Canadiens: Trades Jeff Gorton Can Make To Appease Entire Fanbase

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The Montreal Canadiens sit at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings after a stunning late 2-1 lead became a 3-2 loss in regulation to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night.

The Habs have already reshuffled their front office and more changes are certainly on the way for the organization. Obviously, a general manager will be hired in the near future, and he will of course have to be bilingual.

The Canadiens are the only team in the league that have this requirement, but it is a belief in the local market that the person at the helm of the Montreal Canadiens should be able to communicate with the local media all by himself.

This debate has raged on for years in Montreal, with local, French speakers holding firm to the beliefs and other, non-local, mostly English speaking people telling the other fans what they should and should not find important to them. The argument never leads anywhere productive, but it is an obvious divide in the fanbase.

This didn’t get mended when the Canadiens hired Jeff Gorton, from Massachusetts, to be the team’s Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations. In his initial press conference, he gave an opening statement in something that kind of resembled the French language but he does not speak French.

So, what can he do to win over the fanbase? First, he will hire a French speaking general manager and then sort of blend into the background. Then, he can help that new GM pull off a couple of trades where they acquire some local talent.

Marc Bergevin tried to do that in the offseason, but he ended up with a handful of depth players that don’t really have a big impact on a nightly basis. Gorton should look to acquire some impact players from Quebec who can actually play top four minutes on defence, or in the team’s top six or are possibly among the top prospects in the game.

How could he do this? With these three trades.

Alex Beaucage

One interesting prospect out there from Quebec that doesn’t have an enormous amount of value is Alex Beaucage. He is an intriguing enough prospect due to his goal scoring ability, though his skating has always been the knock on him.

That is why, even after scoring 39 goals and 79 points for the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in 2018-19, he fell to the third round of the NHL Draft. The Avalanche were happy to pick up the sniping right winger with the 78th overall selection.

Beaucage continued his scoring prowess the following two seasons, scoring 40 goals in 63 games in 2019-20 and piling up 17 goals in just 22 games last season. The 20 year old native of Trois-Rivieres has transitioned to the AHL this season and has six points in 17 contests for the Colorado Eagles.

He won’t be playing for the Avalanche this season, and they will be looking to upgrade their roster for a Stanley Cup run. They have tons of firepower up front and a terrific blue line led by Cale Makar, Bowen Byram, Sam Girard and Devon Toews.

Where they are weak is on the penalty kill. The Avs rank 25th in the league while shorthanded, killing off just 75.8% of their penalties. What they need to acquire at the trade deadline is defensive players that can help while shorthanded.

The Canadiens have some great defensive wingers and could part with a player like Artturi Lehkonen for a goal scoring prospect like Beaucage. Fans in Montreal like Lehkonen but they see his limited offensive upside. They also could see Beaucage’s potential impact as a power play sniper and a goal scorer at even strength.

The Canadiens always struggle to score enough so adding goal scoring prospects would not be a bad idea. If they happen to be from the area, that just appeases even more fans.

Xavier Bourgault

The Canadiens biggest question as the trade deadline approaches will be, what to do with Carey Price?

It really will be up to Price as he has a no movement clause, but if Jeff Gorton is planning a massive rebuild, Price may want to go elsewhere to try and chase a Stanley Cup. He already waived his no-movement clause once, for the expansion draft, so he is at least okay with the possibility of playing somewhere else, even if they made it almost impossible for the Seattle Kraken to take him due to some mysterious injury updates leading up to the expansion draft.

If Price does elect to be traded, the one team that makes the most sense is the Edmonton Oilers. Their team is stacked up front and solid on the blue line (if healthy) but they really don’t want to go into a postseason with Mikko Koskinen as their number one.

Without getting too far into the numbers, the only real way this trade could work from a cap perspective is if the Canadiens take Koskinen back in the trade and also retain 50% of Price’s contract. That’s not small ask. The contract has four more years on it and 50% of his cap hit is $5.25 million. The Oilers would have to pay up to convince the Canadiens to eat that much money for that long.

By pay up, I mean offer Xavier Bourgault as the centrepiece in the trade and also throw in Raphael Lavoie as well.

Bourgault is one of the leading scorers in the QMJHL (once again) this season. The Islet, Quebec native scored 33 goals and 71 points as a 17 year old in the QMJHL for the Shawinigan Cataractes. He followed that up with 20 goals and 40 points in 29 games in his draft year and this season he has 22 goals and 42 points in just 24 games played.

Lavoie had a tremendous QMJHL with the Halifax Mooseheads and Chicoutimi Sagueneens. He was drafted in the second round of the 2019 NHL Draft by the Oilers after scoring 32 goals and 73 points in 62 games. It was his second consecutive 30 goal season. He wrapped up his Junior career in 2019-20 with 38 goals and 82 points in 55 games.

The Chambly, Quebec native stands at 6’4″ and is a natural goal scorer with a lot of skill. He scored ten points in 19 AHL games last season but is struggling right now with just three points in 15 games. Still, at 21 years old he has a high chance of turning into a Joel Armia type player or perhaps a better goal scorer.

I know trading Carey Price probably isn’t the best idea for winning over a fanbase. But with a terrific return, I think the fans would be happy to see Price go somewhere that will offer him a great chance at winning a Stanley Cup in the next couple years.

Jakob Pelletier

Perhaps the best prospect from Quebec out there that could be acquired by the Habs is Jakob Pelletier. The Calgary Flames first round pick from 2019 is an elite offensive player that could step into an NHL lineup tonight.

He had a tremendous QMJHL career with the Moncton Wildcats and Val D’Or Foreurs, scoring 13 goals and 43 points in just 28 games last season, his final in the Junior circuit. He had scored 32 goals and 82 points the previous season and had 39 goals and 89 points in 2018-19.

The Quebec City native is a bit undersized at 5’9″ but he plays with a bit of an edge and has incredible offensive skills both as a playmaker and especially as a goal scoring threat. He is showing it this season at the pro level as he has seven goals and 22 points in 18 AHL games with the Stockton Heat.

Many players struggle to make that transition from Junior to pro but Pelletier is thriving as an AHL rookie and just banging on the door for an NHL call up.

The Flames have a fairly deep team up front so they can be patient with Pelletier. But they have Stanley Cup aspirations after a great start. Could they be enticed to move their top prospect?

It would take quite an offer, but their head coach, Darryl Sutter, was quick to add some familiar faces from his Stanley Cup winning teams in Los Angeles. The Flames picked up Brad Richardson and Trevor Lewis who played for Sutter with the Kings.

So did Tyler Toffoli who was a top six winger for Sutter’s Kings in 2014 when they won a Stanley Cup. Trading Toffoli would sting in the short term as he is the team’s most productive player at the moment and is on a great contract.

But if the Canadiens could pick up a local prospect like Pelletier in the trade, I don’t think any fans would be complaining about the future direction of the organization.

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