On the Thursday, Oct. 24 edition of TSN’s Insider Trading, host Gino Reda and hockey insider Pierre LeBrun had a chat that should have Montreal Canadiens fans’ ears perk up. The segment (which begins at the 3:03 mark) revealed that Canadiens general manager (GM) Kent Hughes has been making calls to his GM brethren around the league. Montreal is not playing well and the injuries are piling up. Is a trade imminent? Should one happen? Let’s discuss.
Habs Injury-Plagued, Rebuild Slows to a Crawl
As fellow The Hockey Writers Montreal scribe Ryan Szporer elaborated in his Oct. 24 piece, Montreal is snake-bitten by injuries at this early junction in the 2024-25 campaign. This reflects the club’s relatively poor fortune over the past few seasons. Cole Caufield couldn’t finish 2022-23. Kirby Dach barely played in 2023-24. Patrick Laine is a Canadiens player but won’t debut for another couple of months. Carey Price is still getting paid even though he hasn’t stepped onto the ice since the end of the 2021-22 season.
None of this helps with the franchise’s rebuild, a rebuild that’s been going on since the ice melted from underneath after the Cinderella Stanley Cup run in 2021. No playoffs since then, and mostly bad campaigns with whispers of brilliant young talent being harnessed and developed have been the norm. Also, more games like the 7-2 embarrassment to the New York Rangers on Oct. 22 have taken place than supporters would care for.
There is a difference between losing with a competitive spirit and losing in ways – consistently, for that matter – that always leaves the door ajar for fans to wonder: “What on earth is the plan exactly?”
GM Kent Hughes Is Making Calls
With the bodies dropping like flies, a 2-4-1 record (last place in the Atlantic Division) and a goal differential of minus-10 (fourth worst in the NHL), Hughes is calling teams, as per TSN hockey news guru LeBrun. LeBrun is one of the best and most-trustworthy voices in the business so we have no problem taking his word for it.
That is a very interesting development for a few reasons, which the TSN vet brings up in the segment. For one, October trades rarely transpire, at least not big ones that make headlines. Second, Montreal will not give up on its potential future by trading youth or picks just to win some more games now. Finally, the cap situation is precarious. According to PuckPedia’s figures, the Canadiens are projected to be at negative-$3.113 million at the end of the season.
As far as the bank account is concerned, there is no wiggle room here. The predicament is equally complex from a tactical standpoint. Hughes would have to find a player on the roster who is a plausible scapegoat for some of the club’s recent failings (not scoring enough, not playing good defence, too expensive, etcetera) and pinpoint a player on another team’s roster that basically is getting paid the same amount and is supposedly going to fix some the Habs’ problems.
It’s not an impossible endeavour but a maddeningly-complex one to attempt in October. Who, it could be argued, isn’t carrying their weight these days? Centre Alex Newhook has one point and has a minus-7 rating, although he’s been good at drawing penalty minutes with six (second-best on the team among forwards). Centre Christian Dvorak has one point, is minus-6, but is a good shot blocker with seven. Defender David Savard, 33 years old, is a minus-8.
Even assuming those end up being trade bait, who exactly do the Canadiens get in return for players like that? Furthermore, who costs approximately $2.9 million (Newhook), $4.45 million (Dvorak, not to mention a modified no-trade clause), or $3.5 million (Savard)? That’s a lot of scouting and fiscal gymnastics before November.
Laval Rocket to the Rescue
It’s at times like these that one’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate can come in handy. Montreal’s is just north of the city across the Prairies River, the Laval Rocket.
The Athletic’s Arpon Basu, who covers the Canadiens for that publication, has often touted what Joshua Roy could bring to the team. Roy saw action in 23 games last season, scoring four goals and adding five helpers with an average ice time of 12:09. Alex Barré-Boulet saw action in the preseason and was a figure in the first two games before being sent down to Laval. If Hughes feels the need to shake up the defence, 2021 fourth-round draft pick William Trudeau is a blueliner who spent the past couple of seasons developing with the Rocket.
There are options available to the Habs to change the lines and defensive pairings without committing to a trade just yet. The question is: must the Canadiens dip into the Rocket’s roster for a quick fix? The reality is that, as of Oct. 25, Montreal is six points behind the Florida Panthers in the Atlantic Division. No one is seriously comparing those two clubs as equals, but the point is that there is still some time to really find out what the current group has. The Rocket are there for a reason, but it might still be a tad early.
The next seven days can reveal what head coach Martin St. Louis needs to do to get his group on track. They host the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, who are a decent-but-not-great squad. On Sunday, they visit the struggling Philadelphia Flyers, who have three points to Montreal’s five. On Tuesday, Oct. 29, they host a hot-and-cold Seattle Kraken outfit, and on Halloween night, the surprising Washington Capitals come to town. Are the Caps real or not? If the performances against any of those teams or, heaven forbid, all of them, are as poor as what fans have witnessed recently, then the Canadiens must seriously consider calling the Rocket.
Even if the playoffs are more of a nice dream than a serious objective in 2024-25, the campaign can and should not derail as early as late October or early November. The supporters, who stand by the club through thick and thin, deserve better than knowing before the first snowfall that their team is yet again a ship hopelessly lost at sea.