Canadiens: Could The Devils Have What The Canadiens Need?

The New Jersey Devils were expected to go much further in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but, like the Montreal Canadiens, they fell at the first hurdle, being eliminated in five games by the Carolina Hurricanes.

While not having their top center, Jack Hughes, can go some way towards explaining what happened there, the organization refused to use that excuse. After his team’s elimination, GM Tom Fitzgerald was clear:

"We've got a lot of decisions to make on certain players, whether we bring guys back, trade players (but) we won't be coming back with the same group (in 2025-26) […] I can tell you that because it wasn't good enough."

Now the question is, which players are they likely to move? With Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier down the middle, the Devils have two real top-six centers, meaning that former first-round pick and 18th overall selection at the 2020 draft, Dawson Mercer, is used as their third-line center.

The 23-year-old Newfoundlander stands at 6 feet and 180 pounds, making him taller than another possible option we discussed this past weekend (Marco Rossi is only 5 feet 9 inches and 182 pounds), but not significantly bigger. Mercer caught the eye of Habs fans when he played his junior hockey in the QMJHL with the Drummondville Voltigeurs and the Chicoutimi Sageneens.

Since he graduated to the NHL, Mercer hasn’t missed a single game because of injuries, playing 82 games in each of his four seasons. In his rookie year, he scored 42 points, and then increased to 56 points in his sophomore season. However, his production dipped to just 33 points the following season, and he could only muster 36 this year, even though he spent an average of 17:53 on the ice.

With Hughes’ injury, he’s been moved back to center, but looking at his line combinations over the last two seasons, he’s been playing mainly on the wing, which isn’t surprising given his low numbers in the faceoff department. In his four NHL seasons, he’s only won 39.3% of his faceoffs.

Fitzgerald signed him to a three-year contract with a $4M cap hit last Summer, clearly wanting to see more from him before committing long term and putting him on a reasonable cap hit with no clause hindering possible trades.

Mercer’s numbers are not as enticing as Rossi’s, for example, but he has the kind of profile Hughes has dealt for in the past. If you look at Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook’s numbers before the Canadiens acquired them, Mercer is better. When he was hired, the Canadiens’ GM explained that he wouldn’t be a “buy high” kind of guy, and the two aforementioned trades were living proof of that. The question is, though, is the rebuild still in that phase? The one in which you get an asset and hope to help them reach their potential? Or have the Canadiens moved on to the results phase, where they’ll bring their prospects along but won’t go out to get projects elsewhere?

The Canadiens made the playoffs this season, but Hughes and Jeff Gorton were quick to say that it doesn’t change anything in the grand scheme of things, and it won’t speed up the rebuild. If the GM is looking for a player who has already established himself as a second-line center, Mercer is not his man. However, if he’s still looking for “projects,” he might just be…