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Canadiens add much needed left-shot defenseman in Chiarot

Coming into the summer, the Montreal Canadiens had three glaring holes on their roster that they had to address. They needed a scoring forward (they tried to get Sebastian Aho), another left-shot defenseman, and a backup goalie (they signed Keith Kinkaid on July 1st). On Thursday morning, general manager Marc Bergevin addressed one of those needs.

The Canadiens inked former Winnipeg Jets defenseman Ben Chiarot to a three-year, $10.5 million contract ($3.5 million AAV). The 28-year-old spent the first five seasons of his career with the Winnipeg Jets after being drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers in the fourth round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

He had five goals, 20 points, a plus-6 rating and 62 penalty minutes in 78 games with Winnipeg in 2018-19. He averaged 18:37 of ice time.

Chiarot gives the Canadiens some added size on the left side of their defense (he’s 6-foot-3, 220 pounds) and he adds a physical presence which they didn’t have on that side with Victor Mete, Brett Kulak and Mike Rielly.
[ProHockeyTalk’s 2019 NHL free agency tracker]

Last season, he spent most of his ice time playing on a pairing with Dustin Byfuglien. In 640 even-strength minutes with Byfuglien, Chiarot had a CF% of 51.59 percent, but that number dropped to 44.76 percent in 48 minutes without him (Byfuglien’s CF% spiked to 59.27 without Chiarot by his side). The FF% drops from 50.82 to 43.59 without Byfuglien, and the HDCF% goes from 50.26 percent to 35 percent. A 48-minute sample size isn’t huge, but it’s still something you need to be aware of with a depth defender.

Bergevin may not be done tweaking his defense, as he still has time to make a trade before the start of the year. Mete has spent some time playing with Shea Weber over the last two seasons, but he’s probably better suited to play in a lesser role at this stage of his career. So they may still need someone that can line up next to their captain at even-strength.

There’s still plenty of work for Bergevin to do, but time is still on his side.

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Joey Alfieri is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @joeyalfieri.