Canadiens Sign Forwards Cammalleri & Gionta to Five-Year Deals

The Montreal Canadiens continued to retool their roster on Wednesday by signing center Mike Cammalleri to a five-year contract worth $30 million, which averages out to $6 million per season, and right wing Brian Gionta to a five-year contract worth $25 million, which averages out to $5 million per season. In 81 games last season with the Calgary Flames, Cammalleri scored 39 goals and 43 assists for 82 points. Gionta appeared in 81 games last season for the New Jersey Devils, scoring 20 goals and 40 assists for 60 points. These aren’t bad signings for the Canadiens despite the fact that Bob Gainey has gone crazy the last few days acquiring new players for his team. Cammalleri and Gionta both have decent offensive skill, especially on the power play, and give the Canadiens two proven scorers. However, Cammalleri was paired up with Jarome Iginla in Calgary last season and had a break-out year as a result. It will be interesting to see if he can stay just as productive as last year playing with different players. Gionta established himself as a top-scorer in the league a few seasons back when he scored 48 goals in 2005-06, but hasn’t been able to score more than 25 goals since then. If Gionta can’t increase his goal-scoring production, then this could be a bad signing for the Canadiens, as Gainey could have signed several other 20-goal scorers for less than $5 million per season.