Even if the Montreal Canadiens aren’t trading anybody, Kent Hughes still has to make and receive calls. Remember, with a decentralized draft and nobody showing up in the same building, there’s a lot of other work Hughes can do at this time of the year to set up for future success.

The Canadiens can weaponize their cap space. I’ve talked about that before and while doing that if they take a player that can help them with the stretch drive, so be it. Some teams may just be interested in last-minute cap savings and the Canadiens don’t need to save money here. As an NHL GM, you have to get creative at times.

The last part of this is to set up deals with teams to get the right to talk to a pending UFA. Joel Armia wouldn’t fetch much but David Savard might get a fifth-round pick and you never let a player walk for nothing. Any pick is a good pick in that situation. Now, if the Canadiens re-sign Savard, ok, that’s fine but that’s a choice to keep an aging defenseman and to me, that doesn’t fit for the future of the club.

This is a weird time for the Canadiens. This deadline might have a lot of last-minute trades when the bigger names fizzle and then it is just about the rental market. A lot of times those deals happen right up to the 3 PM deadline and then we end up hearing about them at 4:15.