Four Steps To A Perfect Montreal Canadiens Trade Deadline Day

The Montreal Canadiens only have a few hours left to make deals before the NHL's trade deadline passes this afternoon.

They got an early start this season, moving their biggest trade chip long before the deadline arrived. Sean Monahan was sent to the Winnipeg Jets for a first round pick. That was a key piece of business that needed to be taken care of before the team ran out of time, or before the player was injured like last season.

With the Canadiens still rebuilding, but looking to emerge from the cellar in the near future, they need to take advantage of their position now and set themselves up for better days ahead.

How exactly can they best use this trade deadline to make the team more ready for playoff contention down the road? Let's look at the four steps they need to take to have a perfect trade deadline.

4. Trade Young Defense For Young Forward

The Canadiens have a plethora of young defenders on the team already and several more just waiting to make their name at the NHL level. Room will soon need to be made for Lane Hutson and David Reinbacher at least and possibly even Logan Mailloux and Juston Barron as well.

They are already stocked with left defenders and should use this trade deadline to flip one to fill a position of need elsewhere. We have seen a couple of these types of trades already this season with Jamie Drysdale being traded for Cutter Gauthier and Bowen Byram getting dealt for Casey Mittelstadt.

The Canadiens would not be moving a defender at quite that level, but could trade a player like Jordan Harris for a promising young forward like Ethan Gauthier or Alex Turcotte or Arthur Kaliyev. It would just shuffle their prospects around into better slots and take from a position of strength and possibly fill a huge void as a young scoring forward.