Cowan: Noah Dobson a significant piece in Canadiens' rebuilding plan

Edmonton Journal

16 hours ago

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The pieces are starting to fall into place nicely for the Canadiens in this rebuilding plan.
General manager Kent Hughes added a huge chunk on Friday when he acquired 25-year-old defenceman Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders in exchange for the 16th and 17th overall picks at the NHL Draft and 23-year-old forward Emil Heineman.
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Coming off a season in which they were the youngest team to make the playoffs in Year 3 of the rebuild, Hughes has now reached a point where he is no longer making trades to acquire draft picks and prospects. Instead, he's giving those things up to acquire a proven NHL player like Dobson, who is in the prime of his career.
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Dobson said the success the Canadiens had last season under head coach Martin St. Louis played a part in him agreeing to a new eight-year, US$76-million contract with an annual salary-cap hit of US$9.5 million. Dobson could have become a restricted free agent on July 1.
'I think Martin St. Louis has a great reputation throughout the league as a coach and as a person and what I heard as a group is they enjoy coming to the rink every day,' Dobson said in a video conference Friday night. 'It's a fun group. It's a tight-knit group. They got a great mix of lots of young kids and veterans as well and everyone just enjoys being together as a group and they have a great time. They try and make it fun and make it exciting to go to the rink every day and, as a player, that's all you can ask for. I'm super-excited to get into that group and just get to know everyone and get settled and get comfortable.'
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Dobson is coming off what was a disappointing season for him and the Islanders, who were hit hard by injuries and missed the playoffs with a 35-35-12 record. Dobson had 10-29-39 totals in 71 games and was minus-16. But the previous season he had 10-60-70 totals in 79 games and was plus-12. The Islanders selected the Summerside, P.E.I., native with the 12th overall pick at the 2018 NHL Draft.
'I don't want to say anything happens in phases, but I guess we spent the early part of my time here trying to accumulate assets — which for the most part were draft picks, but there were prospects,' Hughes said Friday night when asked about the acquisition of Dobson being a landmark trade in the rebuilding process. 'And then, once you go through that phase, I think you come to a time where you start to look at: OK, how are we constructing our hockey team and how do we want to play and what are the players that fit that idea, that mandate, and I think this is probably a pretty significant sign on our part that: OK, we're adding a piece from the outside. We didn't draft it and we're going to try to continue to take those next steps. I think part of it was driven by the success the team had and the desire our dressing room has to keep moving this thing forward.'
Hughes still has much more work to do to reach management's goal of not only making the playoffs, but building a team that can be a Stanley Cup contender for several years in a row. In order to do that Hughes will have to get more offence from his top-six forwards and now he will focus on trying to do that.
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'I think we're going to continue to look at whether we have opportunities to improve our team up front via trade,' Hughes said. 'If not, is there something in the free-agent market that could make sense for us? But I can't tell you today that I feel with some crazy degree of certainty that we're going to accomplish it, but we're going to try.'
Hughes believes having Dobson and Lane Hutson on the blue line now will help make the current Canadiens forwards better and could also help attract forwards on the free-agent market, whether it be this year or in the future.
'We've talked about trying to continue to get players that could help out in our top six,' Hughes said. 'But if we had a team which we hope to have — similar to Florida, where they're rolling out two real good lines … I mean they got three. Both lines want puck-moving D out there to get them pucks and move it. I think in that regard, when the puzzle's complete, we're going to have more puck movers to move through our lineup.'
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The fact Dobson was willing to accept a long-term contract with the Canadiens for what his agent told Kevin Dubé of the Journal de Montréal was for less money other teams were offering is another feather in Hughes's rebuilding cap.
'It's great that he was willing to do that,' Hughes said. 'Speaking to Noah and to his representatives, I think it was really important that we showed strides this year in terms of where the team is going and looking at the roster and believing in what we have and what we can put together. Because that was important for him to be able to go to a team where he felt like he could win and he could grow with the team.'
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