The Canadiens Should Sign Blake Biondi

The Canadiens don’t have great center depth. I’ve written about that and now I think we need to talk again about Notre Dame pivot, Blake Biondi. He’s in the midst of a very good season and he’s an NCAA Free agent because Montreal didn’t hold on to his rights and I think that was a mistake. 

After 36 games, Biondi has 12 goals and 14 assists. He has excellent discipline and only took 7 minors all season. I love the fact that he has 35% defensive zone starts according to Instat. He’s at 52% puck battles won and that’s good too. He’s not physical but he’s not a pushover either. 

Biondi averages over 3 minutes of power play time and he’s been able to cash in. That’s earning that and the coaches must be very happy with him.

The Canadiens backed the wrong center. They retained the rights of Ty Smilanic who has been trending down and is underperforming in the ECHL. If Montreal reviews these practices every few seasons, they will see they made the wrong choice but they could try to correct it. 

Biondi is a free swing at a potential roster player down the line. He might not love that they didn’t retain him before he decided to attend Notre Dame but if they show an interest and offer the right bonuses they could fix this. Will they? Probably not. I know that.

The prospect game isn’t clear-cut. Biondi is just 22 and he showed some improvement last year and a lot more this year. That’s how it goes sometimes.