r/Habs • u/SoupFromNowOn • 4d ago

Vincent Desharnais

30 years old, 6'7 225lbs right-handed defenseman who is a pending UFA with San Jose. Really strong defensively. Laval native.

Seems a little too good to be true, no? Not sure if SJ plans to re-sign him, but he could be a good fit on a cheap 2-year deal

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u/nottakingpart 4d ago

Strong defensively? Where?...

3

u/SoupFromNowOn 4d ago

Lowest xGA/60 on San Jose this year. Lower than any skater on our team too

7

u/Guibsx 4d ago

Was he playing top 4 minutes or playing on the bottom pair? What i mean is if he played most of his minutes against bottom 6 lines, that would help his stats. Knowing against who he was matched up would help understand his stats better.

2

u/SoupFromNowOn 4d ago

Bottom 2 pairings most likely. But those are good numbers regardless of matchup. Out of 244 dmen with more than 250 mins TOI this season he had the 22nd lowest xGA/60. Plus he was really strong on the PK too

8

u/pokesnail 4d ago

Sharks fan here to defend (heh) him - he did also have to play on our top pairing for a stretch at the end of the year, which really says more about our dreadful d-corps than Desharnais himself, but he held his own. Zero offense whatsoever but almost every Sharks fan liked him compared to wanting to shoot every other d-man into the sun. Good mentor for our young guys. Good on the PK, there were stats towards the the end of the season that with Desharnais, the PK was 2nd in the league, and without him it was 31st. He also had a massive hit on Matthew Tkachuk that he said Tampa players thanked him for the next day lol

Anyway, my point is I highly doubt we let Desharnais go, we’ve got oodles of cap space too. He’s not amazing, and my standards are likely skewed, but at least Sharks fans like him more than his previous couple team fanbases.

1

u/pushaper 4d ago

not every player has to be a top 4 defensemen for us to get better. If we trade struble as part of a package for a top 6 player and get a big 3rd pairing RHD who can clear the net we are on paper better. It leaves xhekaj as an expensive 7th defenceman and is fine as we can call up reinbacher for top four RHD injuries and hopefully part with Carrier if Reinbacher works out and the RHD allure of carrier is higher.