The panel discusses the motivation behind the Barron-Carrier trade. Alexandre Carrier has been terrific since he got traded from the Nashville Predators. It seems he needed to get out of Nashville to show that he is indeed a good defenseman and his stats there were more of an indication of playing on a bad team. Carrier [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/nashville-predators/latest-news/nashville-predators-trade-alexandre-carrier-to-montreal-canadiens-for-justin-barron] is 28 and he’s under contract until the end of the 2026-27 season. Based on that fact, having him on the team adds to the blueline in a lot of ways. The first one is he is able to play with different defensive partners. Kaiden Guhle seems like his best partner but that’s not the most important thing at the moment. Guhle currently has an LBI to further complicate things. Carrier has a goal and nine assists in Montreal. That’s really good production for 19 games. The team went through a hot streak at that time as well so I expect his numbers to be a bit less than that for his next chunk of games. He’s averaging 20:11 TOI and has gone over 22 minutes lately. He has 35 blocks as well. That’s a goalies best friend right there. Carrier is doing this almost exclusively at even strength. That’s valuable. He’s a right-shot defenseman and he plays on the penalty kill. InStat has him winning 54% of his puck battles on the season. He’s drawn more penalties than he’s committed. My expectations for him have been met. Just keep up this play. If the points fall off a bit, that’s ok. The Canadiens have found something in him. I knew he was a good acquisition but he’s been better than I expected.
