Habs Add Depth

 The Montreal Canadiens added some much needed depth at centre today by moving winger Dustin Penner to Vancouver for Michal Handzus and a 3rd round pick. 

 Over the course of the season the Canadiens have been streaky to say the least. Consistantly this year they have put together four or five game winning streaks only to follow that up with five or six game losing streaks. The main reason for this has been the health of players like Ryan O'Reilly, Carl Hagelin and Chad LaRose. Each has missed time due to exhustion this season. "We just can't keep running those guys out there game in and game out" explained GM Darren Sawyer, "when they are playing we are a decent team, but whne they are out of the line up we're not the same at all". One of the big reason's for that is needing those players in key situations like on the penalty kill and against the oppositions top lines. Sawyer said this move will allow the team to rest O'Reilly in some of those situations, "We think Handzus is a pretty good face off guy and is responsible in his own end. He'll be able to pick up some of the slack and let Ryan rest. We'll also be able to move Cogliano onto the wing on the second line and that helps us as well". 

 As for Penner leaving, while the team does lose a good third or fourth line winger, Sawyer indicated there really was much for him in Montreal going forward, "Dustin is kind of a "twener", he's not a top six guy but he's better then most bottom sox guys. He big and physical but he can also score you some goals. In the end we didn't see a spot for him in two years. By then we should have a solid top six and we feel we have the right guys already to have a good bottom six". 

When asked if any of the prospects would be brought up by the end of the season, Sawyer indicated that the team was very happy with how they have progressed and would be leaving them as prospects for now and re-evaluate in the summer.