The Montreal Canadiens are gearing up for a busy trade deadline.
The Habs sit at the bottom of the NHL standings after making a run to the Stanley Cup Final just last season.
That gives them a pretty unique window of opportunity to set themselves up for the future.
Obviously the Canadiens know they will be sellers. They have the worst record in the NHL and have no chance of making the playoffs this season. However, since they were so successful in last year’s postseason, they have a lot of veteran players that will be of interest to other teams.
Take Jeff Petry for example. He has had a terrible season by his lofty standards. He has three years left on his contract at $6.25 million after this season. Trading him seems like the obvious choice at this point, but his 11 points in 44 games, combined with his large cap hit, could make that difficult to pull off.
Except, other teams will remember how good he was in the 2021 playoffs and want that player in their lineup for the 2022 playoffs. So, the team has been bad enough to know they will be sellers, but their players were so good in the most recent playoffs that they should get a good return for many veterans.
Finding the right fit is the key to getting the best return in a trade. For the Canadiens, that means taking advantage of a couple of desperate teams out there that are certain to be buyers this season.
Let’s take a look at three teams that the Habs could really hit a home run against in a trade in the coming weeks.