Montreal Canadiens Rumor: Surprising Habs Name On Sportsnet's Trade Candidates List

The Montreal Canadiens have already made one significant trade this season. Sean Monahan was sent to the Winnipeg Jets for a first round pick and a conditional third round pick that will arrive in Montreal if the Jets win the Stanley Cup this season.

We would expect them to continue selling ahead of the March 8 trade deadline which is now just under four weeks away. Some of the players seem like logical trade chips, such as Jake Allen, Tanner Pearson and David Savard.

There are no guarantees any of them are traded, but Allen would make a reliable backup for a contending team, Savard would add some defensive depth for a squad and Pearson is in the final year of his contract which means the Canadiens would move him if an offer came along.

The fact these three players are on the trade block was confirmed by a recent report from Sportsnet. They released a list of potential trade candidates ahead of the trade deadline and the expected Canadiens were among those on the list. Allen, Savard and Pearson were all mentioned on the list of 30 players who could be moved this season.

Also surprisingly on the list was Jordan Harris.

With the logjam on defense, perhaps this shouldn't be as shocking as it first seemed. The Canadiens already have a plethora of options that prefer the left side of the ice on the back end. Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj and Harris all shoot left and are good enough to be everyday NHL defensemen.

Lane Hutson will soon join that list and there are simply too many left shooters. You could logically suggest they move some of them to the right side but David Savard and Johnathan Kovacevic are over there with Logan Mailloux, Justin Barron and David Reinbacher coming soon as well.

It is quite the logjam and Sportsnet appears to believe it could cost Harris his spot soon. They even go so far as to suggest the Calgary Flames are a team to watch as they will be losing some veteran defenders and could use some young help on the back end.

Trading Harris could make sense as he probably isn't going to win a spot long term over Matheson, Guhle or Hutson which leaves him in a battle with Xhekaj just to even think of having a roster spot. Moving one of them now while they still have high trade value could work, and perhaps they could land a young forward prospect in return.

The Flames are not going to move their best young forwards like Connor Zary or Matt Coronato for Harris, but maybe a Cole Schwindt in a swap of teams trading from their positions of strength.

I think it would make more sense to dangle him to the Tampa Bay Lightning for the boatload of picks they were willing to give up for Tanner Jeannot, Branden Hagel and Barclay Goodrow recently. His low cap hit of $1.4 million for this season and next would make him quite attractive to any contender.

There is no rush to make a trade, but the Canadiens also can't carry all of these defenders at the same time either. If they want Hutson to play in the NHL, or even give another look to Justin Barron or have Logan Mailloux get a taste of life in the big leagues, they will have to trade someone.

Harris does seem like a logical trade candidate when you break it down, but it was surprising to see his name of Sportsnet's list of trade candidates.