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.
3. Shed Cap For Next Season
The Canadiens are slowly building a much better roster each year. A lot of this will come with natural growth from the team's younger players who will get better with age and experience in the league.
But, to take a quicker jump up the standings, the Canadiens could look to add a big piece via free agency or trade this offseason. In order to do that, they need the cap space to sign a star free agent, or bring in a highly paid skilled forward that will help the team have more than one scoring line.
That would be a lot easier to do if the team can clear out some of the cap space that is being eaten up by underperforming players next season. Even if they get little in return, finding a taker for Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak or Josh Anderson would go a long way toward making room for a player that can help the team get a lit better next season.
2. Finally End The Three Goalie Experiment
Another way to save a little cap space for next season, and make things a lot easier for the two young goalies who could be here for a long time, is to trade Jake Allen.
At this point, there can't be a huge market for him, but finding a way to finally end the three goalie system and let Sam Montembeault and Cayden Primeau run with the crease for the remainder of the season would be a huge benefit.
None of the three have dominated in their games, but both Montembeault and Primeau look much better than previous seasons and need as many reps in goal as possible.
The fact we are still talking about the three goalie system in March is crazy and the Canadiens need to find a way to finally end this today.
1. Get First Round Pick For David Savard
The Canadiens do not have a lot of trade pieces at the moment. With Monahan long gone, there are no pending free agents that are sure to be traded and get the team a solid return as well.
Tanner Pearson is a pending unrestricted free agent with Stanley Cup winning experience, but has just 11 points this season and earns $3.25 million against the salary cap. They could probably trade him, but he is not going to land a huge return in a trade.
There are other players who will garner some interest, but the one player that stands to get the Canadiens the biggest return is David Savard.
It has been a bit of an odd trade deadline for reading the market. Some of the trades that have been made had underwhelming returns that would suggest the Canadiens can not get a huge package for Savard. Noah Hanifin went for a first round pick and a third round pick that could become a second. He is much younger faster and more offensively inclined than Savard.
But then Ilya Lyubushkin went for a third round pick and Savard is definitely worth more than that. Sean Walker was traded for a first round pick but the Flyers also had to take on Ryan Johansen's contract in that deal which made the return better.
It makes it difficult to pin down exactly what the market is for Savard, or what he is worth. He is a vetearn right shooting defender who can kill penalties, block shots and help mentor young defenders and bring the best out of them.
Trading Savard for a first round pick would be huge for the rebuild. Heading into the 2024 NHL Draft with three picks in the first round would allow the Canadiens to trade one (or two) for a great young player that can step on the ice next season, or just load up on 18 year old talent and fill the prospect cupboards.
Getting a first round pick for Savard, moving on from Allen, and adding a good young forward for a young defenseman would make for a perfect trade deadline day.
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