Montreal Canadiens: Five Contracts That Will Be Impossible To Trade

The Montreal Canadiens season is already in the gutter, and has been for weeks, so the 2022 postseason is already outside the realm of possibility for this team.

There is no question that the Habs are going to start selling off players. Those whose contracts are up at the end of the 2021-22 season are surely going to be traded to the highest bidder. It makes no sense to keep someone around in a lost season just to let them walk away as a free agent in a few months.

That last time the Canadiens were sellers, they traded every single possible pending free agent and loaded up on draft picks. Marco Scandella, Ilya Kovalchuk, Nick Cousins, Nate Thompson, Matthew Peca were traded and the Canadiens acquired a draft pick in each round but the first in exchange.

That was Marc Bergevin’s era, but Jeff Gorton needs to take on a similar approach. Anyone who isn’t going to be here long term needs to be traded for the best return possible. Even if a team only offers a 7th round pick for Cedric Paquette, they may as well take the pick since they have no reason to re-sign the player beyond this season anyway.

With the way the Canadiens team is structured, and especially the way it is currently playing, the team needs to consider trading just about anyone. Sure, it is easy to trade Ben Chiarot since he will get a good return and he is a free agent in July. But this team needs a deeper reboot than just moving out pending free agents.

Dangling players like Tyler Toffoli, Josh Anderson, Jonathan Drouin, and even Christian Dvorak who was recently acquired needs to happen as well. I’m not saying they’ll all be dealt, but putting everyone on the market to see what kind of offers they receive should be happening already.

Basically, anyone on the roster should be moved for the right package of picks and prospects.

But, these five contracts are completely untradable for the Canadiens right now.