The Montreal Canadiens appear to be focusing on finding a top-six winger, almost as if they felt they've already found their top-six center...
While the Montreal Canadiens have been trying to find a second-line center for quite some time now, what we’ve been hearing in the last few months about their reported trade targets seems to indicate that their focus has changed to a top-six winger. Around the trade deadline, there was a lot of chatter about the Canadiens nearly completing a deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs for Matthew Knies; then, in the early days of the summer and again in the last few days, we’ve been hearing a lot about the Columbus Blue Jackets and Kirill Marchenko. Neither of those players is a pivot.
The Canadiens’ interest in them shouldn’t really surprise anyone. In the last two playoff tournaments, it’s been made abundantly clear that the Canadiens need to get bigger, and those two players would definitely fit that mould. Furthermore, at the end of the 2024-25 season, when GM Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton were questioned about the Habs needing to find a second-line center, Gorton was pretty clear about the fact that there was no written rule that a line’s main driving force had to be a pivot.
Back then, we all understood that the Canadiens were pretty high on prospect Ivan Demidov and believed he had everything he needed to be a play driver. A year on, the young Russian has certainly proven that he can be just that, but there’s nothing stopping the Canadiens from acquiring another player to make that top six even more menacing.
We’re not hearing about them chasing a pivot, though, and there could be a few reasons to explain that. First: there aren’t very many centers who could potentially fit the bill. Second: perhaps the Habs feel they’ve already gotten that elusive second-line center, but he just hasn’t arrived yet.
High-profile prospect Michael Hage was expected to join the Canadiens at the end of his sophomore season in college, but the youngster decided he wanted to go back and play with the Michigan Wolverines for another year. The fact that the Habs are focusing their search on big wingers may very well indicate that they are confident that Hage will be able to fill the second-line center void.
While there’s been a lot of talk about whether Hage would be able to play that role in the NHL, it seems like the Canadiens are not only keeping a spot warm for him, but they’re also trying to complete the line with two established and efficient wingers who could make life easier for him once he makes the jump.
There aren’t a lot of centers available on the market; there never really has been, but by making sure Hage is surrounded by top players when he makes the jump, the Canadiens want to make sure he will be in ideal conditions to succeed. If he doesn’t have to be the line driver, his role becomes much less complex.
While acquiring a top six player certainly won’t come cheap, if the Canadiens can manage it, it’s clear that they won’t be using Hage as a bargaining chip, not unless it allowed them to land a real established second-line center. At this stage, it seems much more likely that if they do manage to acquire a top-six winger, Alexander Zharovsky could be the blue-chip prospect who’s sacrificed, even though Demidov has spent the entire summer mentoring him. Nothing comes for free…
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