Montreal Canadiens defenseman Alexandre Carrier is entering a contract year, and it's unlikely to be an easy one. If everything goes according to plan, he'll even have to fight for his spot on the right side of the blueline.
As the Montreal Canadiens’ blueline gets more crowded, the pressure will be turned up on veteran defenseman Alexandre Carrier. The right-shot blueliner was a meaningful acquisition for GM Kent Hughes. When he originally joined the Habs via a trade with the Nashville Predators, he helped stabilize a very young blueline. A year and a half later, that blueline has matured, and Carrier is entering the final year of his three-year contract at a $3.75 million cap hit.
What has given Carrier an edge so far is the fact that he’s a right-shot defenseman, a rare breed in Montreal, as he’s the only one with Noah Dobson. However, with prospect David Reinbacher knocking on the team’s door, that may not guarantee him a spot in the lineup anymore.
Last season, Carrier put up 22 points in 73 games, the third-highest production of his career. Back in 2021-22, he recorded 30 points with Nashville, and in his split season with the Preds and the Habs, he recorded 25 points. However, that included seven goals, quite the output for a blueliner who had never scored more than four goals in a season. Given the fact that he had a 12.5% shooting percentage, there’s very little chance that it’s a sustainable production rhythm for him, even though he took an offensive step forward last season, joining in the attack much more often.
This season, Carrier will be playing for a new contract as he’ll be an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Can he convince Kent Hughes to give him a new contract? That’s far from a guarantee, especially if Reinbacher manages to make the team and plays convincingly.
If the Canadiens are to keep progressing, they need Carrier to be a regular on their third pairing and not see any action on the top four. Last season, he played a little under 20 games as Lane Hutson’s partner, and that cannot happen. Like any other blueliner, Carrier looks better when he plays with top-end talent like Hutson, but he needs to find a way to adapt to a third-pairing partner and still be a solid option.
If Martin St-Louis were to go back to his Mike Matheson-Noah Dobson pairing and put Lane Hutson with Kaiden Guhle (one of them would need to play on his off side), Carrier would find himself in a battle for the right spot on the third pairing with David Reinbacher and since the Canadiens won’t have the Austrian up with the team to watch games from the press gallery, Carrier could very well have to skip a few turns this season. Given how high the stakes are for him this year, he should come in highly motivated.
In an ideal world, Reinbacher would outduel Carrier and make it clear to Hughes that he doesn’t have to extend him. That’s probably not what the Quebec City native is hoping for, but as a young team matures, there are bound to be veteran casualties, just as Brendan Gallagher was.
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