General manager Kent Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens weren't able to make the big splash trade this offseason. However, it wasn't due to a lack of trying, and according to one NHL insider, the Canadiens' general manager hasn't slowed down in his pursuit since the season started.
Recently, David Pagnotta was on DFO Insider and said the Canadiens are pursuing pretty much every superstar that has a hint of being available.
"Montreal Canadiens from my understanding have been in or are in on pretty much every superstar/star that has been remotely discussed," Pagnotta said. "Kent Hughes has done a fantastic job in making sure that he knows every detail with respect to who is or will potentially be available."
It is not surprising to hear as the Canadiens are often mentioned to be one of the teams involved when trade rumors are discussed. They were heavily involved with the Columbus Blue Jackets in Kirill Marchenko prior to him being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Unfortunately, that was a situation where the Canadiens didn't have the pieces that interested the Blue Jackets.
Another player who has often been connected to the Canadiens is Dylan Larkin, but the holdup here is seemingly on the player's side. Pagnotta noted that if Larkin was willing to consider a trade to Montreal, that deal would be done "within hours."
Montreal Canadiens focus may not be at center
Another interesting point that Pagnotta made was that the Canadiens might not be looking for an upgrade at center. He mentions that Larkin is the only center that they seemingly have been pursuing and in fact it is wingers that have been more of an interest.
"I've talked to a lot of people around the league as most recently this morning and they've all indicated that Kent Hughes and his staff want to go after a really big fish. Now the interesting thing is, outside of Larkin, I don't know if that's a center position player because Marchenko and Knies, both wingers. They tried and kicked tires on [Jordan] Kyrou, they tried on Robert Thomas but center not being the primary objective from the sound of things."
There is no question that the Canadiens could use an upgrade on their second line at center. Alex Newhook has done a decent job replacing Oliver Kapanen to begin the season. He, alongside Josh Anderson and Chris Kreider, has seemingly started to click with that line accounting for two of the four goals against Washington.
However, the Canadiens probably don't want to make any type of move that might block the eventual path for Michael Hage and probably will be in Montreal before the end of the season. The question though, if it is a winger, what does the Canadiens Top 6 look like as they added Chris Kreider right before the start of the season, and still have Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Ivan Demidov (when he returns from injury).
For the Canadiens, that is probably a secondary question because if they are able to get a top superstar and what is needed to acquire him makes sense, they will get the deal done. After that, they can figure out what the lines might look like.
While Kent Hughes hasn't been able to get a deal done yet, it certainly doesn't appear that he is stopping. That relentless pursuit means that the way the roster looks today will not look the same by the time the trade deadline passes later this season.
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