Montreal needed a little bit more insurance on their blue line for the upcoming season. With their top six or seven already secure and two of those players coming off of surgery, the Canadiens locked up former Stars and Blues defenseman Jeff Woywitka to a one-year, two-way contract.
Last season when the Habs ran into injury problems on the blue line, they had to dig deep into their farm system to help fill holes. This season, both Andrei Markov and Jeff Gorges are coming off of injuries that ended their seasons so making sure to have some NHL-quality insurance backing them up is a smart move.
Woywitka had two goals and nine assists in 63 games for Dallas last season and while he’s not an optimal choice to be a top six defenseman, if you need a guy in a pinch because of injury he’s a good short-term gap-filler. With Montreal having Markov, Gorges, P.K. Subban, and Hal Gill set as their top four with Jaroslav Spacek as their likely fifth guy and a battle between youngsters Yannick Weber and Alexei Yemelin for the sixth spot, expect Woywitka to start the year in the AHL with Hamilton.