Montreal Canadiens: First-round picks should be off limits

The Montreal Canadiens are in a weird spot where the playoffs aren’t a guarantee. If that continues, Marc Bergevin should refrain from trading 1st round picks.

The narrative the past couple of days has been a crossroads the Montreal Canadiens find themselves at. It’s an understatement, but the Habs are lucky to be in the Atlantic Division. Picking up one out of a possible six points in their latest three-game stretch isn’t ideal, but it helps that other teams have been struggling.

Buffalo has their eyes set on a top pick in this year’s draft, Ottawa is 1-8-1 in their last 10 games, and Florida may have a tough time turning things around with Roberto Luongo out long-term. Nothing has changed, the Boston Bruins are still going to be the Habs’ biggest threat for the remainder of the season.

However, that depends on what the goal for this season is. Many have critiqued the way the Montreal Canadiens played even when they were winning. You can tell that the team was relying on Carey Price too much such that when he had a bad game, like on Saturday, there was no coming back.

As much as management wants to preach that the players on the team already need to figure things out on their own, it may take something more than that. Now we get into what is probably going to be an ongoing debate up until the Trade Deadline: do you make a move, or ride it out?

I’m leaning more towards camp, ‘let’s make a deal,’ but the Habs don’t have that much leverage in a trade. That could be a reason why Marc Bergevin hasn’t pulled the trigger on anything yet. Perhaps there have been offers, but other general managers aren’t offering fair value.

There’s also the possibility that teams are asking for first-round picks which are a premium. If that’s the case, then I’m on board with Bergevin saying no to those kinds of deals.

It’s Too Risky

Although the Habs are only two points behind the Bruins for third in the Atlantic, there is still no guarantee yet that they’re one of the 16 teams in the playoffs at the end of the regular season. Because of that, you can’t trade any 1st rounders, not yet at least.