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Do you remember who the Canadiens acquired last trade deadline? Jon Merrill and Erik Gustafsson. The deadline before? Well, they were sellers because they weren’t meant to make the bubble playoffs, so they shipped out Nate Thompson, Matthew Peca and pending UFAs Ilya Kovalchuk and Marco Scandella. The 2019 one? They acquired Nate Thompson, Jordan Weal and Christian Folin and who could forget 2017 when Steve Ott, Dwight King and Brandon Davidson came to town. Yes, under Bergevin, the trade deadline was essentially hole plugging time with whatever he could get his hands on that came reasonably cheap.
This year though, the Canadiens are not in buying mode. Kent Hughes has now been in post for just over a month and Jeff Gorton for nearly 3 months and as they say, actions speak louder than words. While they’ve refused to define what’s up ahead for the Canadiens, their trading Tyler Toffoli made it clear that a rebuilt was indeed in the cards. Hughes said from day one that he wants an attacking speedy side and his hiring for Marty St-Louis as interim head coach as well as Toffoli’s departure are both signs that the new look Habs will be focused on speed. That really wasn’t the case in the Marc Bergevin era and as such, some of the former GM signings could well be on their way out of town.
Ben Chiarot’s departure is written in the sky. A pending UFA, Chiarot played a bit role in last Summer’s cup run and it’s likely that his salary demands will go up as a consequence. George Laraque may screem all he wants about him being the new Shea Weber (give me a break please), but there’s no way HuGo will give a big money contract to a big punishing D who’s not particularly mobile. Now that Jake Muzzin is out indefinitely, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Leafs come after Chiarot.
According to Elliot Friedman, the Canadiens are also getting plenty of calls about Josh Anderson. This is a tricky one, just yesterday’s HuGo’s head coach said that he wants to see his first line together for a long time, can they then turn around and trade Suzuki and Caufield’s linemate? The Habs spent years looking for a real power forward to no avail, they now have one who’s also got the speed necessary to be part of this new look Canadiens’ team and let’s face it, even in a rebuild, you need to keep some vets around. The only way I can see Anderson move is if the package coming back is purely delectable, but I doubt they’ll receive such an offer. The big forward has quite the injury history and comes with a sizeable cap hit for 5 more seasons.
Word is that Arturri Lehkonen is also generating plenty of interest out there and that’s not a big surprise. Lehkonen although lacking a scoring touch does so much so well on the ice. He tirelessly works day in, day out and will do everything that asked of him, be it at 5 on 5 or on the penalty kill. Quite a serviceable player which plenty of teams would like to get their hands on. At the end of the season, the Finn will be an RFA with arbitration rights so the team who acquires him will also have priority to sign him come off season and if I had to bet, I’d wager a couple of bucks on him finding a home with the Rangers.
As for Jeff Petry, it’s a well-known fact that he wants out and his recent performances are helping his stock rise but it’s rare that a $6.25 cap hit can be moved at the deadline. Besides, Kent Hughes has said that he is not in the business of selling low, so my best guess is that we’ll see Petry get better and better under St-Louis and once the season is over and everyone has seen that he is still a first-rate defenseman, the Canadiens will trade him at the draft for a great package. There aren’t many teams that would say no to a 4-time 40 points getter defenseman.
Perhaps other pending UFAs such as Paquette and Perreault could go for cheap, they didn’t exactly shine this year and to be honest, when they were signed, it felt like Bergevin was just trying to hit his French-Canadian quota. Who knows though, some teams may be after a bargain for depth prior to the deadline and be willing to throw a late pick for the vets.
As for the other players, the Canadiens won’t hold a fire sale here, Hughes has also made that clear. They are open for business, but for the right price and we all know that the former agent is quite the negotiator. I’m readying myself for a lot of action on the draft floor in July, but whatever happens, this draft should star better than the last one that was held in town.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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