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Hockey Hainsight
Tonight’s game between the Canadiens and the Flyers in Philadelphia will be the first of three games between the two sides this season. The Flyers will be in Montreal on March 28th and April 9th to wrap-up the three-game series. Philadelphia last played Monday night in yet another chapter of the battle of Pennsylvania which they lost 4-1 to the Pens. It’s not the loss that has made the headlines though, it’s the high-profile trade concluded by rookie general manager Daniel Brière.
It's never easy for a general manager to trade a player that doesn’t want to play for their team, we’ve seen it in Montreal with Jeff Petry and in Winnipeg with Pierre-Luc Dubois for instance. It wasn’t a seasoned veteran that Brière had to move though, but his organization’s first round pick in 2022, the fifth overall pick, Cutter Gauthier. The 19-year-old had let the Flyers know he did not want to play for them, and he wouldn’t sign an entry level-contract with the team. Brière flew to Sweden during the World Junior Championships in the hope of convincing him to give the Flyers a chance, but the center /left winger wouldn’t even meet with him. Considering Gauthier’s performance in the tournament (12 points in seven games), Brière decided it was time to pull the trigger and on Monday night.
Gauthier was sent to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a 2025 2nd round pick. Drysdale is a very good player and was Anaheim’s first round pick, 6th overall back in 2020. He made the jump to the NHL in the very next season after he was drafted and gathered eight points in 24 games in the NHL and ten in 14 games with the Ducks’ AHL affiliate. The following season, he played in 81 games, collecting 32 points. Drysdale was limited to eight games in 2022-2023 as he sustained a serious shoulder injury. Since being drafted, Drysdale has showed great skills but he’s had trouble staying healthy. If he can avoid any further issues, this has the potential to be a great trade for the Flyers, time will tell. Drysdale has joined his new teammates and could make his debut tonight.
Meanwhile, yesterday, the Canadiens put defenseman Gustav Lindstrom on waivers to send him back to Laval in the AHL. As Rafael Harvey-Pinard has been back at practice skating with his teammates, he’s the likely candidate to reintegrate the Canadiens’ roster, he has yet to be taken off LTIR, but he did travel to Philadelphia with the team, for this one game road trip. This might just be to take part in today’s practice though since the coach has said the sole change to his lineup would be Primeau’s presence in net.
I would have liked to see Arber Xhekaj brought back up, but with how crowded the blue line is, he’s probably best served staying in Laval and playing some meaningful minutes. In his interview at l’Antichambre a couple of nights ago, Kent Hughes mentioned he’s aware that he’ll have to trade some of his existing depth to sort issues throughout his line-up and there’s no denying that the Canadiens will need to move some of their young defensemen, if not this year, in the coming ones when other youngsters are ready to graduate. To do so, they need to properly evaluate what they have on their hands and right now, they are taking a long hard look at Jayden Struble whose progression has surprised a lot of people.
Montreal has got a 6-2-2 record against Philadelphia in their last ten games and Cayden Primeau signed one of those wins. In two games against the team his father captained, he’s got a 1.94 GAA and a .938 SP. Considering Allen’s SP stands at .890 in five games played against them and Montembeault’s at .878 in two duels, it’s hard to argue with St-Louis’ decision to give the youngster his ninth start of the season.
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