Canadiens: Three Teams That Will Be Interested In Sean Monahan

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The Montreal Canadiens have been playing better than expected so far in 2022-23. Of course, expectations were pretty much zero, but performing better than that isn’t much of a feat in itself.

But this team has been playing pretty solid hockey through the first quarter of the season. After 21 games, they have a record of 11-9-1 which has them just a few points outside of the playoff picture.

There is still a long way to go this season, and most would still predict this team has a tough month or two ahead of them that sees them drop down the standings. If they do, they will predictably become sellers at the trade deadline late in the season.

One player that would garner a lot of interest from other teams around the league is Sean Monahan. The Habs acquired him, with a first round pick, for nothing from the Calgary Flames in the offseason. But he is going to have tons of trade value if he keeps playing like he has in the first quarter of the schedule.

First of all, the reason the Flames had to give up so much to get someone to take on Monahan was his contract. He is in the final year of a deal that pays him $6.375 million. After two injury plagued seasons with low production, the Flames wanted to clear that cap space in order to sign Nazem Kadri.

The Canadiens sensed an opportunity and agreed to take on the entire final year of Monahan’s contract, at a huge price to the Flames. The 28 year old centre had two assists in yesterday’s win, and now has five goals and 14 points in 21 games.

Add in the fact he is a terrific faceoff guy, a tremendous teammate and in the final few months of his contract, and many teams are going to be calling on Monahan.

Which teams will be most likely to start looking to make a Monahan trade? Let’s take a look at the top three.

Apr 24, 2022; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports /

Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins are one of the hottest teams in hockey coming out of the gates. They are 18-3-0 after their first 21 games of the season and are sitting atop the NHL standings right now.

They really don’t have any holes in their lineup. Their top six line of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand is among the league’s best and they have an incredible supporting cast lead by David Krejci and Taylor Hall.

Their top defence pairing of Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy is also among the league’s best and they also boast Brandon Carlo on the back end. All of these players play in front of a terrific goaltending tandem of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.

So, what do they even need? Maybe a depth defender like every single contender wants, but they could also use a third line centre. Charlie Coyle is playing there and doing okay, but adding Monahan would either slide Coyle down to the fourth line and give them incredible depth, or Coyle could move back to the wing and play on a line with Monahan and Pavel Zacha to give the Bruins a great top nine that could go on a Stanley Cup run.

If Monahan continues playing the way he is now, the Bruins could be tempted to part with their upcoming 1st round pick for him.

Nov 3, 2022; Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN; Montreal Canadiens. Mandatory Credit: James Carey Lauder-USA TODAY Sports /

Winnipeg Jets

The Winnipeg Jets have solid depth down the middle of the ice, but teams need four good centres to make a deep run in the Western Conference. They already boast Mark Scheifele, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Adam Lowry, but could use Monahan to complete that quartet.

Monahan would surely add some faceoff prowess, and depth scoring to a team that is lacking in that department. They are also missing top nine forwards Nik Ehlers and Mason Appleton for a large chunk of the season, so they could be interested in making a deal sooner than later.

The Jets are off to a decent start with a 11-6-1 record and there seems to be a fairly distinct line between the haves and the have-nots in the Central Division so a clear path to the playoffs already exists. They just need to continue to feast on the Arizona Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks and stay ahead of the struggling Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators.

With Scheifele signed for just this season and next and Dubois eligible to be a UFA at the same time, the Jets will be motivated to load up for a run this season if they remain firmly in the mix as we head toward the trade deadline.

Jan 22, 2022; Denver, Colorado, USA; Montreal Canadiens. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports /

Colorado Avalanche

Sean Monahan landed in Montreal because he was being replaced by Nazem Kadri. Well, Kadri’s old team is going to be searching for help down the middle before the deadline and could they look to Monahan to replace Kadri in Denver?

The Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup last season, but lost Kadri and Andre Burakovsky to free agency. That has left a huge void in their forward group, especially down the middle where they are getting very little production.

Nathan MacKinnon is having another insanely productive season, but beyond him are JT Compher who has eight points in 18 games and Alex Newhook who has six points on the season. That is not a lot of scoring from centres.

Monahan could even be a second line centre on the Avalanche and would produce a lot of offence playing with players like Valeri Nichuskin and Gabe Landeskog when those two return from injury. It would surely be a huge upgrade on what the Avs have right now down the middle.

As the defending Stanley Cup champions, they don’t want to go into the postseason with a 0.4 points per game centre on their second line, which is what they have now.

Knowing they are looking to defend their championship, the Avs will not hesitate to trade a late first round pick for a potential second line centre. They gave up a second round pick and Justin Barron for Artturi Lehkonen last season and could be calling the Canadiens again very soon.

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