He said it gave him greater flexibility with his defence while giving his top three lines more ice time.
Laval Rocket coach Jean-François Houle had success using seven defencemen in the playoffs before Mattias Norlinder was injured.
This strategy was used with great success when Yvan Cournoyer was breaking into the NHL. The forwards outside the top nine could be penalty-killers or perhaps a young sniper who would benefit from some power-play time and spot duty in offensive situations. There is an argument to be made to dress Wideman as a seventh defenceman and go with 11 forwards. The NHL doesn’t place as much value on specialists as some other team sports do - think a designated hitter or pinch-hitter in baseball, the versatile sixth man in basketball or football linemen who are limited to run- or pass-blocking. He’s an effective point man on the power play and led Canadiens defencemen in power-play points with 12.
But he does bring a special skill to the fray. Wideman is not a top-four defenceman - at minus-25, he had one of the worst plus/minus figures in the NHL - and you don’t want him taking ice time away from one of the promising youngsters who will be battling for ice time on the third pairing. He also has the potential to play a larger role if the Canadiens employ some of the outside-the-box thinking that has marked the new management team.