What’s DELAYING Montreal Canadiens’ deals With Arber Xhekaj and Zach Bolduc? | Habs penalty kill

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Today on Lockdown Canadians, we're going to talk about the latest on the Bauduc and

Jacki negotiations.

What's going on there?

Why haven't they signed?

Is there hope?

Have we lost hope?

We'll get into that in just a moment on Lockdown Canadians.

You are Lockdown Canadians.

You are daily podcast on the Montreal Canadians.

Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

Hi there everyone and welcome to another episode of Lockdown Canadians.

I want to thank you all for making us your first listen of the day.

Today we're going to talk about what's the latest going on with the Jacki negotiations

and the ZEC Bauduc negotiations.

We're also going to talk about the Canadians penalty kill.

I'm going to plug an article.

We're going to talk a little bit about it as well.

And finally, there's some changes coming up to the NHL season and I really want to focus

on one particular thing.

We'll get into all of that on today's episode.

My name is Laura Sabah, also known as the Acta Stick.

And today I'm not joined by my wonderful co-host Ian Boever, but he will be back on tomorrow's

episode.

And I believe the plan is to talk about expansion rosters as a long time listener asked

in our last mailbag.

Speaking of the mailbag, you can email us at Lockdown Canadians at gmail.com.

That is the best way to send us mailbag questions.

We have one every Friday.

So you know, as you probably guessed, we are back to five days a week this week.

And we are at the time that you're listening to this two weeks from the time that the players

have to report for physicals.

So training camp is coming up.

But first before that, we have the rookie camp as well.

Things are starting to move along.

So we've got a lot to talk about.

But obviously what's paramount, what's the main concern for Montreal Canadians fans right

now?

We went from talking about what about a right shot defenseman in a second line center

over the course of the summer.

Our expectations have sort of leveled off on that.

It looks to be to me like the Montreal Canadians kind of want to see what they have in terms

of the defense, whether it's with Brian Bacher or Adam Ekstrom.

And at the same time with that second line center, I think they're really hoping that

Hage is going to be it.

Does not they're not pursuing a second line center?

It's not like they're not looking for a game breaking forward still on the market.

It's just that what has not been made available.

And once the Michigan season is over, they will bring Michael Hage over.

But given that that's leveled off, the biggest concern for Montreal Canadians fans, depending

on if you are a huge Arbor Jacques I fan or a huge Zach Bojoch fan or you just like

both of what these players bring and you want to know what's going on, it doesn't seem

like a whole lot.

Now, the information that I'm getting is from Eric Engels of SportsNet.

He's pretty plugged in, but even he's saying that on both of these fronts, nobody's talking.

He's not getting any whispers and you know how a lot of times particularly the agents are

like they'll slip things to journalists to like put into articles and he's saying nobody's

talking about right.

Canadians, the agents, the players are not talking about it.

To their parts, neither party has been, has appeared worried about it or stressed out about

it.

Zach Bojoch seems a little bit more confident a few weeks ago.

We all saw that video where he and Alexander Carrier were talking and he felt confident that

he was going to be Carrier's teammate this upcoming season.

Personally from my perspective, I believe the hold up on Bojoch is probably a matter

of a year or a million dollars.

I don't really think it's a huge chasm.

It is worth noting that Zach Bojoch will be an RFA until 2031.

So he will be a UFA until 2031.

So whether it's worth it for the player to try and eat up those RFA years or the Canadians

to want to keep him in RFA when he, to have a little bit more control right.

So when this contract ends, they might want him to still be an RFA.

But I think there's really, I would say there's, it's unlikely that Bojoch's contract

doesn't come in as a bridge deal, right.

We saw a lot of flashes in the playoffs of what he could be.

It was very tantalizing and the Canadians are going to need physical forwards, right.

They're going to need some really good depth on their bottom six.

And I think his inconsistency during the regular season made it a little bit tough for us

to gauge because I think the Canadians and us, we want to see him be able to be that

playoffs that logic, but in the right throughout the regular season as well.

From my perspective, I think, you know, it's going to probably be something like three

years and three and a half million, maybe four years at three and a half million.

I can't remember if my co-host had something similar in terms of length and the dollar value

or cap hit, I should say. But I'm not too worried about that and he doesn't seem worried either.

And, you know, it could be in the next couple of days, it could be, you know, by the time you're

listening to this Kent Hughes has already made this podcast, absolutely because he loves to do

that to us. But either way, I think so, Zach Bojoch's contract is not a major concern for

Montreal, Canadian stands. I think we're fairly chill about that, although we are a little bit impatient,

judging from his Instagram replies. Now, Arbor Jacques is a little bit more of a concern, I think,

because he's such a fan favorite and none of us want to see him on an opposing team. And I think

with the Canadians being in the division that they are, they need somebody who can punch

faces. That's not beat around the bush, right, especially with Florida expected to be back on the

rise and be back to Boligeret, probably with a vengeance, right? They were quite last year. There's

probably a lot of pent up violence in them that the Canadians are going to have to contend with for

more games this year and potentially also meeting them in the playoffs. But it doesn't mean that,

there's not toughness on other rosters, so he does bring that element. And he's just, I mean,

he's a great character. He dresses really well. His story is really great. We all love him, right?

So I think there is a bit of a legitimate concern there because the Canadians have a log jam on D,

not only that, he, and this is Eric Engels. He, it was his educated speculation. He hasn't heard

confirmation to this, according to the article he posted on Sportsnet, which is by the time he

was next to the state, he's two days before. But he was talking about, you know, Arbor Jacques,

I don't want to commit unless he has a clear idea of what his, that he's going to get consistent

ice time, consistent ice time. Unfortunately, it's kind of a chicken and egg situation because he

wants that consistent ice time. The Canadians want to give him that the, and so he needs to sign.

Canadians don't really want to sign for maybe too long or too much money until he proves himself,

he wants the opportunity to prove himself that there's no guarantee that he's going to play. So it's

kind of a, a roundabout situation. And I think, I think, I feel like the player wants to be a

Montreal Canadian. He loves it here. This is, this is a great place to play. He loves the guys that he

plays with. And I think from a Montreal Canadians perspective, they all love him too, right? And

the golf tournament, Nick Suzuki's praise praising him. We talk a lot about what he brings and

how much they love him. And I think at the end of the day, Arbor Jacques has choice if he had a

say in the matter, I don't even think it's millions and millions of dollars. I'm really

care to be, I'm sorry, I don't really think that he cares that much about the dollar value of his

contract. I think he wants some stability and he wants to promise that he can play here, right?

I think that's what he cares about. He wants to be a Montreal Canadian, but playing 84 nights

season and he wants to play every game in the playoffs. Now, I think it's a bit unfortunate

because this season didn't go the way we all wanted it to. He didn't play enough minutes. He

was in and out of the lineup. And I think there is kind of a perception around this fan base that

Marty doesn't like him and artificially holds him back. But I think if we look objectively,

not just at him, but also at Jaden Struebel, neither one really grabbed the opportunity for that spot

by the horns. And as a result of that, there are guys knocking on the door that might not have that

same physicality, but have a skill where they might outskill them at the deep position. And it's

obviously not an ideal situation because if you look at the rest of the day, the only guy that with

that kind of physical presence is Kaden Goole. He's often injured. So it's really in the Montreal

Canadian's best interest to have a guy who like I like to say it's about Jaden Struebel and you know,

like what's his role? His job is to be strong, right? His job is strong. Like they say in the Barbie

movies. So the kid is really neat a guy, even if he's not punching faces and both of them can fight,

maybe Arbor Jacques is probably a lot more advanced, right? But they need a giant gigantic body,

but like somebody whose job is to be strong on that back end. And I think really what I would have

wanted this past season, given that it was a second year of to your contract, I would have wanted

Arbor Jacques to seize that opportunity by the horns and not let it go. And I really think that

you know, it's better for everybody if he did that because the Canadians would have a lot fewer

decisions to make and their roster would probably be set a little bit earlier as it is, I think it's

going to be a little bit of trial and error on this Jaden Struebel gets traded prior to the

regular season starting. That's it for you know, I'm sorry that Jacques has not signed yet. I know

everybody's getting really antsy. I saw a lot of people being like, why is he signed as qualifying

off for yet? And the answer is pretty simple because then we would be doing this dance all over again

and he would have a lot of uncertainty. So he wants a little bit of a longer contract and a little

bit of a commitment from the Montreal Canadians. Up next, we are going to talk a little bit about the

Montreal Canadians penalty kill, the system, etc, etc. Is there hope that it will be better? And that's

coming up in just a moment here on locked on Canadians.

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Let's get into the Montreal Canadiens penalty kill now. It's not a visible. That's not by any stretch.

It hasn't been terrible. It hasn't been terrible in a couple of years actually. However,

it is not one of their strong suits. It's not something where you're seeing them top 10 in the

league. They had a really good one after the in the second half of the season after the

four nations last year. But overall, it hasn't exactly been a world beating penalty kill. We've had

a lot of complaints about it. Sometimes we say they're not aggressive enough. Sometimes we say

they're out of position. I went to plug an article by Patrick Bexel of Habs Eyes on the prize.

Definitely check out his work. He's mostly focused on prospects and particularly he's very

plugged into the European hockey scene and with the SHL and the Finnish league, etc.

He had a conversation. He's really plugged in. He had a conversation with the head coach of,

I'm going to butcher this pronunciation of Ruggla. You know the team I mean.

He was talking about not just about evaluating the penalty kill, but also the system.

There's a really strong discussion in there about the one to one diamond formation and putting pressure,

right? They call it pressure down low. I think we have seen the Montreal Canadiens try to execute

this penalty, this type of penalty kill. However, giving up chances, it hasn't been great.

Patrick does point out and I also do strongly believe that the inconsistency and goal tending

throughout the first few months of the season really did contribute a lot to the Canadian's not

being as bold, not being able to feel as free on the penalty kill. I do think that generally as a

rule, like when you're too aggressive, you do risk giving up chances and giving up goals.

And at the same time, if you don't have faith in your goal tending, you're maybe going to try to

be aggressive, but you're going to be a bit more prone to mistakes because you're thinking too hard.

But overall, the conversation that they had, I think the crux of it was really the fact that the

Montreal Canadiens are trying to play a similar system that they are doing in Ruggla, but importantly,

one that they're doing at the Carolina Hurricanes too, right? And that one was not an overnight

success. And I think the problem that we're having is that we're seeing a lot of advances in the

way that the Montreal Canadiens are playing hockey, but at the same time, we're not seeing the penalty

kill catch up. But I also feel that this is a situation with the hybrid defense that Marty likes

to play as well, is that we are seeing, we're seeing him try to force it and it feels like he's

forcing it. But at the end of the day, the Montreal Canadiens are going to have to adapt to that

system and succeed at it. Like that's the only way. And I think the advantage that they have is

the roster has been pretty consistent. There's not going to be, and there hasn't been, and there's

not going to be a massive amount of turnover between today and when they're contending window

opens, right? Like there will be some differences, you know, they still have that who's going to play

with Lane Hudson, for example, who's going to be the second line center, etc, etc. But I think the

the biggest thing with the Canadiens penalty kill in the last couple of years is that the personnel

changed so much. So there wasn't really time for it to become second nature. And I really,

really strongly feel that way. I mean, just think about, I talk about it a lot on this podcast when

Philippe Denne would join the team, right? This is a veteran player who has seen a lot of success

being a defensive forward. And he comes in and he says that, you know, there are so many parts of his

game. There are so many details like there's so much deconstructing and reconstructing to do, right?

And I think a lot of, and again, I'm not going to quote from the article or read it because I really

think you should go and look like, you know, he pulls some stats. There's a lot of great conversation

around it. There's about, you know, there's discussion about how you should evaluate your penalty

kill. But at the end of the day, I think that what's going to end up happening is the players are

going to have to adapt and just get better at the system because it seems to me that philosophically,

this seems to be the optimal way to play a penalty kill. And I do think that the improvement

that the Carolina Hurricanes have managed to implement, sorry, they've managed to implement

the system and the improvement that they've seen the fact that they have been really successful

in the last few years. Obviously, winning the cup the last one. But I think the patience aspect

of it and the, you know, just the players kind of getting used to it and it becoming second nature

is not his particular thesis, but it's like it's the overall kind of theme on it. And so I think that

the biggest difference that we're going to see this year is probably going to see them play

the same system. We might get a bit frustrated and be like, why are they doing the same thing over

and over again? And it's not yielding results. We don't want to see them. I believe this past season,

they were 19th in the league in penalty kill. It wasn't abysmal, but it's not great. You really

want to be like, if you are going to be a contender, you have to be top five at all the things, right?

You have to be top five at goal differential. You have to be top five at special teams. You have,

you just have to be, you know, your goal tending has to be stellar. Your top line has to be the best

or among the best in the league. If you want to be a contender, there's so many little things

that goes into it. And I think the discussion that Patrick had about the penalty kill kind of

gave me a little bit of hope is like it changed my perspective on it. Because another thing that we

pointed out on the show a bunch of times last year was that, oh, they're good at this. And then,

but they're not going to these other things. And then they get better at that other thing that we

said that they weren't good at, but then the thing that they had mastered suffers, right? So that

was kind of running through running theme throughout the season. We would always say, oh, they're

good at a lot of things, but not all of them at the same time. And I think part of what we're going

to see and it might cause us some frustration, but we have to be patient is that there's going to be

a lot of situations where you're going to be like, okay, they're still doing the thing. But I think

it's because when Marty saw that something worked, whether it was, you know, for a few weeks, a few

games, et cetera, et cetera, the fact that it works is like he he wants he wants it just to become

more consistent, right? It's like you did this, you know, for a couple weeks, you were the best at it.

You just have to be the best at it all the time. You can't be inconsistent in that regard. So

at the same time, I do want to plug an article that you don't actually, you know what we're going to do?

We're going to talk about that one tomorrow when Ian is here. We're also going to talk about

expansion drafts tomorrow. In the meantime, today, we're going to talk about there's some changes

coming up for the NHL season as they always do. But this one is one that kind of breaks my heart

a little bit and we'll get into that in just one moment here on Lockdown Canadians.

All right. So we'll let's get into this our last segment for the day. We're going to talk

about some changes that are coming for the NHL season. As you know, the season is starting a lot

earlier this year. They've shortened the preseason and we're starting regular season in September,

September 29th, I believe, which is a Tuesday is when we get started, Montreal against Toronto,

as always. And instead of, you know, second week of October-ish. And at the same time, the season

has gotten longer. They've tweaked the schedule such that it won't go past a certain date in June.

I don't even remember when it was. We've been talking a lot about like the new world of the salary

cap and all these crazy contracts that are being signed. And we've kind of entered into any NFL

territory where, you know, this is the most lucrative contract ever signed until the next guy signs.

One thing that I do want to point out though is that yes, there's going to be some crazy contracts,

but a single clear cannot take up more than 20% of your salary cap at the time that they're

signing their contract. So it's not you're not going to see a situation where, you know, a guy is

going to get signed to $40 million dollars a year. Like that's not happening, right? It's

something to point out. But the one that I am heartbroken about is the end of the e-bug as we

know it. If you don't know what an e-bug is, if you're new to hockey, that stands for emergency

backup goal tender. And what it is is that let's say your starting goal tender gets injured in a game

or, you know, is sick and can't play. And then your backup also gets injured.

Rare occasion, but it does happen. It could happen and it does happen. Then they always have some

guy in the building. So like the local team, the home team is obligated to provide some guy

in the building that can suit up and that they can sign to a one day contract or whatever it is,

an amateur, whatever the contract itself is. And that person straps on the pad and plays in

goal for you. And it's usually like a dude, right? Like they played hockey in university. A few years

ago, they probably still play with their friends in a beer league. And, you know, that's the guy.

And if you are new to hockey again, new Canadian Stan, you'll get a lot of joy out of the fact that

the Toronto May police once lost to an e-bug that works for them. He was their Zamboni driver.

And he worked for them. And they can the Toronto May police lost to him. So that's one of my

favorite e-bug stories. But there's a lot and there's actually a book on e-bugs by Steve Wino.

Steve and Wino. They you can pick up. There's a lot of great stories there. So that's kind of changed

a little bit. It's don't like just some guy that has to be in the building the home team.

Like every team has an e-bug now. So I'm going to pull up a couple of the items about the e-bug.

Right? So you have to so they won't be a roster player. All 32 teams have to employ their own e-bug.

And it has to be available so like that person has to be available for all home and away games.

So they're not roster players. They don't count against a salary cap. So they're not really like a regular

player. However, they travel with the team. And they're like the emergency goalie. We're not

calling them e-bug now. We're calling them emergency goal tender replacement. And they could also

like work for the team. Like we talked about the Zamboni driver who works for them for the Toronto

May police, but like this could be like your stats guy or whoever. As long as they play goal.

And these are the rules, right? Like they can the league has to approve them to like a jet, you know,

it can't just be like some some person who was available that night who like the Canadian snow can play goal.

The goalies have to fit the following criteria. They have to have not played the NHL game under

a standard players contract. They have to have not played in more than 80 professional hockey games.

They have to have not played professional hockey in the last three seasons. And they cannot have

another contractual obligation. That would mean that they can't serve as the EGR. I'm still

going to call it e-bug. And they can't be on the reserve list or restricted free agent list

of an NHL team. So you can't use a guy that you already know as a professional. I think this is

mostly to level the playing field. So all available e-bugs are you know are the same level of

not good enough. There's no nicer way to put it. Or not experienced enough. Maybe I should say it

that way. But I think like you know this kind of I'm sure there will still be some fun stories.

But it takes away that aspect of it. I mean there are guys who have done that and they have won.

Right like the you know the Zamboni driver who plays against an NHL team. NHL talent at the top

level. Right. And still wins the game. Or there was one in Chicago a few years before that that

ended up winning the game. I think he I think the score was out of reach. And he did allow a goal.

Or two goals. I can't remember the story. But it was a really fun story. Like I said,

like this is all in like Steven Warnow's book. But it's just something there's something about it

that kind of disappears. Because like he's now a team employee. He's just not some dude off the

street. I really like the dude off the street kind of aspect of it. Because it literally could have

been anybody as long as they could play goal. And they weren't a professional hockey player.

But yeah. So like that to me is like one of my favorite things NHL has ever done. And this is kind

of it restricts it a little bit. It's like the player practices with the team. Right. That too.

Like they're getting NHL level practice. And so that like it like reduces a lot of the chaos

from the equation. So that's really the big change that I'm kind of bummed about for the upcoming

season and beyond. Like this is just how it's going to be now. In the meantime, we're going to

leave that there. I know this episode is a little bit shorter than where you sue. But I'm really,

really looking forward to a time when we can talk about something other than Will Arbor Jacques

I sign his contract or Will Zach Boydick sign. I do think they'll both get done before training camp.

I know Eric Engels in his article was a little more optimistic about Zach Boydick in a little

bit less optimistic about Arbor Jacques. But I think at the end of the day his desire to play in the NHL,

his desire to be part of this group to be a Montreal Canadian will end up winning out because as

Eric pointed out holding out does kind of increases value. Right. Like if other teams see that he's

not happy and they can offer him 84 games and they can promise that he'll be in the lineup. Like

that's definitely more value for him. But I do think that cooler heads will prevail. I don't

even think that anyone's really stressed about it. I think they're just, you know, on different

sides of the equation. But I think it'll get done. You know what? It's going to be really great if

Kent Hughes makes my entire episode obsolete and signs Arbor Jacques because that means tomorrow when

he and his back, that's what we can talk about. In the meantime, please make sure you're subscribed

to this podcast wherever you get your podcasts as well as on YouTube. We are at five days a week now

who provide Montreal Canadian's content. We'll have game previews, game recaps, regular content, regular

guests. We've been really bad with the guests the last couple of years. We've just been busy and

exhausted. But I promise we're going to make a better effort to line people up that you want to hear

from. And if you have any requests for people you want us to talk to, let us know. And any suggestions

for topics and things like that. And what I want you to do actually before or after we do our

episode with the expansion draft is I want you guys to send in your idea of who you would protect

in an expansion draft, assuming the same rules as we had for the Seattle draft, which I believe was

eight skaters and one goalie. And I can't remember the combination of players other than that. Let me

just check it. Yeah, you could protect seven forwards three defenseman one goal tender or eight

skaters and one goal tender. So tell us who you would protect. There's probably going to be two

expansion drafts coming up in the next four to five years. I don't think it's going to happen

today or tomorrow. So let us know what you think. Who would you protect? And then let us know if

you're comfortable with us grading it on the show. You can reach us at lockdown Canadians at gmail.com.

You can also send us DMs on Instagram where it locked on Canadians on Instagram. You can contact us

on blue sky lockdown Canadians as well. And on TikTok, we're going to be really honest with you. I

haven't really figured out the TikTok private messaging of capability. Like sometimes I get your messages,

sometimes I don't really the best ways to email us. You can also leave them obviously in the YouTube

comments as well. And I want to just remind everybody to subscribe. We've got a fun season coming up.

You'll find me on social media at the acoustic. You'll find my co-host at maybe it's Ian. We're so

excited to go through this upcoming season with you. And tomorrow we'll talk about that exciting

article that he wrote that's going to make us, you know, just really excited to get into the season

already. And for those of you who are on YouTube, you're going to be redirected to the

lockdown, the 24-7, the Lockdown Sports Channel. If you are listening on audio, make sure your

second listen of the day is locked on an HL. They cover all the games. Well, they won't be covering

all the games. They cover all the storylines from all around the NHL. It's all a great group of

people, really great podcasts. So make sure you are subscribed to that as well. Thank you all so

much for listening. And we will both be back tomorrow.

A vacation rental shouldn't come with surprises. It should come with verbal care in 24-7 life

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