Montreal Canadiens Three Drastically Different Options With Newly Acquired First Round Draft Pick
The Montreal Canadiens were expected to trade Sean Monahan pretty much since the beginning of the season.
With the team expected to miss the playoffs and Monahan being a useful veteran who was on an expiring contract, it just seemed inevitbale he would be moved on to a contending team before the trade deadline.
The only questions were how soon would he be dealt, and what kind of a package could the Canadiens expect in return for the 29 year old?
Well, Monahan played well this season, scoring 13 goals and 35 points in 49 games. That was enough to warrant the Winnipeg Jets to offer a first round pick for Monahan and the Canadiens pulled the trigger during the All Star break to add another excellent asset to the organization that should help with the rebuilding process.
The Jets pick is obviously not going to be a top one in the first round. Right now they are the sixth best team in the NHL standings, which means the pick should be around 27th overall if the NHL Draft were to be held tonight. Of course, that can all change based on playoff success and how the team finishes the regular season which still has about 30 games to go for each team.
If the Jets make a run to the Western Conference Final, the pick will be among the final four in the first round. If they lose in the first two rounds it would be earlier, depending on whether they win their division or where they end up in the final standings.
The Jets are in a tight battle in the Central Division with the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche battling them for the top spot. The pick could realistically end up being anywhere from 20th to 32nd, but the real question is what are the Canadiens intentions with the pick?
Let's take a look at their three options.
Keep The Pick
The Canadiens most obvious choice is to just keep the pick and use it to add another solid young prospects to the organization. Even if the pick is somewhere around 30th overall there are still going to be some interesting options available for the Canadiens.
One of the first big trades of this rebuilding cycle was when the Canadiens sent Tyler Toffoli to the Calgary Flames for a package that included a first round pick. That pick was used to select Filip Mesar who is on a scoring tear in the Ontario Hockey League this season. The 19 year old winger from Slovakia has scored 16 goals and 37 points in 27 games for the Kitchener Rangers.
Cole Hutson is one play who stands out in that area, though the team likely doesn't need another top left defense prospect added to the system right now. Lane's little brother is projected to be a late first round pick and plays a similar game with high end skill and skating from the blue line.
Maxim Masse is a local product who is having a great season in the QMJHL and is the top prospect from the area this year. He has 23 goals and 42 points in 49 games for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and plays a heavy game along the boards and in front of the net. He is a scrappy winger with a wicked shot who can beat goalies from a distance and also scored plenty of goals from the tough areas around the blue paint.
Trade Pick For Struggling Young Player With High Potential
The Canadiens have made a couple of recent trades that have the potential to really push the rebuild forward in a hurry.
While injuries have kind of ruined it so far, Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook both look like they could be top six weapons for the Canadiens in the near future.
Dach was acquired for the 13th and 66th overall picks in the 2022 NHL Draft. Newhook was acquired a year later at the 2023 NHL Draft for the 31st and 37th overall picks. Both Dach and Newhook were former top picks, but kind of struggling to find their way at the NHL level. The Canadiens rolled the dice they could find their potential in a new market, and they have looked good in Montreal, though injuries have slowed their progress.
Dach had just 26 points in 70 games before arriving in Montreal and Newhook had 30 points in 82 games in the season before being acquired by the Canadiens.
Who could be their next target in a trade like this? Perhaps Alex Turcotte of the Los Angeles Kings, Kappo Kakko of the New York Rangers, Peyton Krebs of the Buffalo Sabres or Alexandre Holtz of the New Jersey Devils.
They are all young players who have not broken out at the NHL level yet but have incredibly high potential. These are exactly the types of players Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes has targeted since he arrived in Montreal and there are plenty of options out there this offseason to go after.
Now Hughes has the perfect trade chip to land this type of player and hope they can reach their potential with the Canadiens.
Package It With Left Defenseman For First Line Scorer
The Canadiens are eventually going to have to take a bigger risk and try to move the team forward with an impact addition. They can't stay in the slow rebuild forever and wait and hope the guys in the system will fill in all the holes in the lineup perfectly and make this team a playoff contender.
Sometimes a rebuilding team needs to put a package together to acquire a player that fits their needs perfectly.What the Canadiens obviously need is a top six winger, prefereably a first line winger that can score plenty of goals and produce at about a point per game pace.
The Canadiens could look to free agency this offseason to fill this role. Maybe they get lucky and Sam Reinhart or Steven Stamkos want to join the Canadiens, but that comes with some risk as Reinhart will require an enormous payday as a free agent, and Stamkos is nearing the end of his career.
On the trade market, you can find players that more accurately fit your needs. That would be someone younger than Stamkos and also cheaper than whatever contract Reinhart ends up with which won't be that far off from William Nylander's recent extension of eight years and $11.5 million.
Who would be out there that would fit that description? Maybe this new pick gets packaged with a player like Jordan Harris for Pavel Buchnevich of the St. Louis Blues. Or the pick and Arber Xhekaj get dealt for Travis Konecny of the Philadelphia Flyers. Or this pick and Jayden Struble go to the Anaheim Ducks for Trevor Zegras or to the Los Angeles Kings for Kevin Fiala.
Either way, there are definitely going to be options for the Canadiens to use this pick, and their plethora of left defensemen to add a scoring forward to the team.
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