After moving David Desharnais last night, the Habs moved quickly Wednesday morning to replace the depth down the middle, acquiring Steve Ott from Detroit in exchange for a 2018 6th round pick.
The 34 year old was in his first season with the Red Wings. In 42 games this season, he has three goals and three assists with 63 penalty minutes. He has been a positive at the faceoff dot, winning 58% of his draws and considering how the Habs have struggled at that end, he’ll certainly be a welcome addition.
In his career, Ott has played in 837 games with Dallas, Buffalo, St. Louis, and Detroit, picking up 109 goals, 178 assists, and 1,538 penalty minutes. His career faceoff rate is still over 55% so his impressive numbers this year aren’t an aberration.
It’s likely that Ott will slot in on Montreal’s fourth line and give that unit some grit. Michael McCarron has been in that spot lately but has received little playing time under Claude Julien. While the team hasn’t officially sent him down, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give him some more playing time.
Ott carries a cap hit of only $800,000 so the Habs still have over $4 million in cap space to work with for the rest of the deadline.
Ott’s Stats:
