The Montreal Canadiens might finally have their chance to make a blockbuster trade after the news that Nikita Kucherov won't be re-signing with the Tampa Bay Lightning and is requesting a trade. While Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois said that they have no interest in trading their star forward, it likely means more that he isn't going to be given away and will need a big trade offer to consider it.
That will be the challenge for Kent Hughes as he will need to make an offer that not only convinces BriseBois to consider trading Kucherov but also to be willing to trade him within the division. While it is uncommon for a team to trade the reigning Hart Trophy winner, it has happened before, back in 1988, when the Edmonton Oilers traded Wayne Gretzky to the LA Kings.
In that trade, the Kings sent Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, three first-round picks, and $15 million in cash to Edmonton for Wayne Gretzky, Mike Krushelnyski, and Marty McSorley. At the time, Carson was entering his third season and already had 186 points in his first two seasons, while Gelinas was the seventh overall pick in the NHL Draft a little over a month prior to the trade.
Montreal Canadiens have the pieces to build a similar trade package for Nikita Kucherov
The Montreal Canadiens have done an incredible job during their rebuild by drafting the right players and have one of the best prospect pipelines in the entire NHL. This is the type of opportunity that Kent Hughes can reap the benefits of making the right picks and adding arguably a Top 5 player in the NHL right now.
When looking at what a trade package might be, the first thing that has to be taken into account is creating enough cap space to add Kucherov and his contract. He has one year left on his current deal which has an AAV of $9.5 million.
For the Canadiens, their salary commitments is going to be less than that but are still bigger than what they have available in cap space. That is one of the reasons that Juraj Slafkvosky would likely have to be included in a trade.
Slafkovsky is just in his first year of a seven-year contract with an AAV of $7.5 million and is coming off his best season of his NHL career with 73 points. He would be the Jimmy Carson player of this trade, and while he would be a loss, Kucherov would represent an upgrade.
Next, the Canadiens would need to add a top prospect, and it will come down to two players. The Lightning probably will want Michael Hage, but the Canadiens need to do everything they can to not include him as he is the center of the future for that second line and could be in Montreal as early as this season after he wraps up his college season at Michigan.
If they are able to keep Hage out of the trade, then Alexander Zharovsky would be the prospect they should include. He is off to a great start in the KHL with 14 points in 21 games and is probably not far away from making the jump to the NHL.
The Canadiens would probably need to include another prospect, and from Kent Hughes perspective, he should let Tampa pick between David Reinbacher, Adam Engstrom, or Luke Mittelstadt. This would leave draft picks as the final piece, and by including Reinbacher, the Canadiens could probably get away with two first-round picks and a second-round pick.
In this scenario the final trade package would look like this:
There is no question that this would be a steep price to pay, but Nikita Kucherov is the type of player who would make the Montreal Canadiens unquestionably Stanley Cup contenders this season. It also might be enough to convince BriseBois to be willing to trade him within the division.
Kent Hughes has a reputation for being aggressive and relentless in trying to get trades done. It is certainly going to take that approach to make this trade happen, but if the Montreal Canadiens can pull it off, it would put them over the top.
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