Jonathan Marchessauly in Montreal? Analysts make big statement
A few days ago, Jonathan Marchessault reached a remarkable milestone by scoring his 40th goal of the season into an empty net.
He also became the fourth undrafted player to achieve this feat after Artemi Panarin, Jason Blake, and none other than Martin St-Louis. Following that game, he took the opportunity to pay tribute to the current head coach of the CH.
Marchessault, who will also be an unrestricted free agent this summer, could very well test his freedom. The Quebec native has recently mentioned wanting to stay in Vegas, but is realistic and very aware of the situation in Sin city as GM Kelly McCrimmon could very well sacrifice Marchessault to save money.
Indeed, according to the site Capfriendly, Vegas already has under contract five forwards with salaries of over five million with Jack Eichel ($10 million), Mark Stone ($9.5 million), Tomas Hertl ($6.75 million), William Karlsson ($5.9 million), and Ivan Barbashev ($5 million). This is not to mention the defensemen Alex Pietrangelo ($8.8 million) and Shea Theodore ($5.2 million).
It's also important to remember that they will surely want to keep the services of their most recent acquisition, Noah Hanifin, and that they have many other free agents coming up, including Anthony Mantha, Chandler Stephenson, William Carrier, and Alec Martinez, to name a few. Sooner or later, money is going to start running out in Vegas.
Jonathan Marchessault with the CH?
On the airwaves of 98.5FM, Mario Langlois asked Maxim Lapierre and Guillaume Latendresse if the CH was ready to move to another stage of its rebuild, that of signing a veteran forward. The pair of former players were clear in their remarks, the CH is ready, and Marchessault is the right player for it:
For his part, Maxim Lapierre went a bit further in his thinking, linking him to a current CH player.
The question, however, is not whether we want to see Marchessault with the CH, but rather if the Hughes/Gorton duo thinks they are there yet. Their fear of the word starting with "P" might slow them down in adding a high-caliber player. We might still be a year too early for this kind of personnel move.
Still, adding a 40-goal scorer, even if he is 33 years old, is most interesting. The Quebecer currently has 66 points, including 41 goals, in 75 games this season. He will conclude a 6-year deal this summer, valued at $30M ($5M/year) signed in January 2018.
Via : DLC Jonathan Marchessault : un joueur idéal pour le trio de Kirby Dach
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Would you like Kent Hughes to take a chance on Jonathan Marchessault this summer? | ||
| Yes | 291 | 56.2 % |
| No | 227 | 43.8 % |
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