Montreal Canadiens: Trade deadline dealing with the Minnesota Wild

While the Montreal Canadiens were playing, Marc Bergevin was taking in the Minnesota Wild game possibly hinting at a future deal between the two teams.

It’s never a dull moment when the Trade Deadline is a few days away. The Montreal Canadiens were at home defeating a Michael Grabner and Rick Nash-less New York Rangers team while Noah Juulsen proved that he would’ve made the team out of camp if not for his broken foot. While that was going on, Marc Bergevin attended another Minnesota Wild game.

At first, there was nothing to make of this. It makes sense for Bergevin to want to look at what other teams have and keep note of them for the future. What made it something to pay attention to was a tweet from Michael Russo. Russo writes for The Athletic and mentioned that the Habs are talking to teams in the Central Division, including the Wild.

The tweet also hints that it may be players with term and if that’s the case, any deal with Minnesota would have to wait until the summer. That also matches up with the Habs wanting to stay away from the big deals at the deadline. If that were the case, then it may be Max Pacioretty or unfortunately, Alex Galchenyuk going the other way.

From the Wild, as far as forwards go, the names who have come up the most are Charlie Coyle and Joel Eriksson Ek. Coyle has spent most of the season on the wing but has seen his best hockey when played down the middle. His speed, skill, and ability to move with the puck come to light more when he’s at centre.

It’s more than just Coyle or coach Bruce Boudreau who notice the difference in play; his teammates do as well. Jason Pominville shared his thoughts on the 25-year-old at centre in an article for the Pioneer Press saying:

I like him at center. I feel like one of his best assets is his speed, and when he’s at center he’s able to utilize his speed a little bit more… I feel like at center he can keep his momentum going a little bit better. Maybe a little more starts and stops on the wing. He has been skating really well at center. Once he has the puck on his stick with speed he’s a dangerous player. It’s fun that he’s going again.

Coyle only has 8 goals and 16 assists in 43 games for Minnesota this season, which is a down year based on the numbers he’s put up in the past. It may be discouraging to trade for a player coming off a relatively low-point, but Coyle is young enough to learn from this season and improve. Additionally, he has another two years left with an AAV of $3.2 million which could fall into the realm of Russo’s tweet regarding the Habs looking at players with term.

Eriksson Ek is 52 games into his first NHL season and only has 2 goals and 10 assists to show for it. The 2015 first-round pick is struggling to put up numbers as well considering he just ended a 50-game goalless drought four days ago. However, Eriksson Ek has also been extremely unlucky as he’s generated a lot of scoring chances for himself and his linemates but hasn’t been able to find the back of the net as much as he’d like (sound familiar?).