The Montreal Canadiens have a hard time winning games in regulation this season. As such, they are not expected to be a real contender for the postseason, even though they have played a little better than expected at times.
If they do fall well out of the playoff race in the next couple months, they will become sellers at the trade deadline. If they do end up in that situtation, a prominent hockey insider has a couple of their players featured prominently on his trade bait list.
Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff recently wrote about his top trade targets for this season and had Sean Monahan ranked second. He also had the combination of Jake Allen and Cayden Primeau ranked sixth. Having Monahan that high suggests a couple of things. One being he is very likely to be traded if the Canadiens continue to stagger alone and the second thing is he would likely command a hefty return.
Monahan is a steady veteran that plays the game thinking defense first, but also contributes quite a bit of offense as well. He has scored six goals and 13 points in 23 games this season and has 30 points in 48 games since joining the Canadiens last season. That puts him on pace for 51 points over a full 82 game schedule, which, combined with his faceoff ability and defensive presence makes him a valued trade commodity.
Any contending team would love to have a third line center that does what Monahan does on a nightly basis. He competes hard, wins battes, makes smart plays, gets the job done defensively and brings some offense to the table, as long as he has decent wingers.
We are still a long way from the actual trade deadline. In fact, it is just over three months away. There is a lot of hockey to be played before teams finalize their rosters for a playoff run.
However, if Monahan continues playing like he has and the Canadiens stay outside the playoff picture, we can expect Monahan to be one of the most valuable trade chips on the market late in the season.
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