Who are the trade untouchables on the Montreal Canadiens?
By Omar L
Marc Bergevin has never been afraid of making a trade to improve the Montreal Canadiens roster, and the list of players who are unavailable is likely small.
There are several reasons as to why a general manager must establish who their core is. For starters, the core are the players who should be the most responsible for bringing the team success down the line.
The Washington Capitals finally managed to win the Stanley Cup in 2018 and did it off the backs of their core in Alexander Ovechkin, Niklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, John Carlson, and Brayden Holtby. The same thing goes for the Pittsburgh Penguins who won in 2016 and 2017 with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin at the helm.
Another thing having a core does is lets the GM know who they have to keep and who they have to get rid of once the cap crunch comes. The Chicago Blackhawks went through this several times moving away from players such as Andrew Ladd and Dustin Byfuglien while keeping Johnathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, and Brent Seabrook. Tough decisions were made, but it allowed the Blackhawks to win three Stanley Cups in five years.
Moves will be made to improve the team, as any quality general manager should, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of the core.
The Montreal Canadiens haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1993. However, Marc Bergevin has established who is core is and what they stand for. Brendan Gallagher, Shea Weber, Max Domi, Paul Byron, Jeff Petry, Phillip Danault, Jonathan Drouin, and Carey Price. Youngsters in Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Victor Mete have found their way into that mix, and you can argue Ryan Poehling is on the brink of joining.
Bergevin has been one of the GMs in recent history to ignore that “rule.” Weber is part of his core now, but he traded a core player to get it done. The same thing took place with the Alex Galchenyuk trade which saw Domi join the team last summer. Additionally, Bergevin moved Andrew Shaw, who you could argue was a core player, to the Chicago Blackhawks for cap space and draft picks.
It appears Bergevin has continued to make one thing clear: the Montreal Canadiens have a core, but it doesn’t mean that core is untouchable. Is that true though? Do the Habs have any players on their roster who are safe from any and every trade?