A Winning Habit
Fansided

Montreal Canadiens: Three Potential Ben Chiarot Trades

By Ken MacMillan

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 31: Ben Chiarot with Jeff Petry (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 31: Ben Chiarot with Jeff Petry (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 4
Next
Dec 3, 2021; New York, New York, USA; Nils Lundkvist. Mandatory Credit: Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 3, 2021; New York, New York, USA; Nils Lundkvist. Mandatory Credit: Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports /

New York Rangers

The New York Rangers are sure to make the playoffs in a tough Metropolitan Division. It will take a deep team to get through a division that feature the Carolina Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals.

The Rangers are a pretty deep team but are relying heavily on their excellent goaltender Igor Shesterkin. The Russian goalie is having a ridiculous season and is the Hart Trophy favourite right now but he would certainly welcome a defensive blue liner like Chiarot on his team.

The Canadiens could use help in a lot of areas right now but specifically on the right side of the defence. Most of their top defence prospects (Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Jayden Struble, Mattias Norlinder) are all left shots. Logan Mailloux is the only really good right defenceman prospect.

Luckily, the Rangers have a couple of interesting, young right shot blue liners. At the top of that list would be Nils Lundkvist.

The Swedish defender was a late first round pick in 2018, going 28th overall. He is an offensive minded defender who had 32 points in 52 SHL games last season. 20 year old defencemen don’t often put up that kind of production in Sweden’s top league.

This season, Lundkvist played 25 games with the Rangers but was sent down to the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack to work on his all-around game. He has shown some offensive punch there, scoring 13 points in 22 games so far.

If the Canadiens plan on moving Petry, they could use an offensive minded, NHL-ready right shot defender to fill out the depth chart on right defence. He certainly isn’t ready to replace Petry… at least not yet, but he could be playing NHL minutes for the Habs next week.

Home/Editorials