{"id":114202,"date":"2021-07-28T10:57:37","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T14:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=114202"},"modified":"2021-07-28T10:57:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T14:57:37","slug":"david-savard-signed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/07\/28\/david-savard-signed\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: UFA David Savard Signed by Montreal Canadiens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/07\/27\/nhl-rumours-canadiens-maple-leafs-penguins\/\" target=\"_self\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a> signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/savarda01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Savard<\/a>, an unrestricted free agent defenceman, to a four-year contract on Wednesday. This contract carries him through the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Believe term on Savard will be four years.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Eric Engels (@EricEngels) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EricEngels\/status\/1420396973509726209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 28, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>UFA David Savard Signed<\/h2>\n<p>Over his 10-year NHL career<i>, <\/i>Savard has played for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/bluejackets\/\" target=\"_self\">Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/lightning\/\" target=\"_self\">Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a>. Originally drafted in the fourth round, 94th overall of the 2009 NHL draft by Columbus, the 30-year old owns 41 goals and 125 assists in 611 games. Of those 166 points, 30 came on special teams. He averaged 19:51 in ice time per game last season and averages 20:26 per game across his career. He also scored one goal and five assists for six points in 54 games last season between Columbus and Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n<p>At the 2020-21 trade deadline, the Blue Jackets dealt Savard to the Lightning. In return, Columbus received 2021 first- and 2022 third-round draft picks. The trade included the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/redwings\/\" target=\"_self\">Detroit Red Wings<\/a> as well, who sent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/lashobr01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brian Lashoff<\/a> to the Lightning for a 2021 fourth-round pick. Savard&#8217;s Corsi-for percentage over the season ranked at 49.0 percent and -7.3% relative, but he typically sits in the negative on an annual basis. A defence-first, shot-blocking defenceman, Savard picked up 109 blocks and 132 hits in 2020-21. He also posted 24 penalty minutes, his fewest total since 2012-13 (when he played just four games, too). Though he played a limited role with the Lightning, he assisted on the Stanley Cup-winning goal as the Lightning won back-to-back Stanley Cups.<\/p>\n<h3>What This Means for the Future<\/h3>\n<p>Getting David Savard signed to your roster provides Cup-winning experience and strong veteran leadership. He spent his entire career in Columbus until this past season&#8217;s trade deadline. Then, he immediately won the Stanley Cup with the Bolts. He&#8217;s logged 57 career games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, notching 16 points and 20 PIM&#8217;s in those contests. The one roster move GM Julien BriseBois made at the deadline was acquiring Savard. The defensive style he brings solidified the Lightning&#8217;s blue line and contributed greatly to their depth in the postseason.<\/p>\n<p>Savard may not be flashy, but teams know what they&#8217;re getting with him. He eats up minutes on the penalty kill and at the end of games when needing to close out a win. Those types of defensemen typically fly under the radar, because they don&#8217;t often post numbers offensively. But the value added to a lineup by someone like Savard could be the difference come playoffs between winning and losing a series. Teams need defensemen like Savard.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"72371DiIT9p0tiD50dOS4g\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/1327555784\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'72371DiIT9p0tiD50dOS4g',sig:'WyKVl9ktulTtqutQERfWeNV0zKFIkFiuMRnmEucqhNc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1327555784',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Montreal Canadiens signed David Savard, an unrestricted free agent defenceman, to a four-year contract on Wednesday. This contract carries him through the 2024-25 season. Believe term on Savard will be four years. \u2014 Eric Engels (@EricEngels) July 28, 2021 UFA David Savard Signed Over his 10-year NHL career, Savard has played for the Columbus [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2377,"featured_media":115452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4547,34,4548],"tags":[858],"class_list":["post-114202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadiens","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-david-savard"],"modified_by":"Josh Erickson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2377"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}