The Montreal Canadiens season is not yet half over but their playoff chances have been at zero for a very long time.
The Canadiens record of 7-24-5 has them in last place in the 32 team NHL standings. The trade deadline is still two months away but there is no question that the Canadiens will be sellers when the March 21st deadline arrives.
Not only do the Canadiens know they will be sellers when the time comes, but most of the Eastern Conference already appears to be sorted out. The Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins are all on pace for 108 points or better. The Detroit Red Wings are next in line in the Atlantic Division and they are on pace for 82 points.
The great gulf between the top four and bottom four teams isn’t unique to the Atlantic Division. The Metropolitan Division looks the same, with the New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, New Jersey Devils and Columbus Blue Jackets on pace for 80 points or less, while the Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers are on pace for 108 points or more.
It would take a significant collapse at this point for a team to even drop from fourth to fifth in their division, which is wild at this early(ish) stage of the season.
The Rangers are on top of the Metropolitan Division with 54 points in 39 games and apparently aren’t comfortable just continuing along without upgrading the roster.
According to Arthur Staple of The Athletic,(subscription required) the Rangers have already checked in on Artturi Lehkonen’s availability.
He points out that Samuel Blais’ injury leaves a major void on the team’s third line and they would be interested in bringing in Lehkonen to play a defensive role at even strength and shoulder a heavy load on the penalty kill.
Lehkonen is a restricted free agent at season’s end and can be an unrestricted free agent after the 2022-23 season, so he technically isn’t a rental. That should give him a little more value and it would give the Rangers a little more flexibility. If he fits really well they can give him a qualifying offer of $2.3 million for next season, or try to work out a longer extension. If he doesn’t fit they can simply not give a qualifying offer and walk away after this season.
The asking price would be fairly high, considering Lehkonen has just four goals and 12 points in 33 games. Acquiring general managers will love that Lehkonen is excellent defensively and his analytics show a terrific possession player. He also scored the biggest goal of the Canadiens playoffs last season, ending the third round series and propelling the Habs to the Stanley Cup Final with an overtime winner against the Vegas Golden Knights.
It wouldn’t make sense for the Canadiens to trade him for anything less than a second round pick.
The Canadiens new Vice President of Hockey Operations was previously the general manager of the Rangers so he will know their prospects quite well. Maybe Vitali Kravtsov is a target after Gorton selected him in the first round of the 2018 NHL Draft. The 22 year old headed back to Russia this season because he wanted to play more in the NHL and wasn’t given that opportunity by Gorton’s successor, Chris Drury.
Kravtsov has 13 points in 19 KHL games this season. We are connecting a few dots by putting Kravtsov’s name out here, but it makes a lot of sense that Gorton would be interested in acquiring a player he drafted with the 9th overall pick just a few years ago.
We shall see, but the Canadiens are likely due to sell off a lot of veteran pieces between now and the March 21st trade deadline.