Montreal Canadiens: The small moves could prove to be big ones
By Omar L
The Montreal Canadiens haven’t made any large scale trades yet, but the little ones could be beneficial if they do the right things with them.
Regardless of the fact that the Montreal Canadiens beat the league’s best team Thursday night, the rest of the regular season is still in the shadows. There are another eight weeks or so until the Trade Deadline, and the Habs are expected to turn some of the players on their team into assets.
In some ways, they’ve already started to pick away at their roster. Torrey Mitchell was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings at the end of November for a conditional 5th round pick, and Al Montoya was traded after the Lightning game for a conditional 4th. On the surface, they look like nothing trades – and for the most part, they are – however, acquiring picks is the best thing for the organization right now.
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The Habs are trending towards a retool of some kind, and they’ll have to continue to add prospects to the pool. It also helps that they got their 2nd round pick for this year back after Mikhail Sergachev played his 40th NHL game.
Now, the grand total is eight picks in the first five rounds (their 1st, three 2nds, a 3rd, and three 5ths). Trevor Timmins is going to have a lot to work with considering the Habs shouldn’t be done adding to the pick bank (or their picky bank if you will).
Montreal has struck gold in the 5th round before with Brendan Gallagher – who has the most games played and points of any player drafted there in 2010 – and Charles Hudon. There’s also Daniel Audette who’s not having too bad of a sophomore season in the AHL with the Laval Rocket scoring seven goals and seven assists in 36 games.
The 2nd round is an area they need to improve on. Either the Habs haven’t had a pick there or the players selected have been complete busts. However, Josh Brook and Joni Ikonen look really good so far while Jacob de La Rose has found it difficult to solidify a spot with the Habs every night.
Marc Bergevin is already walking into this draft with the highest number of picks since 2013 (assuming he’s still around by then). As important as getting the picks are, what they do with them will be even more telling of what direction the organization goes in.
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What do you make of the small trades the Habs have been making? Will they make it worth it at the draft this year? Let us know what you think down in the comments.