Montreal Canadiens: Three Bold Habs Trades To Take Advantage Of Struggling Teams

Toronto Maple Leafs

Not often do the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs connect to make a trade. But it could make sense this season. The oddity of this deal if the two teams are quite close together in the standings right now, but one believes they are a Stanley Cup contender and one knows they are not really in playoff contention.

The Maple Leafs made a series of moves in the offseason to get bigger and tougher but they just look way worse defensively and are relying on their top four forwards more than ever for scoring.

Their general manager, Brad Treliving, showed in the offseason he is an old school hockey guy who loves players who play the game a certain way. That would be players who fight, hit, block shots, work hard and on and on.

Well, they are struggling defensively, love classic “hockey guys” and need have a huge problem on the blue like in John Klingberg who looks completely lost defensively on the ice.

If Treliving likes his hard working, shot blocking players, he would love to have David Savard on his team. This is the guy who traded first and second round picks for Travis Hamonic, kept bringing Matt Stone back to Calgary after giving up third and fifth round picks for him. Nikita Zadorov, Derek Forbort, and Dalton Prout.

Defensive defensemen who block shots, hit and maybe kill penalties are attractive to this general manager. Getting rid of Klingberg should be as well.

If the Canadiens dangle Savard out there to the Leafs and agree to take back Klingberg’s contract which is $4.15 million for just this season, the Maple Leafs would have to add something enormous to make the trade work.

That could be their first round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. Now, Savard is currently injured, but should be back in early December. That likely means this trade can’t happen immediately, but upon his return it could be something that works out well for both teams.