Montreal Canadiens: Josh Manson Trade Further Increases Ben Chiarot Trade Value

The Montreal Canadiens are approaching the trade deadline as sellers.

They have been in the rumour mill with an interest in acquiring many different players as well. Some have said they are interested in grabbing Jack McBain from the Minnesota Wild, or possibly Pavel Zacha from the New Jersey Devils or maybe prospect Vitali Kravtsov from the New York Rangers.

We could see a little buying of young NHL talent as well as plenty of selling of veteran players.

One thing that is for sure is Ben Chiarot will be dealt before the trade deadline passes on March 21st. Who else goes is a question that will be answered next Monday when the deadline hits. The Habs have some pending UFAs who could be dealt as well as some veterans on long term deals like Mike Hoffman and Jeff Petry.

It will be thrilling to watch between now and Monday, but one thing that is certain is that Chiarot will be traded and his value just continues increasing.

All teams are searching for help on the blue line, so there is a lot of demand for a player like Chiarot. There is also much less supply than there appeared to be a few days ago.

Jakob Chychrun should have been the prize defenceman on the market but he was just injured on the weekend and it out for a few weeks. It’s not impossible that he still gets dealt, but he has three more years on his contract so there is no rush.

Also, the Dallas Stars lost Miro Heiskanen and it sounds like they will now keep John Klingberg to try and make the playoffs again this season instead of dealing the pending UFA.

That takes two top pairing defenders off the market and doesn’t leave many available. There were no trades involving defenders made to set the market until last night. The Colorado Avalanche gave up prospect Drew Helleson and a second round pick in 2023 for Anaheim Ducks defender Josh Manson.

This really raises the bar for the value the Canadiens can get on a Ben Chiarot trade. Not that Manson isn’t good, but he is definitely somewhere behind Chiarot on the ranking of NHL defencemen.

Helleson was one of the Avalanche’s top prospects. He was a second round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and he has played extremely well for Boston College for the past three seasons. The right shooting defender scored 25 points in 32 games this season and also represented the United States at the recent Olympic Games.

He is a really good prospect who could play a top four role for the Anaheim Ducks for a long time.

The Ducks need a replacement on the right side of their defence with the departure of Manson. The 30 year old son of former Canadiens defender Dave Manson, is a low scoring, rugged defenceman who plays a second pairing role at even strength for the Ducks while playing a big role on their penalty kill.

Manson has four goals and nine points in 45 games this season after putting up seven points in 23 games last season and nine points in 50 games two seasons ago. He isn’t used at all on the power play, and is actually 5th on the Ducks in average ice time among defenders. He is fourth at even strength, ahead of Kevin Shattenkirk, but plays less than 20 minutes per game.

Manson does play a physical, nasty style that plays well in the postseason, but he doesn’t have a ton of playoff experience, aside from one run in 2017 that saw the Ducks go to the third round.

Meanwhile, Ben Chiarot is averaging 23:33 per night for the Canadiens and is looking even better recently. He plays some power play time, but isn’t a specialist there by any means, and is a huge part of the team’s penalty killing unit.

Chiarot adds more offence than Manson, sitting at 18 points which is double Manson’s production this season. He also, most importantly to GMs around the league, has very recent playoff success on his resume.

Chiarot played on the Canadiens top pairing in last year’s playoffs and was a key reason that Auston Matthew, Mitch Marner, Kyle Connor, Nik Ehlers, Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone all struggled to score in their series against the Canadiens.

Chiarot’s contract is even slightly lower than Manson’s, making it easier to acquire him. His cap hit of $3.5 million is $600,000 less than Manson’s $4.1 million deal. The Ducks retained half of Manson’s deal and if the Canadiens do the same with Chiarot they are trading a potential top pairing defenceman with a $1.75 million cap hit.

So, Manson was traded for a second round pick and a really good prospect.

Chiarot is better offensively than Manson, trusted more at even strength and on the penalty kill but his current team because he is better defensively. He has more recent playoff success and he comes a little cheaper.

There is no question Chiarot should have more value on the trade market than Manson.

If someone wants to have Chiarot on their team in the upcoming playoffs, they better be prepared to trade a first round pick and a really good prospect in order to get him.

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