Trade deadline primer: Montreal Canadiens

Veteran defenseman Joel Edmundson has also been in trade speculation for a while.  He isn’t a rental as he has another year left on his contract with a $3.5M AAV, a price tag that’s reasonable for someone that can log 20 minutes a night.  His physicality and ability to kill penalties would also be appealing, as would his playoff experience which includes two runs to the Stanley Cup Final since the 2018-19 campaign.  However, he has been dealing with recurring back injuries and that’s likely to deter someone from giving up a strong return unless he’s able to get back to action soon and be no worse for wear.  This might be a situation where the Canadiens opt to hold onto him for next year and try to get a better return for him as a rental.

Montreal also has a couple of pricey rental veteran forwards in Evgenii Dadonov ($5.5M) and Jonathan Drouin ($5M) that they will be willing to move.  Dadonov was traded at the deadline last season but the deal was eventually vetoed due to his no-trade clause and instead, he went to the Canadiens for Shea Weber’s contract last summer.  He has struggled this season (although he has seven points in his last 12 games) and at best, they’d be looking at a late-round pick with salary retention.  Drouin is in a similar situation and has struggled to put the puck in the net; his last goal came on Jan. 1, 2022.  That said, he has a dozen assists in his last 14 games.

In terms of other forwards with terms that could go, Mike Hoffman ($4.5MM through next season) and Joel Armia ($3.4M through 2024-25) are players they’d likely be willing to move.  However, with them being signed beyond this season, it seems likelier that any move they could make would be a lateral swap for a similar-priced contract, not one to necessarily add pieces for their rebuild.

Other Potential Trade Chips: F Paul Byron (LTIR contract), D Chris Wideman

Team Needs

1) Young Goaltending: Carey Price’s playing days are all but over and they have an NHL tandem that isn’t the greatest.  In the prospect pipeline, Cayden Primeau has shown flashes of upside but he’s far from a guarantee to be an NHL netminder.  The Canadiens have some late-round picks performing well at lower levels but they’re a few years away still.  A prospect that’s a bit closer to being NHL-ready would fill in a bit gap in their prospect pool.

2) AHL Help: With Montreal currently missing so many players, their organizational depth is being tested.  If they do move some veterans out, there will be roster spots that need to be filled and if those are covered by players currently in the minors, those spots will then need to be back-filled.  (Alternatively, they could agree to take some expiring veterans back and keep their current players in the minors.)  This isn’t a big priority in the grand scheme of things but with the Canadiens not having a lot of quality trade chips and the likelihood that their heavy lifting will come in the offseason instead, this is something that they can realistically strive for in the next couple of weeks.