Montreal Canadiens: Three Questions Kent Hughes Needs to Answer Before Trade Deadline

Can Hughes get a return for all of his pending UFAs?

The Canadiens current sit 32nd in the NHL standings on trade deadline day. Their chances of reaching the postseason dropped to 0% very long ago. Clearly the team is a seller and will be looking to collect more future assets in the form of draft picks and prospects that could help in a few years time.

The most obvious players to trade away are players that will be unrestricted free agents at the end of the season. There really is no need to hang on to a player who will leave as a free agent in a couple of months anyway. Why would a team that is guaranteed to miss the playoffs need a pending UFA on its roster for its final 20 games?

Ben Chiarot was a pending UFA and he was dealt to the Panthers for an impressive package of picks and prospects.

None of the Habs others upcoming UFAs will garner the same interest on the trade market, but that isn’t the point. A seller may as well deal away all of its pending UFAs and get whatever they can in return.

Something, anything, is better than nothing at all which is what they will lose these players for in July.

So, how many of them can Hughes trade today? It is a bit surprising that he hasn’t moved any other than Chiarot so far. There are six pending UFAs on the roster this morning and it will be difficult for a single general manager to make that many deals in one day.

Brett Kulak likely has the most value of all of these players. With Travis Dermott and Travis Hamonic traded for third round picks yesterday you would have to think Hughes is getting offered at least that much for Kulak. If so, he has to pull the trigger.

Chris Wideman is an offensive defenceman with 17 points in 49 games this season. The Canadiens gave up a 7th round pick for Erik Gustafsson last season who was scoring at the same rate. If anyone offers the same for Wideman today, the Canadiens may as well take it. They have drafted Cayden Primeau, Rafael Harvey-PInard, Jake Evans and Brett Stapley in the 7th round in the past few years, so why not add another late pick instead of losing the player for nothing?

Mathieu Perreault recently passed through waivers so his value isn’t high. Oddly though, sometimes having passed through waivers already adds to a players value. Now, a team can acquire him and send him down to the AHL for some added depth. No one is going to make a big offer, but a 6th or 7th round pick might be offered up and there is no reason to say no.

Same with Laurent Dauphin. He has played fine this season when called up but isn’t likely to stick around long term at the NHL level. If an offer, any offer, comes along, the Canadiens should take it.

Tyler Pitlick hasn’t played a game for the Canadiens yet, but he was traded for a 4th round pick before the season began. Someone may offer a late pick and again, anything is better than nothing at this point.

The only other soon-to-be UFA on the roster is Andrew Hammond. I can’t see anyone making an offer for him just because the goaltending market isn’t a robust one, so he may not go anywhere, but if any offer at all comes along, the Canadiens need to accept.

I wouldn’t expect any big trades involving these players today, but that is six possibly future draft picks that the Canadiens could add. There is really no reason to keep these players, but how many will Hughes be able to move today is a big question he needs to answer.