Karl Alzner has spent his entire NHL career with the Washington Capitals, but the pending unrestricted free agent’s time in D.C. looks like it could be coming to an end.
The 28-year-old is one of the top blueliners set to hit the open market July 1 and the Montreal Canadiens are one of potential landing destinations.
Alzner told Le Journal de Montreal he is interested in seeing what the Canadiens have to offer.
The iron man hasn’t missed a game since the 2009-2010 season – although he missed six playoff contests due to injury – and is coming off a four-year contract that had a cap hit of $2.8 million. He’ll be due for a significant raise, especially considering the dearth of quality free agent defencemen.
The fifth-overall pick from 2007 is the type of stay-at-home defenceman the Canadiens could use and he would be a nice complement to Shea Weber on Montreal’s top pair.
Defence is the top priority for Marc Bergevin after he traded the franchise’s top defensive prospect, Mikhail Sergachev, to the Lightning in order to acquire Jonathan Drouin, sent Nathan Beaulieu to the Sabres, and lost Alexei Emelin to Vegas in the expansion draft. He did add David Schlemko in a deal with the Golden Knights but there is still much work to do.
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