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In Hainsight: What to Do with that Pick? |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
For a good chunk of the season, it looked like the first round pick the Canadiens’ received from the Panthers in the Ben Chiarot trade would be a lottery pick. The Cats were struggling, and the Canadiens’ faithful were hoping for a dream scenario in which Ben Chiarot would ultimately have turned into Connor Bedard for the organization, but it was just that, a dream. Florida managed to steady the ship and even though it wasn’t smooth sailing with their number one goalie prospect entering the player assistance program, they made it to the promise land and got themselves a date in the first round with the President trophy winners Boston Bruins. The regular season champs are currently leading the series 2-1, even though they’ve been playing without captain Patrice Bergeron who won’t take part in today’s game 4 and the smart money says the Panthers will soon be golfing, meaning their 1st round pick should be the 17th one.
While it’s widely known that this year’s crop of prospect is a particularly deep one, there’s still a difference between a top-10 pick and one in the second half of the round. Still, considering how deep the draft is, the pick could be quite attractive on the trade market. Should the Canadiens flip it? Well, it depends on what they can get for it. This will be Kent Hughes’ second draft at the helm, and he showed last time around that he’s not afraid to work the phones on the floor and make a hockey deal. In the hours leading up to the draft in Montreal, the Blackhawks had let it be known that Kirby Dach was on the trading block and since there was a need at center for the Canadiens, Hughes didn’t hesitate to flip fan-favorite Alexander Romanov and a fourth round pick to the Islanders for a first round pick which he then sent to the Hawks alongside with a 3rd round pick in return for the big center. Needless to say, he shocked the Bell Centre with that trade and a year on, everyone is loving that move even though it did cost a young defenseman people really liked.
Hughes made that deal not only to address his team’s need at center, but also because he knew he had a good young crop of defensemen knocking on the NHL’s door which made Romanov expendable. Still, nobody saw that deal coming and I wouldn’t be shocked to see Hughes pull off that kind of deal again if he can get a return that fits in with his long-term plan of building a perennial contender. Even if Hughes and Gorton have said that they hope the Canadiens will be more competitive next season, don’t expect them to shop around this Summer for a quick fix. For the first time in ages, the Habs are committed to rebuilding from the ground up and doing it the right way, through drafting and development.
If Hughes was to go down the Pierre-Luc Dubois as suggested by many, I think he would only do so under certain conditions. The first of which would be if he could be certain he could sign him to a long-term contract at a reasonable price. A lot of people seem to be quite high up on Dubois for reasons that are unclear to me. Sure, he’s big and can play both at center and on the wing, but people seem to forget that his best season was a 63 points effort this year, in the sixth year of his career. Meanwhile, Habs’ captain Nick Suzuki, in the 4th year of his career put up 66 points. If Hughes brings home the Quebecer, he cannot afford to pay him a ridiculous amount of money, not when Suzuki, who’s already showed more than Dubois is earning $7.875 million for the next 7 years. Granted, the two players have a different skill set, in that Dubois can be seen as a power-forward and would be an upgrade on Josh Anderson who currently fills that role for the Habs and is 4 years younger, suggesting that his prime would fit better with the Canadiens’ timetable.
To be honest, I’m also weary of trading for a player who’s already been with two teams and has asked out of both, is there something there? Or is it just that he landed in less than desirable spots? Who knows, it’s hard to know the inner workings of teams’ dynamics from afar, but I do hope that Hughes would do his due diligence before pulling the trigger on a Dubois deal.
For what it’s worth, I still believe it’s more likely that Hughes uses the Panthers’ pick in a deal that no one saw coming. While the Canadiens’ general manager has been more open with the media in answering their questions than most previous regimes, he’s also showed that he can hold his cards close to his chest when the situation calls for it and trade talks sure work best when they are done under the radar and not in public which normally leads to lost leverage, although he still hit a homerun in the much talked about Petry deal.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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