Montreal Canadiens Mock Trade Deadline: Jordan Harris To Bruins, Who Says No?

The Montreal Canadiens approach the trade deadline as sellers, and most sellers move out older players and especially those who are on expiring contracts.

That is exactly what the Canadiens did when they shipped out Sean Monahan for a first round pick. But not every trade has to follow this same formula.

The Canadiens also have to deal with the reality that they simply have too many defensemen on their roster. They had Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, David Savard, Arber Xhekaj and Johnathan Kovacevic playing last night. They also have Jayden Struble on the roster while Lane Hutson and David Reinbacher will soon be joining the club as well.

Add in Logan Mailloux and Justin Barron who are playing well with the Laval Rocket and you have 11 defensemen who will think they belong on the NHL roster to begin next season. That is obviously too many and most of those defenders are young, so the team will eventually have to trade a young defenseman even though that isn't what rebuilding teams typically do.

Deciding who the odd young man out will be is difficult, but Guhle and Hutson seem like long term locks on the left side and Struble has been incredible this season as well. Xhekaj brings a nasty, physical presence that no one else can and this all kind of leaves Harris as a potential trade candidate.

He is a smart, two-way defender who makes a lot of correct plays but rarely does he dazzle anyone with his blazing speed or ridiculous strength. At 23 years of age, there is a lot of time to continue developing and he appears that he will turn in to a reliable defensive player that can kill penalties and maybe face tough matchups on a nightly basis.

That still leaves him behind what Guhle and Hutson should bring and battling Struble and Xhekaj for positioning on the depth chart as they have similar qualities as well.

So, it is possible the Haverhill, Massachusetts native gets traded, If he does, you can bet general manager Kent Hughes trades him somewhere he would want to play and would have a role as well.

That could even mean he gets traded to the Boston Bruins. He grew up close to Boston and there should be some openings on the left side of their defense with Matt Grzelcyk and Derek Forbort becoming free agents after this season.

The Bruins don't have a ton of great prospects, and the Canadiens would definitely be looking for a forward to clear up the defensive logjam. One player that does stand out is John Farinacci who was a third round pick in 2019, a year after Harris was a third round pick.

Farinacci played three seasons at Harvard, and two of them with Canadiens prospect Sean Farrell. He had 20 points in 19 games in his final college season and has 12 goals and 31 points in 53 games in the AHL this season, his first as a pro.

Farinacci is a right shot center with decent size at six feet and 185 pounds and the Canadiens need more prospects who play center and less who play defense.

In a swap of Harris for Farinacci, who says no?