Trade Deadline Primer: Montreal Canadiens
As the calendar turns to March, the trade deadline is inching closer. Where does each team stand and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Montreal Canadiens.
The Montreal Canadiens enjoyed a dream run to cap off what had been an inconsistent 2020-2021 season, defeating three strong playoff teams before eventually falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final. That dream run stands in great contrast to how the team began their 2021-2022 season. The Canadiens collapsed, falling to the bottom of the NHL standings. These results led to an organizational overhaul. Out was longtime GM Marc Bergevin, in was former Rangers GM Jeff Gorton in a role overseeing hockey operations along with former agent Kent Hughes as GM. Hughes and Gorton dismissed incumbent head coach Dominique Ducharme, replacing him with Hall-of-Fame player Martin St. Louis, who now has the Canadiens surging with five straight wins. Despite the team’s turnaround under St. Louis, the Canadiens still figure to be sellers at the deadline, as they indicated with the trade of Tyler Toffoli to Calgary.
Record
13-33-7, 8th in the Atlantic
Deadline Status
Seller
Deadline Cap Space
$9.41MM today, $9.41MM in full-season space, 0/3 retention slots used, 48/50 contracts used per CapFriendly.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2022: MTL/CAR 1st,* CGY 1st,^ MTL 2nd, MTL 3rd, ANA 3rd, CAR 3rd, MTL 4th, TBL 4th, MTL 5th, MTL 6th, MTL 7th, STL 7th
2023: MTL 1st, MTL 2nd, MTL 3rd, MTL 4th, MTL 5th, CGY 5th, MTL 6th, MTL 7th
*As per the terms of the offseason Christian Dvorak trade, Montreal will give Arizona the better of Montreal/Carolina’s first-round picks, unless either or both are inside the top-10, in which case Montreal will receive the better of the two picks.
^If Calgary’s pick is inside the top-10 the Flames have the option to trade Montreal their 2023 1st instead, and if they do so Montreal will also receive Calgary’s 2024 4th.
Trade Chips
Despite languishing at the bottom of the standings, the Montreal Canadiens still have a solid amount of desirable trade chips on their roster. The Canadiens player getting perhaps the most attention in trade speculation is defender Ben Chiarot. Chiarot, 30, is a pending UFA on a $3.5MM cap hit that is relatively easy for many contenders to absorb. Chiarot is a bit of a divisive player, with many disagreeing on his true value, but what is clear is that he plays the kind of playoff-oriented game that NHL decision-makers covet. Chiarot’s best asset is his physicality, his rugged style that wears down opposing players, especially in front of the net. He is not an offensive player, and his 12 points in 48 games show that, but he is still a good enough skater to handle himself in transition. More analytically-inclined observers might scoff at the idea of Chiarot returning the Canadiens any assets of significance, and that would not be an unreasonable stance to take given Chiarot’s place as a high-minute defenseman on one of the league’s worst teams. But even with that in mind, it is undeniable is that Chiarot is exactly the kind of player coaches and executives want to have in their uniform when playoff hockey begins.
Beyond Chiarot, the Canadiens have another player who many coaches and GMs will seek: Artturi Lehkonen. Like Chiarot, Lehkonen also saw his profile raised leaguewide during the team’s playoff run. Lehkonen helped linemates Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher take on the team’s toughest matchups, and their success in shutting down scorers like Mark Stone, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews (among others) was crucial to the Canadiens being able to go as far as they did. Lehkonen is a relentless forechecker who can fit on a contending team’s penalty kill as well as any of their four lines. He also brings an underrated offensive element to his game, with nine goals and 22 points in 50 games so far this season without much powerplay usage. Lehkonen offers an extra year of team control as an RFA after this season when his $2.3MM cap hit expires. His versatility, relentless two-way game, and an extra year of team control should make him a hot commodity on the trade market, especially given the trade interest a comparable player like Barclay Goodrow, for example, received a few years ago.
While Chiarot and Lehkonen figure to be largely in-demand assets on the trade market, the same cannot be said for defenseman Brett Kulak. Kulak, 28, is a bottom-pairing defenseman on an expiring $1.85MM deal. After struggling to establish himself as an NHL player as part of the Flames’ organization, Kulak arrived in Montreal and became a relatively regular NHL fixture. He is now a veteran of over 300 NHL games and can offer a team some stability and skating on their bottom pairing. A team shouldn’t expect a player who can handle intense special teams work or shelter an inexperienced defenseman, but that being said a team could do a lot worse than Kulak as a depth blueliner. He shouldn’t be prohibitively expensive to acquire, either.
Other Potential Trade Chips: F Cedric Paquette ($950k through 2021-2022), F Mathieu Perreault ($950k through 2021-2022), F Joel Armia ($3.4MM through 2024-2025)
Team Needs:
1) Skilled Prospects
New GM Hughes made it clear when he was first introduced to Montreal media that he did not envision the team undergoing the sort of long-term, scorched-earth rebuild other franchises have undertaken. With those marching orders in mind, it is likely that Hughes’ plan to get the Canadiens back on track will center around already-drafted prospects and young players rather than draft picks to be used on players further away from the NHL.
2) Cap Flexibility
Despite the Canadiens’ struggles this season, the team is deep into LTIR spending and has some significant contracts on the books. It’s not as if the roster has been stripped bare and has no veterans commanding significant salaries. In fact, the roster has quite a few of them. Pierre LeBrun of TSN reported that the Canadiens’ long-term plan could include adding a “significant” free agent, but for that to be the case the team would likely need to improve its cap flexibility from its current point.
3) Draft Picks
While Hughes has made it clear that he would ideally rebuild the Canadiens on an accelerated timeline, the fact remains that draft picks are crucial to building any successful NHL franchise. The Canadiens have a few extra picks moving forward thanks to trades, but still could use some more selections in the coming drafts to help re-stock their prospect cupboards.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Latest On Jake DeBrusk
After a challenging 2020-2021 season, Boston Bruins winger Jake DeBrusk requested to be traded from the team. The team acknowledged his request, but since then there has been seemingly little progress towards a resolution of the issue. That lack of progress should not be confused with a retraction of the request, though. DeBrusk still desires a trade from the Bruins, and as Pierre LeBrun of TSN explains, DeBrusk’s camp is “willing to work on an extension to help facilitate a deal” so that the player can be traded to another team. For an acquiring team to retain an unextended DeBrusk’s rights beyond this season, they would have to issue him a qualifying offer worth $4.41MM against the cap. LeBrun notes that “a lot of teams are concerned” about that figure, which could explain why DeBrusk remains a Bruin several months after his request to be traded became public.
Looking at the situation from Boston’s perspective, it is clear that DeBrusk is in the middle of a bounce-back season, as was cemented by a hat trick against the Los Angeles Kings. He has 14 goals and 24 points in 48 games, which is a 24-goal, 41-point pace, production that is more in line with his past seasons. DeBrusk’s re-emergence as a legitimate scoring threat, especially recently, should in theory help him secure a trade, but the looming trade deadline complicates things. The Bruins are currently solidly in place in the Eastern Conference’s first wild card playoff spot, and taking away DeBrusk’s production as the team intends on competing for a Stanley Cup would not be ideal. That being said, one wonders if keeping a player who wants out on a team with sky-high aspirations is just as problematic. Moreover, there is the opportunity a DeBrusk trade would hypothetically provide the Bruins. Moving DeBrusk could help Boston target a replacement forward from the trade market, giving them more assets to trade and more cap space to work with. The team knows DeBrusk doesn’t want to be a Bruin, so perhaps a DeBrusk trade could go hand-in-hand with Boston acquiring a forward to replace him.
For an acquiring team, DeBrusk represents an interesting opportunity as well as a bit of a risk. On one hand, there are a lot of things to DeBrusk that make him an attractive trade target. He has flirted with scoring 30 goals before and is still only 25 years old. Given his recent inconsistency, he is likely to cost under $4MM on an extension, and is, according to LeBrun, willing to negotiate an extension with a team that acquires him. So any team can look at DeBrusk and see a potential 30-goal-scorer that they can lock into a bargain contract. But on the flip side of that, DeBrusk’s 27-goal-season was his sophomore campaign in 2018-19, and since then he has struggled to match that level of production. His bouts of inconsistency and inability to truly seize a top-six spot in Boston are red flags, and with a hefty $4.41MM price tag attached on a qualifying offer, what happens if he struggles to transition to a new team? DeBrusk is a difficult player to fully get a grip on, so he could be a bit of a leap of faith for any team that trades for him. But the upside is definitely there.
Compared to other options on the trade market, DeBrusk is a riskier proposition. As previously mentioned, his inability to cement himself as a reliable NHL scorer makes him more of a lottery ticket than proven veteran scorers such as Phil Kessel. But DeBrusk is younger, offers more long-term viability, and has the upside to be a multi-year fixture in a team’s top-six. A team acquiring DeBrusk would likely be in a different place in their competitive timeline than a team acquiring Kessel, because DeBrusk’s value is more theoretical, more long-term, while Kessel or other veteran wingers would in all likelihood provide a more immediate boost.
Interestingly, DeBrusk is not the only Bruins 2015 first-round pick to request a trade from the organization. Winger Zachary Senyshyn, the player the Bruins picked immediately after DeBrusk, also filed a trade request earlier this season. While DeBrusk may be viewed as a disappointment in the eyes of some observers in Boston, Senyshyn has been undoubtedly the more disappointing pick for the Bruins. Senyshyn has only appeared in 14 career NHL games and has a single goal to his name. With Senyshyn and DeBrusk requesting trades from the organization, it is clear that the team’s long-term plans for their offense have shifted away from those two former top picks. The situation with the two of them is definitely one to keep an eye on, especially as the trade deadline gets closer and closer.
Mike Matheson Out Week-To-Week; Pierre-Olivier Joseph Recalled
5:25pm: The Penguins have recalled Pierre-Olivier Joseph from the minor leagues, likely due to Matheson’s absence. After impressing as a rookie in 2020-21, Joseph has played in just four games at the NHL level this season, spending nearly the entire year in the minor leagues. He’s been outstanding there, racking up 28 points in 40 games, and could now get an extended look in Matheson’s place.
12:55pm: Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan has announced, per Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, that defenseman Mike Matheson is out week-to-week with an undisclosed injury.
Matheson, 27, has had a bit of a career revival since arriving in Pittsburgh in a trade for Patric Hornqvist. In his 94 games with the Penguins Matheson has provided decent offense, with 12 goals and 37 points, and has also given the club’s defense some size and physicality. Matheson is on a significant contract, $4.875MM through 2025-2026, so while his cap hit may bring him some added attention he has settled into a nice role anchoring the Penguins’ third pairing.
With Matheson’s injury, the Penguins may choose to rely on Mark Friedman to take Matheson’s place on the team’s third pairing. Friedman is now an option due to him being recently called up from an AHL conditioning stint. Since being claimed off waivers from Philadelphia last season Friedman has seven points in 17 games for the Penguins. Other than Matheson, the Penguins could seek to call up another defenseman from the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins or look for added external help on the trade market.
Before this injury, the Penguins’ defense corps had been largely healthy this season. Ruhwedel, Marcus Pettersson, Brian Dumoulin, John Marino, Matheson, and Kris Letang have all played in at least 48 games, and that degree of health up and down their defensive roster is something few other teams can boast of having. That being said, the Penguins have had a tough recent stretch of games, where they have lost three straight games and given up 14 goals in the process. Those results mean Matheson’s injury is particularly bad timing, and it will be interesting to see what GM Ron Hextall and the Penguins’ front office does to respond to Matheson’s extended absence.
Latest On Filip Forsberg
Heading into the season, many believed that Nashville Predators winger Filip Forsberg, a pending UFA, would be one of the most coveted players on the in-season trade market. The 27-year-old winger was coming off a season where he battled injuries but still managed to post 12 goals and 32 points in 39 games, leading the Predators to a hard-fought six-game series loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. It was believed by many observers that Nashville’s downward trajectory as a team since their 2017-2018 President’s Trophy win, combined with Forsberg’s age and bouts with inconsistency would keep him from getting a long-term deal in Nashville.
But the play of the Predators so far this season has corrected those preseason observers. John Hynes’ squad is 30-18-4 and has a firm grip on the Western Conference’s first wild-card spot. With his team in the playoff hunt and Forsberg surging to 26 goals and 44 points in 39 games Predators GM David Poile now has to navigate a difficult situation with his star winger.
It was reported earlier by Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest that Poile had begun “actively shopping” Forsberg in advance of the trade deadline, and that is certainly one approach he could take with the player. He could also choose to re-sign Forsberg, and in Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet’s 32 Thoughts blog he sheds light on that possibility. Friedman writes that he believes there exists a “will” for both sides to reach an agreement on a contract, and that such a contract’s cap hit would likely need to fall between the cap hits of Forsberg’s Predators teammates Matt Duchene and Roman Josi. ($8MM and $9.059MM, respectively.)
While he states his belief that the Predators’ priority is to re-sign Forsberg, Friedman also notes that Poile’s “preference” is to not keep Forsberg beyond the March 21st trade deadline without a long-term contract. Friedman states that it “won’t happen” if progress on a long-term deal isn’t made, which should intrigue onlooking rival teams. Given Forsberg’s form this season and the chronic scarcity of wingers who can drive play at the NHL level, Predators fans should expect a significant return in exchange for Forsberg should the contract negotiations deteriorate to a point where a trade becomes necessary. They should definitely expect a bit more than Martin Erat and Michael Latta, that’s for sure.
Photo Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Trade Deadline Primer: Florida Panthers
With the All-Star break now behind us, the trade deadline looms large and is now less than a month away. Where does each team stand and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Florida Panthers.
After an impressive first season at the helm of the Florida Panthers, GM Bill Zito made moves in the offseason to shore up the Panthers’ roster, adding Sam Reinhart from Buffalo and extending his previous additions in Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe, and Anthony Duclair. Despite some early-season upheaval with the resignation of head coach Joel Quenneville, interim head coach Andrew Brunette has steadied the ship and has the Panthers surging to the top of the league’s standings. This is a very well-constructed team, and their success this season has certainly earned their players the right to expect some reinforcements from the trade market, which is why Zito is expected to be among the buyers during this trade deadline.
Record
35-11-5, 1st in the Atlantic
Deadline Status
Buyer
Deadline Cap Space
$3.845MM today, $3.845MM in full-season space, 0/3 retention slots used, 41/50 contracts used per CapFriendly.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2022: FLA 3rd, FLA 4th, FLA 5th, FLA 6th, CGY 6th, FLA 7th
2023: FLA 1st, FLA 2nd, FLA 3rd, FLA 4th, FLA 5th, FLA 6th, FLA 7th, ARZ 7th
Trade Chips
Given their results this season, the Panthers are not likely to make moves that would send away key components of their NHL lineup. Expecting Zito to trade a player like Anton Lundell, for example, who is currently playing a major role as the team’s third-line center, would be a mistake. Instead, most expect the Panthers to deal from their stable of prospects and draft picks in order to make upgrades. One player attracting attention is winger Owen Tippett. Tippett, 23, was the tenth-overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft and has been so far unable to establish himself as a legitimate NHL-caliber scoring option. After a stretch of 42 games where Tippett registered six goals and 14 points, he found himself a frequent healthy scratch and was recently sent down to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, where he now has four assists in two games. Tippett plays an offensive style of hockey that is best suited for one of his team’s scoring lines, but he has not been able to stay on a scoring line in Florida given the team’s significant pre-existing depth at each winger position. Tippett represents a sort of asset that has depreciated in value since his draft season and could be ideal for a team seeking to unlock the upside that made him a top prospect in the first place.
The Panthers’ next first-round choice after Tippett was Russian winger Grigori Denisenko, who they drafted 15th overall in 2018. Denisenko is in a similar position to Tippett, in that he’s a scoring winger who has been so far unable to establish himself in the NHL and is therefore mentioned in trade rumors regarding the Panthers. Denisenko, stylistically speaking, is a bit different from Tippett. Tippett plays an honest, relatively straightforward offensively-oriented game. Denisenko, on the other hand, has a rambunctious, swashbuckling offensive style that can be both endearing and frustrating for fans and coaches alike. He is a genuinely interesting prospect, but one has to question his trajectory given that he has tallied in the fifth-lowest NHL games played of the entire 2018 first round, which plays into why he is listed as a “trade chip” rather than considered an untouchable core prospect.
If a team trading with Florida wants to acquire someone with more NHL experience than either of those prospects, they could opt for winger Frank Vatrano, who has fallen out of his normal place as a regular in the Panthers lineup. Vatrano, 27, is an undrafted player who broke out in the 2018-19 season, when he scored 24 goals and 39 points playing next to Aleksander Barkov. Vatrano followed up that campaign with two seasons where he scored 16 and 18 goals, respectively, and seemed to have solidified his place as a reliable top-nine goal-scorer. But this season has not gone as planned for Vatrano, and he has been a healthy scratch as of recent weeks. He has only eight goals and 14 points in 40 games played, a reduction in his normal offensive production. He is a pending unrestricted free agent with a cap hit of $2.53MM, so it is definitely possible that he is included in trades in order to balance the cap going each way, especially as it seems that he is no longer part of the Panthers’ long-term plans.
Other Potential Trade Chips: F Serron Noel (894k through 2022-23), D Markus Nutivaara ($2.7MM through 2021-2022), F Mackie Samoskevich (unsigned prospect)
Team Needs
1) Top-Four Defenseman (preferably left-handed): The Panthers currently run a top pairing of MacKenzie Weegar and Aaron Ekblad, who are elite together, but they likely would prefer to get Ekblad a different (but still capable) partner so that Weegar could return to playing with Gustav Forsling as he did last season. Being paired with Weegar helped Forsling reach new heights in his career, and while he has been solid this season with a different regular partner it is clear that the team could be best off reuniting the two. Additionally, the Panthers’ sixth defensive spot has rotated between Olli Juolevi and Lucas Carlsson this season. A team would ideally have three solidified defensive pairings going into the playoffs, and adding a proven defenseman would allow the Panthers to have that. In terms of who they may target, the Panthers seem to be interested in shopping for a significant addition to fill their defensive need, as Jeff Marek of Sportsnet has linked the Panthers to Arizona Coyotes star defenseman Jakob Chychrun.
2) Additional Forward Help: As things currently stand, the Panthers are set to play Maxim Mamin as the first-line right winger next to Barkov. Mamin is a player who has scored at decent levels in the KHL (35 points in 55 games for CSKA Moscow in 2020-2021) but has yet to translate that into consistent NHL production. He has only 13 points in his 57 career NHL games, for reference. For a team that rightfully considers itself a legitimate contender to win the Stanley Cup, it is reasonable to expect them to pursue some sort of upgrade along the wings to bolster that section of their lineup.
3) Backup Goaltender: If the Panthers are steadfast in their intent to let Spencer Knight develop with the Checkers in the AHL, backup goaltender could be a need the Panthers address at the trade deadline. Their current backup to Sergei Bobrovsky is Jonas Johansson, who has yet to make an appearance for the team this season. Johansson had a .885 save percentage in 9 games for the Avalanche in 2020-2021 and is unlikely to be someone the Panthers feel confident in, should Bobrovsky become suddenly unavailable down the stretch. Injuries are commonplace given the physical nature of playoff hockey, so in order to prevent one injury from wiping away their playoff dreams, the Panthers could look to upgrade their insurance policy behind Bobrovsky.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Goalie Notes: Holtby, Hill, Varlamov
Two of the four new names on Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff’s trade targets ranking are goaltenders, namely Braden Holtby of the Dallas Stars and Anton Forsberg of the Ottawa Senators. Holtby has had a nice bounce-back campaign in Dallas after being bought out by the Canucks last summer. In his 21 starts this season Holtby has a .912 save percentage and a 2.78 goals against average, strong improvement from his .889/3.67 marks in Vancouver. But his future in Dallas is clouded by the emergence of 23-year-old first-round-pick Jake Oettinger. (As well as the looming presence of Anton Khudobin, the goalie who led the Stars to the 2020 Stanley Cup Final, in the AHL.) In an interview with Pierre LeBrun of the Athletic, Stars General Manager Jim Nill noted that Oettinger has “settled in” with the Stars, and LeBrun also ponders the possibility of Dallas dealing a goaltender.
The Senators’ Forsberg joins Holtby on the list, in large part thanks to the resurgence of Matt Murray. As Murray has shined, Forsberg and his .916 save percentage in 21 starts for the club have become more expendable. Given the Senators’ status as a likely seller come the trade deadline, Seravalli calls Forsberg “perfect trade fodder” for GM Pierre Dorion. Like Holtby, Forsberg is also a pending unrestricted free agent.
- Adin Hill has not played since a late January tilt versus the Lightning, and his absence looks set to continue. The San Jose Sharks announced that Hill has been placed on injured reserve as he continues his recovery from a lower body injury. As the Sharks sit second-to-last in the Pacific Division standings, Hill’s lack of recovery and placement on IR have to be seen as an unfortunate setback to add to his underwhelming first season in San Jose.
- As the Sharks battle Hill’s continued absence, the Islanders get one of their absent netminders back into the fold. The team announced that Semyon Varlamov has been activated from the COVID-19 non-roster list. Varlamov has a .916 save percentage in his 13 starts this season and figures to give the Islanders a boost as they attempt to build momentum in their long-shot chase for a playoff spot.