In an interview with Pierre LeBrun for The Athletic (subscription link), Canadiens GM Kent Hughes acknowledged that he was initially approaching the trade deadline as if they’d be selling. But the team went on a run after the 4 Nations break, resulting in a change of plan. In doing so, he noted that he started to move the goalposts on his asking price for winger Joel Armia, his most notable pending unrestricted free agent. Hughes admitted that while he wouldn’t say a flat-out no to acquiring teams, he readily stated that it would take a big overpayment to get him. Earlier this month, it was reported that the Canadiens had a second-round pick on the table for Armia but clearly, the adjusted asking price came in higher than that.
More from Montreal:
- Also from that interview, Hughes stated that he went into the deadline not expecting to move center Christian Dvorak or defenseman David Savard. He noted that with mid-round picks being the potential return for each of them, it wasn’t worth doing to add those while weakening their farm team in Laval which has been in a close battle for first in the AHL in recent weeks. Also, with one of the deeper prospect pools in the league and with 21 selections over the next two drafts, there wasn’t as much of a need to add extra picks to the cupboard. Both Dvorak and Savard are slated to be unrestricted free agents this summer and are likely facing pay cuts from their cap charges of $4.45MM and $3.5MM respectively.
- Defenseman Kaiden Guhle took part in today’s morning skate in a non-contact jersey, relays TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link). The 23-year-old is working his way back after suffering a lacerated quad tendon in late January. He’s still likely a little while away from returning to the lineup but if Montreal can hang around the playoff picture a bit longer, they could get a nice boost to their back end for the late push with Guhle being a big part of their top four, logging more than 21 minutes a night before being injured.