At a point last season, Guillaume Latendresse toiled on the third and fourth lines in Montreal. Overwhelmed by the media and the inability to improve his season totals, the young Quebecois struggled with the Canadiens only posting three points in his first 23 games.
Then Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher came calling, offering a my problem for your problem type deal and sent disappointment Benoit Pouliot to a team who would appreciate his French Canadian roots. Today, the team re-signed him to a two-year deal worth 5 million — 2.5 million cap hit.
With the Wild, Latendresse exploded with 25 goals in 55 games, which projects for 38 goals over the entire regular season.
He will be a bit one dimensional as far as value goes (his team stinks, he doesn’t play with other goal scorers and he rarely drops the gloves) but his goal scoring talent is enough to take a flyer on.
During the 2009-2010 campaign only nine players scored over 37 goals, so hopefully Latendresse can continue to shock and awe next season. Certainly an excellent name to keep an eye on come draft day.
