Montreal Canadiens: Hypothetical Habs Trade With Every Pacific Division Team

Anaheim Ducks

The Anaheim Ducks are in a bit of a transition. They were a great team for over a decade, built around the tough, physical, two-way play of Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. Perry is playing in the Stanley Cup Final for the Dallas Stars this year and Getzlaf is heading into the final year of his contract.

It is time for the Ducks to hand the keys to the young players like Sam Steel and Trevor Zegras.

The Ducks have always had a deep crop of blue liners, but they also like to trade them away for some reason. Brandon Montour, Sami Vatanen, Shea Theodore, Jake Gardiner and Marcus Pettersson all came up with the Ducks, only to be traded away.

Why wouldn’t they trade one more?

Hampus Lindholm has two years left on his contract at just over $5.2 million. He is 26 years old and would want a huge pay raise after those two years. In order to let him go, the Ducks are going to want a huge payment.

If the Habs are really serious about contending next season, they need to add a top pairing left defenceman. Yes, they have Ben Chiarot and just brought in Joel Edmundson and have Alexander Romanov coming over next season. However, none of them can be expected to play top pairing minutes on a contending team.

Lindholm could. But it would cost a ton of future assets to get him in Montreal. He had 22 points in 55 games but he led the Ducks in average ice time with over 23 minutes per game.