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.
Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild are one of the best teams in the entire NHL this season. They have a 31-14-3 record and have the second best record in the Western Conference by points percentage. The Wilds have not had much playoff success in their franchise history, and have a few reasons ro really try and capitalize this season.
First of all, they are due to give $4 million raises to each of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter next season. Yes, two players that were bought out in the most recent offseason will combine to take up $12.75 million in cap space next season after eating up “just” $4.75 million this season.
That basically rules out re-signing Kevin Fiala or Alex Goligoski next season. Fiala has 42 points in 28 games this season and Goligoski is playing great hockey in the team’s top four on the blue line.
The Wild are also technically third in their own division right now, though they have played a couple less games than the St. Louis Blues. Needing to take out the Blues and the powerhouse Colorado Avalanche just to get half way to the Stanley Cup will give them incentive to buy.
With the enormous amount of cap space eaten up by Suter and Parise’s buyouts, it will be nearly impossible for the Wild to put a better team on the ice next season. Make that the next three seasons while they are basically building a team with $13 million less dollars to use than any other team in the league.
So the Wild have to be all in this season and they need to focus on acquiring rentals.
The Wild are a dangerous offensive team, but sit just below the median when it comes to penalty killing. Perhaps they could be enticed to offer up a first round pick for Artturi Lehkonen to shore up their bottom six and improve their 79% efficiency while shorthanded.
Lehkonen is a RFA at season’s end, but they would have the flexibility to then trade him after the season for a decent return as well, making him a very cheap rental for them, even if they give up a first rounder to get him.
Pittsburgh Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins have won three Stanley Cups in the Sidney Crosby era so they aren’t the most desperate team in the league. However, this might be the last real opportunity to win a Stanley Cup with Crosby leading the way.
Crosby is signed for three more seasons, but two other cornerstones, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are both free agents at the end of this season. If either player is giving the organization a reason to believe this is their last year in Pittsburgh, the Pens will be all in at the trade deadline.
Which is pretty much how they have operated over the past decade anyway. The Pens have made just one first round draft choice in the past seven years and two first round selections in the past nine NHL Drafts.
Since taking Crosby first overall in 2005, the only first round pick the Pens have made and kept in the organization is Samuel Poulin. They did re-acquire Kasperi Kapanen after dealing him to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Phil Kessel.
The Pens still have their upcoming first round pick (for now) and still have Quebec native Samuel Poulin developing in the AHL.
The Habs should be trying to acquire both for Jeff Petry. The Pens might be just desperate enough to win one last Stanley Cup for Crosby that they pull the trigger.
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs have made the playoffs each of the past five seasons but are yet to win a single series. First round playoff losses to Washington, Boston, Boston again, Columbus and Montreal have this team built around speed and super-skilled forwards desperate to win something.
They were desperate enough last year to trade a first round pick for Nick Foligno. Imagine what they will do this year after suffering their most embarrassing first round defeat to date (no offence Habs).
The Leafs are said to be in the market for a second line left winger, as well as some some defensemen who can play a defensive game. And that was before Jake Muzzin, their best defensive defenceman, was placed on long term injured reserve.
The Canadiens could help the Maple Leafs fill both of those holes, but it could only really work if Muzzin is out for the rest of the regular season. If he is, the Leafs can replace his cap hit with another player and then activate Muzzin for the playoffs.
Helping the Leafs feels wrong, but they are extremely desperate to win now and can the Canadiens can take advantage of that.
Trading them Ben Chiarot and Jonathan Drouin would fill their two biggest needs, and the Habs could really make it easy on the Leafs by retaining half of each player’s salary. That makes their combined cap hit less than Muzzin’s LTIR relief so it would be no problem from a salary cap perspective.
To get a second line left winger, and a top four defender, both of whom are coming at half price, the Maple Leafs would really need to put together an excellent package.
The Maple Leafs first round pick in 2022 and one of their very best prospects like Topi Niemela, a right show defender who is among the top defencemen scorers in Liiga as a 19 year old, would jumpstart the Canadiens rebuild.
A desperate Toronto Maple Leafs team needs to load up and try to at least win a playoff series. The Canadiens need to pounce and take advantage of their desperate division rival.