St. Louis Blues
The Canadiens have already added a couple of former Blues this offseason. They traded for Jake Allen to backup Carey Price and they acquired Joel Edmundson from the Carolina Hurricanes, though he won the Stanley Cup with the Blues in 2019.
Who’s next? Well, I thought about saying the Canadiens would add Alex Pietrangelo’s rights like they did with Edmundson. Would a third round pick be enough just to get his negotiating rights? Would it be too much? I mean, you don’t want to give up a draft pick with decent value only to learn Pietrangelo doesn’t want to play in Montreal.
It worked with Edmundson, but that was a 5th round pick. Besides, after bringing in Allen and Edmundson it is more difficult to see how the Canadiens could fit in a player like Pietrangelo and stay under the cap.
So, the Habs decide to use their cap space elsewhere. Maybe the Blues decide if they can get rid of another contract that they can up their offer to Pietrangelo and keep their captain and best defenceman in town.
It would require adding a good young player with some upside for the Habs to take a bad contract. This is exactly what the Habs did when they took Steve Mason on from the Winnipeg Jets so they could have Joel Armia.
Now, they use the same strategy to add a way overpaid fourth line winger for a season and a potential top six winger in the very near future.