The Montreal Canadiens just began training camp and already the rumours are flying around town. It appears the Habs are interested in acquiring Julius Honka.
The Montreal Canadiens training camp is underway. After a long summer of fans trying to guess what the line combinations will be this season and wondering if there would be any more acquisitions, we finally got to see the team hit the ice on Friday.
Though we had our first look at the team’s practice lines, it doesn’t mean they are done making adjustments to the roster. According to Eric Engels of Sportsnet, the Habs are interested in acquiring another defenseman.
Engels covers the Canadiens in depth for Sportsnet and tweeted that the team is rumoured to be interested in acquiring Julius Honka from the Dallas Stars. He also mentions that the Habs would be willing to make a player for player type of trade and aren’t likely to give up draft picks.
Pursuant to @MikeHeika report that Julius Honka has requested a trade from DAL, I'm told #Habs are among a couple of teams interested. Belief is that they'd be willing to make a player-for-player swap rather than give up a pick. Believe another East team in the mix.
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) September 14, 2019
It makes sense that the Habs would not want to give up draft picks. They have been hoarding picks the past few years and it has led to the team having one of the best prospect pools in the league. They likely won’t be moving on from their stategy of building through the draft any time soon.
Their interest in Honka is curious. He is a right shooting defenseman who struggled last season. He was drafted by the Stars in the first round, 14th overall in the 2014 NHL Draft. He had tons of potential to become a two-way defender and looked great with the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League, but he hasn’t been able to translate his game to the NHL level. At least not yet.
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Honka is just 23 years old and scored 108 points in 201 career AHL games. However, he played just 29 games last season with Dallas, and was a healthy scratch for most of the second half of the season and the entire postseason.
Following all of those games in the press box last season, Honka asked the Stars for a trade. Due to his draft position and age, it won’t be impossible for the Stars to accommodate that request. It just seems a bit odd that the Canadiens would be one of the teams that are most interested in acquiring Honka.
The Habs have Shea Weber and Jeff Petry on the right side of their defense. They do have an opening on the third pairing, but already have a battle going on between Christian Folin, Noah Juulsen, Cale Fleury and Josh Brook for that spot.
Acquiring Honka would just create an even bigger logjam for that one opening. Even if Honka won the job, it would mean sending Juulsen, Fleury and Brook to the Laval Rocket. That would make for a very strong right side of the defense for the Rocket, but would also mean one of them is playing bottom pairing minutes.
That wouldn’t be ideal for a young player’s development. Of course, there are always injuries during a hockey season that shuffles the organizational depth chart so it is not a bad idea to have as much depth as you can possibly acquire for a long season.
If the Canadiens are truly interested in Honka, they could swap a forward who, like Honka, has fallen out of favour with his current team. I could see the Habs offering up Michael McCarron or Charles Hudon. They are similar aged and fill a bigger need on the Stars who could use some depth forwards more than a depth defender at the moment.
It is not a perfect fit for the Habs, but general manager Marc Bergevin has always liked to acquire depth defensemen to ensure the team has lots of options at that position. I wouldn’t be shocked if he traded a depth forward for Honka with the hope he could use a change of scenery. It worked for Brett Kulak and Paul Byron, why not try again?