So far, the Montreal Canadiens have not made any trades in the run-up to the deadline. Instead, they extended 28-year-old veteran center Jake Evans’s four-year contract at a more than reasonable cap hit of $2.85 M. Kent Hughes still has a few pieces on his cheesboard. Joel Armia, David Savard, and Christian Dvorak are still pending UFAs and could be moved.
As reported yesterday, Pierre LeBrun believes the Canadiens could move one of Armia and Savard, but not both. His understanding is that stripping the team of two big pieces would be detrimental to a team battling to make the playoffs.
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As for our own Russ Cohen, he believes the team could still get valuable experience down the stretch even if it traded the veterans. While that’s true, I, for one, think that Hughes doesn’t want to be the reason why this team doesn’t make the playoffs. As things stand, they are only one point out of a wildcard spot.
Trading the vets doesn’t mean they would necessarily miss the playoffs, but qualifying would be that much harder. I also think Hughes wants his prospects in Laval to experience the playoffs with a strong group and have a chance to win. There’s something to be said about developing players in a winning environment.
In an ideal world, Hughes would trade for a forward to play on his second line, even if it’s just a rental. Tony Marinaro's suggestion of acquiring Ryan Donato is a good one. Playing Owen Beck there and only giving him eight minutes of ice time doesn’t do anyone any good. Participating in the Laval Rocket playoffs journey would best serve the young center. He’d get to play an important part rather than spend most of his time on the bench in Montreal.
On a contender, Beck isn’t in the top six, and right now, he finds himself in the wrong chair solely because Kirby Dach is injured. Skating on a line with Patrik Laine, who doesn’t play a 200-foot game, is not helping either, making it hard for Martin St-Louis to trust his second line. Even with power play time, Laine only skated for 10:18 on Thursday night.
Trading Savard would mean calling up Logan Mailloux or David Reinbacher, taking a big piece away from Laval. If Kaiden Guhle was set to return soon, the situation might be different, but it doesn’t seem like he’ll return soon.
Trading a vet for a roll of the dice low draft pick wouldn’t make sense for Montreal, in my view. I understand that those picks can be used down the line to acquire other pieces, but the truth of the matter is that the pieces the Canadiens are missing won’t be added by packaging a truckload of low draft picks. When the Habs added Dach and Alex Newhook, they needed to fork over high draft picks, and that’s what they’ll need to do again if they want to get a second line center.
By staying put, the Canadiens GM would tell his players that he believes in them and allow Pascal Vincent to go to war with his best elements. Unless Hughes receives a big offer involving a high draft pick or a roster player who could help the playoffs push, I don’t see him making a move, and I fully understand his motivation.
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