Montreal Canadiens: Three Things To Look Forward To In 2023

2023 Trade Deadline

Every rebuilding team and team that is not in the playoff race will become sellers at the trade deadline. The 2022-23 Montreal Canadiens will no different. Unfortunately for them, a few of their pending free agents are not performing well at all.

Jonathan Drouin has zero goals and six points in 21 games played. Evgeni Dadonov has just two goals and eight points in 29 games played. Paul Byron is yet to play a game this season. At least Sean Monahan has 17 points in 25 games to build some trade value.

However, that doesn’t mean there will be no movement around Montreal as the trade deadline approaches. We saw the team trade away Tyler Toffoli and Artturi Lehkonen last season even though they were not pending unrestricted free agents. If the return is what Kent Hughes deems fair, he will pull the trigger to benefit the future of the franchise.

That means Sean Monahan, who is a pending UFA and was playing well, is likely to be dealt. But a lot of eyes will be on Joel Edmundson as well.

Edmundson has an additional year on his contract, but only at a cap hit of $3.5 million. That’s easy to digest for a team looking to add a second pairing shutdown defender who can play a lot of minutes on the penalty kill.

The Canadiens were able to land a 2023 1st round pick, as well as prospect Ty Smilanic from the Florida Panthers for Ben Chiarot last season. If a similar offer comes across for Edmundson, you can bet he will be on the way out of town as well.