimately bounced back to wing as his defensive game lapsed away from the matchup-friendly confines of the home rink.
What started well didn’t end well, as Galchenyuk never made his way back to the middle. He only managed two goals in the final 21 games of the season, slumping his way to the fourth line and off the power play.
With just a goal and three assists in 12 playoff games, frustration set in on both sides.
At his end-of-season press conference, Bergevin cautioned that Galchenyuk might never become a centre in the NHL, straying far from the narrative he and Therrien had long pedalled on this player’s development plan.
A few weeks later, Galchenyuk fired longtime agent Igor Larionov, who told the Gazette’s Pat Hickey that his former client had ignored his advice despite his best efforts to help him "become a good hockey player, but more importantly, become a good human being." He compounded the statement by saying he’d felt like he’d spent more time talking to him than he had talking to his own wife.
The optics didn’t improve when Larionov — a Hall of Famer with 921 games of NHL experience — added: "I tried to make him understand that he has to be patient. I had to wait when I was a young player; every great player has a time when he’s going to be on the bench, but you have to learn that’s part of the game."
Galchenyuk moved on quickly and hired CAA’s Pat Brisson, and any disconnect between him and the Canadiens — perceived or real — seems to have been mended with this contract.
“Alex is an integral part of our core of forwards and we are confident in his ability to continue to improve his game,” offered Bergevin in Thursday’s release.
With this deal done, Bergevin has now completed a summer’s worth of work, securing 14 forwards, 10 defencemen and two goaltenders for his NHL roster. He still has $3.5 milllion in cap space to work with, according to CapFriendly.com.
Montreal’s GM has earned himself a vacation.