Montreal Canadiens: What Could the Canadiens Acquire at the Trade Deadline?

Ben Chiarot is the big-ticket item the Habs are likely to trade this season. The 30-year-old left defenseman is, in my opinion, going to garner a return that will have many hockey fans shocked. I don’t say this because I think he is a phenomenal defenseman – in my view, he should be on Montreal’s third pairing – but I do think that many of the more old-school GMs in the league will be prepared to give up a whole lot for the defenseman who played the most minutes on a team that went to the cup finals, while also playing a physical and punishing style.

He has also had a very good start to the season (think 2019-20 Chiarot rather than 2020-21 Chiarot), having scored 4 goals, which is tied for the team lead and controlling 50.4% of the expected goals (on a terrible team) whilst playing the most even-strength minutes on the team. Last season, David Savard cost the Lightning picks in the first, third and fourth rounds. What Savard had not done in his career at the time of the trade was lead a team in average time on ice on a run to the finals, so Chiarot could potentially get the Habs an even greater return than this haul.

The Edmonton Oilers could be the perfect team to trade for Chiarot; Ken Holland has shown his desire for veteran leadership on the back end with his trade for Duncan Keith and Chiarot would fit that mould and add significant physicality to protect McDavid. At recent trade deadlines, both JG Pageau and Tomas Tatar got a return of a first, a second and a third-round pick, there’s a chance that happens with Chiarot this year, with very few left-defensemen available and next to none with his resume and physicality. Instead of just draft capital, the Canadiens could try to target Cole Caufield’s old teammate, Dylan Holloway, in a trade, which would immediately replenish the team’s centre depth moving forward.