Montreal Canadiens: Would a Trade For Matt Dumba Make Sense?

The Montreal Canadiens are finally deep at centre. Could they use that to trade for Matt Dumba?

The Montreal Canadiens have finally built up some depth at centre ice. The position has been a black hole for decades but with the emergence of Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi looking great in the postseason, Phillip Danault playing terrific two-way hockey and Max Domi considered a centre by the organization, there is a plethora of options down the middle.

Jake Evans proved to be capable of handing fourth line minutes in the middle as well. Ryan Poehling didn’t look great this season but the young pivot has two-way third line centre written all over him.

Well, the Habs can only play four players at the position each game, and they have more than enough options. Is it time they use one of them to fill a need elsewhere?

More from Editorials

• Montreal Canadiens: Senators Rebuild At Crisis Point As Kent Hughes Moves Forward
• Montreal Canadiens: Jonathan Drouin Continues Charity Work In Montreal After Leaving Habs
• Montreal Canadiens: Laval Rocket Lineup Going To Be Must Watch
• Montreal Canadiens: Jesse Ylönen Contract Extension Analysis
• Montreal Canadiens: Top 31 Prospects – #31 Quentin Miller

One trade idea that has jumped out at me recently is for the Habs to try and acquire Matt Dumba from the Minnesota Wild. He is a right defender, so he doesn’t fill an immediate need for the team, but it could be a big need soon.

Jeff Petry has one year left on his current contract and he will be 33 years old when it runs out. Will he be re-signed for big money and term at that age? It would be risky to say the least. The Habs already have an aging right defender in Shea Weber who is slated to make close to $8 million per year until he is on the other side of his 40th birthday.

Trying to replace Petry with a younger player makes a lot of sense. Dumba reached career highs in 2017-18 when he scored 14 goals and 50 points. He was down this season and missed time with injury in 2018-19, but he has the potential to score 15 goals and over 50 points from the right side of the blue line.

Essentially, he has the talent and skills to replace Petry’s offence. He is also six years younger than Petry and has three years left on his contract at $6 million per year. That is a raise of just $500,000 on what Petry is currently earning, so it could easily work from a financial perspective.

There have been plenty of rumours this week suggesting Dumba is on the move. The Wild re-signed Jonas Brodin to a long-term deal and gave him a no-movement clause. That means they have to protect him, as well as Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon, in the expansion draft next year. They would definitely lose Dumba for nothing if that’s the case.

They don’t want to do that, and they are in the market to add centres. Well, the Habs could use Dumba and happen to have some extra centres.

Would the Wild be interested in Domi or Danault? They would immediately step in to top six centre roles with the Wild. Minnesota just traded Eric Staal who was the team’s only legit top six centre, so they need to fill a huge void in the middle of the ice.

Bringing in Dumba would make the Habs very deep at right defence. They could use all three of Weber, Petry and Dumba for a year before Petry leaves as a free agent, or trade Petry at the upcoming draft. They could try to find a scoring right winger for Petry which would fill a need for the Canadiens. Or, they could deal Petry for a first round pick and try to flip that for a player that can come in and score goals at playoff time.

Essentially, the Habs would be losing Petry and either Danault or Domi and brining in Dumba and a big, goal scoring right winger.

Would it be worth all the moving pieces? I absolutely think so since they would still have many options at centre, would have Dumba longer term than Petry and could also fill another need in the process. If Dumba is the next player leaving Minnesota, the Canadiens need to be looking hard at acquiring him.