Montreal Canadiens: Claiming Kale Clague Makes Too Much Sense

The Montreal Canadiens record on this youngish season is awful. They have won just six times in 25 tries and have to know their chances of making the playoffs are zero already.

This is why they have already fired general manager Marc Bergevin and his assistant Trevor Timmins. Jeff Gorton is now the team’s top dog in the front office and his search for a general manager is on.

The season is essentially just a feeling out process for who should stick around long term and who should be dealt for draft picks before the trade deadline on March 21st.

The Canadiens need to identify which young players are worth keeping around and then try to acquire more young players who can help the team down the road. Some of those players will come at a big cost, but others could be picked up for less… or free?

The Los Angeles Kings put Kale Clague on waivers yesterday and teams have until 3:00 PM EST today to put in a claim on him. It makes so much sense for the Canadiens to pick him up right now.

Clague is a 23 year old left shot defender who was a second round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. He is somewhat in between being a great AHL player but not quite a full-time NHL regular for the Kings right now. The Kings have a surprisingly deep pool of defenders and have gotten healthy lately and Clague is the odd man out.

While the Kings don’t have room for him as they try to steady themselves for a run at the postseason, the Canadiens could use him.

First of all, he is an intriguing prospect who still might develop into a good NHL player. He has put up solid offensive numbers at the AHL level, and scored five points in 11 games with the Kings this season.

Clague is an interesting enough prospect at the best of times, but the Canadiens are in desperate need for a defender right now. They lost Shea Weber for the season, Joel Edmundson has not yet played a game this year either, Jeff Petry was just ruled out with an upper body injury, Sami Niku is in Covid protocol and Alex Romanov just broke his nose though it appears he will play tonight.

The Canadiens are so thin on defence and have just called up Corey Shueneman from the Laval Rocket. Schueneman was on the borderline between the AHL and ECHL this time last year and though he played great for the Rocket since then, it just shows how thin the Habs are on the blue line right now.

The Ottawa Senators and Arizona Coyotes have priority over the Canadiens on waivers, but if those two teams pass, the Habs need to grab an intriguing young prospect for free.