MONTREAL — Opportunity’s knocking, and Alex Galchenyuk must seize it.
The prolific forward put pen to paper on a three-year, $14.7-million contract Wednesday to remain with the Montreal Canadiens and the big payoff is around the corner if he makes good on the promise he’s already shown in his five years as an NHLer.
Not that there haven’t been some bumps in the road since he was drafted third overall in 2012.
While he’s produced 89 goals and 204 points in 336 games, injuries and inconsistency have marked his early career in Montreal. Had it been smooth sailing all along, we might be talking about a long-term extension worth several millions more. Instead, after months of speculation he could be traded, the Canadiens locked the 23-year-old to a cap-friendly deal that buys up a year of his eligibility for unrestricted free agency.
The team’s brass had held high hopes he could develop into the big centre that had been missing from their depth chart for the better part of the past two decades, but he finished the 2016-17 season as a winger and appears destined to continue as one after general manager Marc Bergevin and head coach Claude Julien designated him to the position at their end-of-season press conference.
Though it remains as a possibility that Galchenyuk could find his way back to the middle over the course of his new contract — it would greatly benefit the Canadiens if he could — it would be hard to consider it a probability at this point.
“He’s aware of the improvements he needs to make to be the centreman he hopes to be,” said Bergevin on April 24. “But for now, the best place for him is on the wing.
“This season really opened his eyes.”
It wasn’t an easy one.
Galchenyuk had produced 30 goals and 56 points as part of a breakout campaign in 2015-16. It was widely believed he’d establish himself among the league’s elite scorers in the final year of a bridge contract that averaged out to $2.8 million in each of the last two seasons. But after notching 23 points in his first 25 games as the team’s top centre, a knee injury took him out of the lineup for 21 games and set him back considerably. He managed just six goals and 11 assists in his last 31 games, finishing off the season with 17 goals and 44 points, before adding just three assists in Montreal’s six-game loss to the New York Rangers in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“We’re hoping he took a step back to take two steps forward next year,” said Bergevin this spring.
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Galchenyuk has to be on that wavelength too — if he wants to cash in the way some of his peers already have.
Players who have scored at a similar pace — Colorado’s Matt Duchene, Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau and San Jose’s Logan Couture — signed for at least five years at average annual salaries north of $5.8 million coming out of bridge deals with their respective teams. You have to think that had Galchenyuk been confident he could lock down a similar deal, he’d have filed for arbitration and settled in for a tough negotiation with Bergevin.
“We’re happy and Marc’s happy,” Galchenyuk’s agent Pat Brisson told Sportsnet Wednesday. “He’s got a good opportunity here, and we know he’ll take advantage of it.”
The ball’s in Galchenyuk’s court, and there are no illusions about what will push him over the edge.
“He’s a great young player, but at the same time it’s a hard league and you’ve got to be able to do it every night,” was how teammate Shea Weber put it on April 24. “We’ve seen glimpses of it, but I don’t think he’s tapped into how good he can be. One day he’s going to realize it, like all young guys do, and he’s going to get it.”
On a team that finished 15th in goals-for this past season, the hope has to be that Galchenyuk “gets it” now. If he does, the Canadiens will get the best end of this deal and Galchenyuk will set himself up for a flush future.
