Montreal Canadiens: Chris Kreider Re-Signing Makes Tomas Tatar More Desirable

The Montreal Canadiens are sellers as the trade deadline rapidly approaches this afternoon. Chris Kreider re-signing with the New York Rangers makes Tomas Tatar even more desirable to other teams.

The Montreal Canadiens have been selling assets as we approach the trade deadline this afternoon. They have moved their pending unrestricted free agents like Marco Scandella, Ilya Kovalchuk and Nate Thompson as most teams would do in the Habs position.

Trading away pending free agents is the easy thing to do when you are six points out of a playoff spot and have to jump ahead of three teams to get into that playoff spot. Will the Canadiens move anyone other than pending free agents? Moving players with term on their contracts certainly brings back a bigger return.

If the Habs want to kickstart their rebuild into high gear, they would have to move someone like Tomas Tatar. The Habs left winger has scored 21 goals and 55 points in 64 games for the Habs this season. There is no question he has a lot of value on the trade market.

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That value just went up this morning with news that the New York Rangers are keeping Chris Kreider. Kreider was supposed to be the best available winger today but the Rangers and Kreider are working on an extension and he will not be going anywhere.

There is a steep drop from Kreider to the next best winger available right now. Teams looking to improve their top six could call the Detroit Red Wings about Andreas Athanasiou who has 24 points in 46 games or call up the Ottawa Senators and ask about Tyler Ennis who has 33 points in 61 games.

Are Ennis or Athanasiou going to move the needle for a playoff contender? Not really. Would Tatar? He would move it a lot further than Ennis. Tatar is part of the best possession line in hockey right now and is having a career year offensively.

Looking around at other wingers that have been traded leading up to the deadline, you would have to think the Canadiens could get quite a haul for Tatar.

Jason Zucker was traded from the Minnesota Wild to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a first round pick, Calen Addison who was a top prospect in the Pens system and struggling winger Alex Galchenyuk.

Blake Coleman was dealt from the New Jersey Devils for a first round pick in 2020 from the Tampa Bay Lightning and Nolan Foote who was the Bolt’s first round pick last year. Coleman had 31 points in 57 games before the trade and Zucker had 29 points in 45 games for the Wild before being dealt.

Both of those winger score less than Tatar and they both were dealt for first round picks and top prospects.

There are still several teams that are looking to upgrade their top six and they likely had Kreider as their number one target. The Edmonton Oilers could use a winger for Connor McDavid. The Colorado Avalanche were rumoured to be heavily interested in Kreider. The Avs and Habs have been keeping a close eye on each other lately, could they turn their attention too Tatar?

Habs general manager Marc Bergevin is not going to give away players with term on their contracts. However, with Kreider off the books, there must be more teams calling Bergevin right now to see exactly what it would take to pry Tatar out of Montreal.

What better winger is currently available? Probably none. In the business world of supply and demand, the demand did not get any lower, but the supply just shrunk with Kreider’s extension. That is great news for Bergevin and he is going to be even more tempted to move Tatar in the next few hours.