Montreal Canadiens Hypothetical Trade: Who Says No?
Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin is not going to let his team miss the playoffs without going down swinging.
The team invested more money than any other in the offseason while in the midst of a global pandemic. Most teams were looking to pinch every penny and the Canadiens went out and committed over $100 million to bring in players or retain the likes of Jeff Petry and Brendan Gallagher for the foreseeable future.
When the team hit its first speed bump during the season, both Claude Julien and Kirk Muller lost their jobs. Clearly, Bergevin isn’t messing around with the 2020-21 season.
With the trade deadline just over a month away, we can expect Bergevin to be busy making deals over the next five weeks as well. He is going to turn over every rock in an effort to make this team better. With the added complication that players need to go through quarantine before suiting up for the Canadiens, we could see Bergevin act early.
One possible role he could fill is fourth line centre. It’s not the biggest or most important role on the team, but a quality fourth line centre that can win face-offs and kill penalties while playing responsible defence is pretty much a requirement of any team that goes deep into the postseason.
We have seen him prioritize this role in previous years when he picked up Torrey Mitchell, Steve Ott or Nate Thompson when he thought his team was heading to the postseason.
Someone who fits that mold that would be available this season is Luke Glendening of the Detroit Red Wings.
He doesn’t add a lot of offence, as he sits with seven points in 22 games, but he is a trusted defensive centre who is among the best at face-offs in the league. He averages 2:24 per game of shorthanded ice time for the Red Wings which is most among their forwards.
His faceoff percentage is close to 68% which is the best in the NHL by a fairly wide margin. He would certainly play a depth role, and likely push Jake Evans out of the lineup, but his experience, face-offs, penalty killing and leadership would be a welcome addition to the Canadiens lineup at the moment.
He also wouldn’t cost a lot, and his $1.8 million cap hit could be fit into the team’s lineup rather easily, especially if Evans is sent back to Laval.
What do you think? Is it worth moving a third round pick for Glendening or would you just rather keep Evans in the lineup? Would Detroit be interested in this move or would they want more?
Let us know in the comments. Who says no?