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A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog titled
An Overabundance of Riches in which I covered the fact that the Canadiens had plenty of left-handed defenseman both in the NHL and in the pipeline and that would probably mean that eventually, one of them could be moved.
Right now, the Canadiens have got the following left-handed blue liners either on the team or in their system: Mike Matheson, Joel Edmundson, Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj, Jordan Harris, Lane Hutson, Adam Engstrom, Jayden Struble, Mattias Norlinder, William Trudeau, Gianni Fairbrother, Nicolas Beaudin (restricted free agent), Corey Schueneman (unrestricted free agent) and Petteri Nurmi. Not all of them are NHL ready of course, but some of them will be knocking on the door soon enough.
We’ve seen in last year’s draft that Kent Hughes is not afraid to capitalize on an overabundance of riches to fill an organizational need. When he traded Alexander Romanov at the last draft, Hughes knew full well that Guhle, Xhekaj and Harris were waiting in the wings. To let go of their first round-pick, the New York Islanders wanted an NHL ready defenseman, they didn’t want a prospect who could pan out, they wanted a roster player (plus pick 98 of the draft) and that’s what Hughes gave them. Then he flipped the said first round pick to Chicago alongside pick 66 to land big center Kirby Dach.
If the general manager wanted to do something similar this year and found himself in a position where his trade partner is seeking a young defenseman who has already proven that he can play in the NHL, which left-handed blue liner could he sacrifice? That’s the question I asked on Twitter. I ran a 24-hour poll in which the options were Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris and Arber Xhekaj.
In 24 hours, it received 5 183 votes, and the results were as follows:
-3% (roughly 155 voters) chose Kaiden Guhle;
-72% (roughly 3 732 voters) chose Jordan Harris;
-25% (roughly 1 295 voters) chose Arber Xhekaj.
This is by no means a scientific poll, but it’s nonetheless interesting. To be honest, I didn’t think that many people would pick Kaiden Guhle, he’s a first-round pick and last year at times, he looked like a more mobile Shea Weber, the way he just took everything in his stride in his rookie season was impressive. The injuries to veteran defensemen meant that he played an insane number of minutes and he didn’t looked overwhelmed at any point. Speaking to voters, those who picked him were either concerned with his knee injuries history or were hoping that Kent Hughes could hit a homerun of a deal.
For most people, it came down to a choice between Xhekaj and Harris and a lot of voters stated clearly that Xhekaj couldn’t go anywhere for one main reason; he brings something that the Canadiens have been lacking for years. We’ve seen it a lot this past season, Xhekaj can keep the other teams honest, he’s an intimidating presence on the ice with his big 6-foot-4 and 238 pounds frame and he can fight with the best of them. He’s not just a goon though, he can play as well. He hasn’t got the most powerful shot, but he finds ways to get it to the net and create opportunities. The many injuries even landed him a role on the power play last year. A lot of his teammates mentioned that his presence made them feel like they could do more on the ice because he’d be there to answer the bell if need be. Some of the voters went as far as calling him a unicorn, because he has a rare mix of grit and skills, and they feel he would be very hard to replace. Those who voted for him though said that his value would probably never be as high as it is now, and they felt Harris had a higher ceiling.
As for Harris, many felt like he was a “Jack of all trades but master of none” and plenty also brought up his size as he’s only 5-foot-11 and 190 lbs. True, you don’t have to be big to succeed in the NHL, but most Habs fans seem to have Lane Hutson penciled in as the team’s small defenseman. One voter also brought up an interesting stat, according to Dany Dube if you take all recent Stanley Cup winners since 2015, only 3 defensemen from Pittsburgh and Colorado, namely Letang, Makar and Girard were under 6 feet tall, and the average height of the Vegas blue liners was 6-foot-3.
As for me, I reluctantly agree with the majority as I’ve already said in my April article. You’ve got to give something to get something, and I think Harris’ skills and ceiling could bring a good return. That being said, I like his play on the ice and how articulate and level-headed he is off the ice as well, he was the only Habs player to comment on the whole pride debacle this year and he did it tastefully. He’s also the Canadiens’ nominee for the King Clancy award, a trophy awarded yearly to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy contribution in his community.
I’m guessing trading him wouldn’t be an easy decision for the Canadiens’ GM since he coached him when he was part of the Boston Jr. Eagles in 2012-2013, but hockey is a business and if the right offer came along, he would probably pull the trigger, that’s why he’s paid the big bucks.
That being said, nothing says that a trade will happen, but hey, what is the offseason for if not to speculate and try to guess your favorite team’s next move? The poll caught the attention of reputed writer Jack Todd who’s glad fans are not GMs, but he’s not bothered to say who he would trade in that hypothetical situation.
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