Now that the roster freeze has been lifted due to the Olympic break, teams around the league can start to make some moves ahead of the trade deadline on March 6th. The Montreal Canadiens certainly have the potential to be active, and general manager Kent Hughes has plenty of options over the next 10 days or so in terms of the direction he wants to take.
He could look to make a big splash, like maybe trading for Sergei Bobrovsky, but that is probably a long shot. The more likely scenario for what the Canadiens do is add to their blue line or add another Top 6 forward. If they go in the direction of the forward, one player that could be of interest is the Columbus Blue Jackets' forward Mason Marchment.
Montreal Canadiens were interested in Mason Marchment in the summer but might have a chance now to finally trade for him
Recently, Arpon Basu of The Athletic said on an episode of the Basu & Goldin podcast that the Canadiens were interested in Marchment when the Dallas Stars were looking to move him in the summer. Since that point, Marchment has been traded to the Seattle Kraken, but then the Kraken traded him to the Columbus Blue Jackets in December.
The recent flurry of trade activity is not necessarily because Marchment is a bad player; in fact, the opposite, as he is a player teams covet. He is a physical forward who has 514 hits in seven seasons but also can score, as he had 22 goals in each of the prior two seasons before this one and already has 13 this season.
The reason Marchment has been moved is that he is in the final year of his contract, and teams are calculating that if they can't re-sign him, they would want to get at least something in return.
As Basu notes on the podcast, the Blue Jackets may not be in a rush to make any trades as they have gotten right back into the playoff picture. They are only four points back of a Wild Card spot after going 9-1 before the Olympic break.
However, if the Blue Jackets stumble out of the Olympic break, then their view on the season could change. If that does happen, then Marchment is a logical player that they could make available, and if that is the case the Montreal Canadiens should absolutely try to finally get the player they missed out on this summer.