Colby Armstrong, bought out by the Leafs, has signed a one-year contract with the Canadiens for $1 million.
Rugged Rangers forward Brandon Prust has signed a four-year deal with the Canadiens for $10 million.
And Francis Bouillon, a Michel Therrien favourite, is coming home to Montreal to shore up the defence corps.
The signings don’t put a huge dent dent in the Canadiens’ salary cap: Armstrong, one season for $1 million (the Leafs are still on the hook for another $1 million with his buyout); Frankie the Bull, one year for $1.5 million; Prust gets $3 million the first year, followed by two seasons at $2.5 million, then a final year at $2 million..
• • •
The D: Gorges, P.K., Markov, Emelin, Bouillon – plus Kaberle, Diaz, Weber, St. Denis.
Not the 1976 Canadiens, but there are worse defence corps in the league (hello, Leafs!)
• • •
Armstrong has injury issues. Sprained ankle and a concussion last season.
But he’s a lifelong Canadiens fan who says signing is “a dream come true”.
The Gordie Howe Rule: You can NEVER have too many players from Saskatchewan.
Canadiens have two: Moen and Armstrong.
Former Armstrong Penguins teammate on Twitter: Congrats to @armdog for his signing avec les Canadiens ! He will fit great there! #salut! #bestteamguy
Forwards with sand? Check.
Lack of depth at LW? Check.
Rugged Dman? Check.
And of course:
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PLEASE accept it Jagr!
There’s no doubt about it. The Stanley Cup IS the best looking trophy in ALL of professional sports.
Amen to that nothing compares to Lord Stanley’s mug
Armstrong was in the Habs fan club when he was small… #Cool
Oops, double post, sorry.
would not be surprised if the habs traded Borque..
Jagr would just make this team real fun to watch!!!
Prust’s Montreal girl friend Marie Pierre Morin is a happy gal today, I like it too, another robust team first player who does very well on the PK just like Amstrong and Moen. When you look at the size of some of our top two lines like Cole, Pacio and Bourque it is rather obvious as to how Montreal is no longer the small team that its been for many years. With those additions our young players will pursue their developpement in Hamilton and that can only be a good thing for the Organisation.
I like the 4 year contract,he will protect the kids who come in next year and the year after.
Good signing!!!
NorthTOHab
I suspect Bergy has not done his work today yet. One or two more signings and at least one trade before his tomorrow’s press conference.
Great work, Bergy!
Mike Boone is going to be on TSN 990 at 5 with Melnick.
haha Imagine PG was still here?
2 year deal on table for Jagr from Canadiens.
are you serious? wow!
So far, the bottom six lineup is good:
3rd line: Moen – Eller – Armstrong
4th line: White – Nokelainen – Prust
Ok. I think Jagr could be a decent signing for 1yr if that will help Plecky and Gio. I was against it at first but if it will help the team then go for it.
I suspect we acquire a top 6er. White goes to 13th forward, and Bourque into the third line.
Go Habs Go!
NHL Free Agency and Trade Analysis now.
Team By Team Prospect Reports coming soon
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If Bourque’s on the 3rd line, Prust the 4th, and Ryan White plays on the 4th line for the 60 games Armstrong is injured, then I’m very pleased with the situation. Prust IMO is a significant upgrade on Mike Blunden, but I’m still afraid he’ll end up on a third line with Eller and Moen.
Lot of money for a 4th line winger. More likely third, Colby fourth,.
HAHA Leafs can’t sign anyone, i thought Torrana was the place everyone wants to play according to TSN
Burke is vastly overrated. He made a name for himself with the Sedins trade and hasn’t done much since. Bet ya 10 bucks he’ll announce a press conference and say he doesn’t participate in free agent signings because they’re an annoyance to him.
That’s pretty much what he said. Didn’t want to make any mistakes. Or something like that. He’s full of blarney. That’s Irish for BS.
Richard R
Price is an oyster. Unfortunately not all oysters produce pearls.
The Habs are adding size and grit depth in the bottom six, adding a bit of experience and going back to the future with an ex-Hab that happens to be French speaking with Boullion, essentially making the team tougher while at the same time allowing the progression of the prospects to develop in the farm system where they can develop real chemistry. I like this way of building a team. It’s about time there is some kind of a long term plan. They add another top six winger/scorer and they look like they can make the play-offs.
I still think they need some more size on the back end.
LOVE the Prust signing, sad that we couldn’t get Parros bu oh well.
Now swap the swiss guys for Erskine, sign Scott for added toughness, and sign Jagir and here’s your 2012-13 Montreal Canadiens
Pacioretty – Desharnais – Cole
Jagir – Plekanec – Gionta
Moen – Eller – Armstrong
Prust – Nokia – White
Scott
Subban – Georges
Markov – Emelin
Bouillon – Erskine
Kaberle
Price
Budaj
Bon chance and Happy Canada Day!!
Easy EOHF, I love your passion for getting tougher and i agree totally but signing or trading for one of Erskin or Scott will be enough. We just added Prust to the tougness department so one “heavy weight” and we have more then enough. I vote for Erskine cause we are in dire need to get bigger and tougher at the back end…
nokia out bourque in
As much as Erskine is your favorite, I’m feeling that Diaz will sign along with Subban this week. The dcorps would look like this (sign-ins and call-ups if needed):
Subban – Gorges
Markov – Emelin
Boullion – Diaz
Kaberle – (St. Denis)
(Tinordi – Bealieu)
Am I suffering from lowered expectations, or are you all delusional? I think we did great with the signings we made today.
4 million plus per to get a PA Parenteau to shit all over when he doesn’t live up to it is money well not spent.
We’re tougher, can ice 4 lines of actual NHLers (insert Gomez joke here), and have protection and growing room for the young guys, and probably 6-7 million in the bank after signing Price, PK and Eller. What am I missing?
______________________________________________________
Lost a bottle of Kraken during this debacle of a season. Better gettem next year.
Couldn’t agree more — for a measly $3.5M on a $70M cap we get a solid physical heart-of-a-lion defenceman for the third pairing (perfect partner for Diaz, say), a hitter/fighter energy guy in Prust, and a no-risk dirt cheap pick-up in Armstrong who could easily chip in 10 goals in an energy role.
Sure these aren’t superstars, but who else signed big stars today? The Parises, Suters, Doans, etc. are all still considering offers.
And the icing on the cake: Toronto pays Armstrong a million bucks to suit up against them six times this year. And when he does, you know he’s going to be flying.
more icing Toronto really wanted Prust..
Anybody know if either Prust or Armstrong can play on the left side?
I am hating Boone’s gag order.
An incomplete second line and two fourth lines.
An incomplete second paring, and too many 3rd pairing options.
Hope something else is in the works.
I don’t consider Eller/Moen/Bourque a 4th line, I think that would be a respectable 3rd line on most teams. 4th line – Prust/White/Armstrong, not to bad either.
What we need is a big tough Dman and a top six winger. Get it done Mr. Bergevin….
Moen/Armstrong – Eller – Bourque
is a complete third line.
Go Habs Go!
NHL Free Agency and Trade Analysis now.
Team By Team Prospect Reports coming soon
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if they pick up a top six LW, yes. I don’t want to see Eller’s skill wasted on Moen and Armstrong.
but the top-6 pickings are slim now. maybe a trade or a 1-yr Jagr option (who’s actually a RW)
True, but they would be good at digging pucks out of the corners.
Richard R
Price is an oyster. Unfortunately not all oysters produce pearls.
I still think Bourque will do a lot better under Therrien
There is I’m sure. Bergevin will not have a press conference today which means there is more to come.
hoping as much. the 1-yr deals made me think this would be a conceded year, waiting for the nice group of prospects to come up. but the 4 year prust overpayment was disheartening.
tomorrow!
Bottom 6 is done… Think our biggest need is a 2nd line winger now.
I like Prust, he’s a tough guy who can play.
Go Habs Go!
NHL Free Agency and Trade Analysis now.
Team By Team Prospect Reports coming soon
http://lastwordonsports.com/
??? 12 guys on one-way contracts minus Scott Gomez + Lars Eller. If Canadiens management thinks Brandan Prust is a 3rd liner, they must surely think Rene Bourque is a second liner.
Who said Brendan Prust is a third liner.
Moen/Armstrong – Eller – Bourque
Moen/Armstrong – Noke – Prust
Thats a bottom 6.
Prust gets a premium for his toughness, age, and PKing.
Go Habs Go!
NHL Free Agency and Trade Analysis now.
Team By Team Prospect Reports coming soon
http://lastwordonsports.com/
What about White?
Cap has gone up 14 million in 2 years. Inflation has happened.
Remember that before saying every UFA got overpaid when you compare them to people who signed 2 years ago.
Go Habs Go!
NHL Free Agency and Trade Analysis now.
Team By Team Prospect Reports coming soon
http://lastwordonsports.com/
Here`s another way of looking at it.
Darche,Engqvist and Blunden for Armstrong,Prust and Bouillon ? I think the Habs got better. Definitely more character and guts.
Our 2 biggest needs remain… a big tough SOB on D who can drop them… and a top 6 winger who can pot at least 20-25 on a consistent basis
Parenteau to the Aves so happy we didn’t sign him 4 years 16 mil way too much for marginal talent.
Let’s see here who are the influences of the current signings:
Armstrong and Boullion – influence due to Therrien
Prust – influence due to his girlfriend who is from Montreal
Most probably, a much needed winger on the 2nd line would likely be an ‘influencED’ guy w/ character who has a few connections with either the administration or with the local people.
Jagr – influenced by Plekanec?
Proud Pricebot since 2006/2007
We dont need anymore grinders, we need a second liner goal scorer. Stop with this parros talk.!
It has, since he’s in Florida now.
———————–
GO HABS GO! Maybe 2012-13 will be our year!
“Scott Gomez is an elite NHL player” – VancouverHab
Chat with me on Twitter @TheRealRGM81
If we got Parros – The 4th line would make them keep their heads up and we could put moen on the 3rd with Eller – He did good with Eller last year….
JAGR merci beaucoup!
Parenteau to COL for 4 years… 16Mil!!
habs get more testosterone, truculence and toughness. Not more scoring yet but the days of the habs being pushed around are slowly coming to an end.
I agree 100%. If nothing else, at least we will be a tough team to play against.
Plus these signings (barring alot of injuries) will allow the youngsters to develop on schedule. Good work my MB and co in my eyes.
yup…now if MB can somehow deal with Gomez we would be all very happy. i guess we wait for the CBA on that one.
Canadiens have turned their attention to Krys Barch who plays RW. Will come cheaper than Parros, but not as good as a fighter…
Also used a derogatory word towards PK subban, remember?
But you can move past that…there was no definate video that showed him do it.
Colorado has lost their mind with the signing of Parenteau. That organization is nuts.
What’s up with this site?
Nice signing of Prust. Must have had to be long term to get him to sign. Way to go Marc. He will be here long enough to see Thrower and Tinordi come on the scene. Prust had 20 regular season fights and 1 playoff. Did well in most all. Goes up againist anyone even when he is the smaller party. I am going to find it hard to get to like Armstrong but if he is going to cheap shot someome I would like to see him get that rat faced bas#tered Marchand and then maybe I can change my outlook on him, haha.
Asham to Rangers! You heard it here first folks!!!
nhl.com blog reporting Prust has signed with Habs : 4 yrs / $10M
ALWAYS Habs -
D Mex
If I may offer some sober, cautious optimism.
The Habs got better today, but they are still not going to be a great or elite team next year. They will be a real SOB to play against: the days of pushing around the Habs are over. But there is still a lack of goal scoring talent, and the D, though better with the addition of Bouillon and (hopefully) a health Markov, is still not where it will be in a year with young guns like Tinordi and Beaulieu making up the final pair, instead of Bouillon and Kaberle.
So let’s not get our hopes up for this coming season. We’ll definitely see better hockey, and the I think the general atmosphere will be different. No more players worrying about getting traded in the middle of games. Now, they have a management that they know will have their backs, and that will make a difference. It’s going to be a major transition year, and I’m excited to see how it plays out. But the stuff to really be excited about is still going to be in the pipeline. Still, those mid-season injury callups are going to be the highlights. I cannot WAIT to see some of those kids playing real NHL hockey.
To recaup: next season will be interesting. The seasons after that have the potential to be much more than that.
as long as the team does not stand there and watch their team mates get pushed around, it will be an improvement.
Tonight we skate with them, Tonight is our night!
Parros a Panther. Montreal was in on this right to the very end.
still waiting for a Big scrappy Defenceman to clear those big forwards out of price’s way ……….Bouillon maybe tough in the corners but cannot clear those big forwards out of the crease
if we signed parros no one would want to play us! pk could talk on the smack he wants!
First big day of the year, website getting real slow. Frustrating
“It’s not an obsession, It’s a way of life..”
i smell a trade coming
#FlaPanthers have signed RW George Parros to a two-year contract http://ow.ly/bWF2Q Welcome, @Stache16!
Retweeted by Bob McKenzie
say good bye to parros he’s signed with Florida
TSNBobMcKenzie:
P.A. Parenteau to COL, 4 yrs, $16M total. [via Twitter]
Parenteau to Avs
Don’t know about you guys but I’m excited about Prust. Armstrong and Bouillion seem like good cheap signings as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inZ3nm305Ro
Parros getting closer to making a decision on destination…Montreal still in hunt for that RW for the 4th line.
Parros to Florida
Parros signs with panthers.
Brookbank to Chicago
3 million dollar contract for prust, he’s not gonna be on our 4th line… Moen Eller Prust 3rd line… if we sign parros, Armstrong White Parros 4th line. Nokelainen 13th forward. Leblanc in Hamilton for deelopment. that woud be a good bottom 6
Occupation: Professional Hedonist
Done deal….
Pierre LeBrun @Real_ESPNLeBrun
Prust deal in Montreal: $3 M next season, then $2.5 M next 2 yrs, then $2 M in last year
Amazing, Props Bergevin!
The Habs are now much tougher, we aint gona get pushed around no more…Bruins here we come!
Boullion, he was one of my favorite players when I was beginning to become a Habs fan; I was like 12/13 back then.
If my memories rite, I remember him dropping the gloves with Darcy Tucker.
Go Habs Go! Can’t wait!
props on signing Armstrong?!
Tonight we skate with them, Tonight is our night!
dropping the gloves, then dropping tucker
MaxPac-DD-Cole
Bourque-Pleks-Gio
?-Eller-Armstrong
Moen-White/Noki-Prust
Makes sense. I see Moen on the 3rd line though.
I think its about time the habs to sign Jagr…
Renaud P Lavoie @RenLavoieRDS
Nothing official yet, but Brendan Prust is close to a deal with the Canadiens.
Retweeted by Bob McKenzie
Sounds pretty real now.
with prust and armstrong signing looks like Leblanc is gonna be in hamilton. unless some trades happen. Good for his development
Occupation: Professional Hedonist
Parros to Montreal is still an option. They are still talking contract to Parros. Prust plays either LW or Centre. And Ryan White can play either LW or RW (I think) and Parros can only play RW. So basically you can have white, prust and Parros as your 4th line. Moen will be on the 3rd line probably with Eller (if he doesn’t get traded..in that potential Ott deal) and Armstrong or Bourque.
No need for Parros.. and there’s even money for Semin :p (but not term).
Cole-DD-Max
Gionta-Pleks-Jagr/Semin/Parenteau??
Bourque-Eller-Colby
Moen-White-Prust
Nokia..
Gorges-PK
Markov-Emelin
Bouillon-Kaberle
Weber/Diaz..
Price-Budaj..
Well…Those 3 guys add a new dimension to the team and adds character wich is interesting knowing that no miracles were to be expected from today. Of course if they go for a big gun it could be a different ball game but i think it prepares the team on the long run for the young talented guys to graduate in a few years.
YES YESSS
Prust close to signing with Canadiens !! SOLID!
Have to think Diaz and Weber are on the block with Frankie back. How many dmen do we have??
About four and a half by my count.
Hahahahahahilarious!!
one maybe, not both. Frankie is 36, these two are still young.
Tonight we skate with them, Tonight is our night!
Renaud P Lavoie @RenLavoieRDS
Nothing official yet, but Brendan Prust is close to a deal with the Canadiens.
Retweeted by Bob McKenzie
brendan prust.. good deal
10 mil 4 yrs
Sheldon Brookbank possibly to the Habs. They are sniffing around at him. May ink a 2 year deal.
I sure hope so. Great 6/7 D. That would mean Kaberle would have to be moved though
At the very least our bottom two lines will have some added grit!
WOW prust, great signing. I was hoping for Parros cause I thought Prust would go elsewhere. our bottom 6 is panning out
Occupation: Professional Hedonist
Parros is still an option. Therrien wants a heavyweight on the team. He has to solid middle weights in Prust and Moen and light weight in White and under weight in Bouillion. They are still going after a HW.
We got Prust WOOOO
Great signing by MB brining in Prust. Grit, will drop the gloves and can pot a few
Wow!!! 2-0 game over!
All we need now is Parros…we got Prust so now lets get Parros and have a line of White, Prust and Parros lol
Im happy that we signed Bouillion, plays with alot of heart.
Wonder what injury he’s hiding this time?
=================================================
The cerebral insight of PJ Stock:
“Le problem est Markov n’a pas jouer un seul game cette annee”
“Louis Leblanc est un kid locale”
” I have a pet peeve”
JT UTAH @25stanley
DONE DEAL: Brandon Prust with the #Habs. 4 years – $10M. #NHL
Edit: I need to hear this from a better source.
MArk Spector says it appears to be happening.
Caper
Parros to Montreal…Let’s get that signing locked up before the end of the day.
I can understand how some people don’t like soccer. I can also understand how some people don’t like classical music, fine dining, or a good bottle of wine. I like all those things. Yet I still love hockey, listen to heavy metal, like a good burger and fries and will gladly drink a pitcher of beer.
Had your cholesterol level checked recently?lol
Colby the new Shane corson ?
More like the new Max Lapierre.
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Prust to the Habs!
Low risk high rewards players who have ties to the coach and gm.
Frankie brings more toughness to defence and armstrong is better player than staubitz any day. Still have money to play with.