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David Savard insists he wants to stay involved with the Canadiens
Félix Forget
David Savard insists he wants to stay involved with the Canadiens
Credit: Getty Images
It’s now been almost two weeks since David Savard officially retired. The defenseman, who had announced he would retire at the end of the Habs season, saw his very fine career come to an end on April 30, when the Capitals eliminated the Habs.

It was truly an emotional moment.

That said, even though he’s retired as a player, just about everyone has the impression that we can expect to see Savard around the Habs again. He’s extremely well respected in the dressing room, and he’s been a very formative veteran for his younger team-mates. Pierre-Luc Dubois would be the first to confirm this.

And this afternoon, Savard was on BPM Sports. Martin Lemay asked him about a number of subjects, including his interest in a possible position with the Habs.

And the veteran was clear: he wants to stay involved with the club.

Savard explains that he hasn’t really talked it over with the club yet, as he’s had a lot to deal with in recent weeks. He still has to pick up his equipment… and it feels like it’s been a pretty intense couple of weeks for him.

That said, he has expressed his interest to the Habs for such a position, and the plan is to talk about it over the next few weeks. My feeling: we’ll be talking about all this after the draft and after the free agent market opens, and an announcement will be made somewhere before the start of next season.

Savard is clear on one thing, though: he wants to stay close to his family. That’s one of the reasons he retired: it’s something that’s really important to him. And that’s what makes me think that a “Paul Byron” role would be very, very logical for Savard, who could mentor young players while remaining in Quebec full-time.

But what’s clear is that he feels he didn’t have another season in him. If that had been the case, he’d have thought about signing a new contract… but injuries have taken their toll.

His hand, his back, his knees: he’s worn out, and he didn’t feel capable of giving another full season.

And as for the idea of seeing him sign somewhere as a depth defenseman who would eventually be squeezed out by the young up-and-comers (for example, in Montreal while waiting for David Reinbacher), he says he would have been open to it, but wasn’t necessarily keen. Signing as a seventh defenseman wasn’t necessarily what he was looking for either.

On the other hand, he says that if a youngster had beaten him out of the lineup this year, he would have been open to giving up his position. In a world where Logan Mailloux had really been too good to stay in Laval, for example, Savard would have been open to putting the team’s interests ahead of his own.

And that’s one of the reasons he was so beloved in Montreal: he always had the team’s best interests in mind.

A very interesting interview, therefore, which provides some insight into the reasons behind his retirement, as well as a glimpse of what’s to come. And speaking of what’s to come, hearing him praise the “exceptional talent” of Lane Hutson and the “stability” of Kaiden Guhle was encouraging for the future of the Habs…


Overtime

– That’s a good one.

– Oops.

– He plays big hockey.

– Interesting.

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