Canadiens will look vastly different after trade deadline in early March
Forwards Jonathan Drouin, Sean Monahan and Evgenii Dadonov can all become unrestricted free agents this summer and are players Hughes will be looking to get something in return for.
March 3 is the date Canadiens fans should circle on their calendars — if they haven’t already.
Canadiens GM Kent Hughes definitely has it circled on his calendar since the NHL trade deadline is at 3 p.m. that day.
Expect the Canadiens to be a much different-looking team after the deadline with a number of veteran players gone in exchange for either draft picks or young prospects as Hughes continues to rebuild the team through a youth movement and player development.
Forwards Jonathan Drouin, Sean Monahan and Evgenii Dadonov can all become unrestricted free agents this summer and are players Hughes will be looking to get something in return for. The fact Drouin will be out until the all-star break in early February with an upper-body injury and Monahan is on the long-term injured reserve list with a lower-body injury won’t help Hughes.
Hughes noted that the Canadiens have seen how important Monahan is to the team since he was sidelined in early December. In the 20 games Monahan has missed, the Canadiens have a 7-12-1 record and have scored more than three goals in only four of those games. Monahan still ranks fifth in team scoring with 6-11-17 totals.
Hughes said it’s hard to answer what will happen with Monahan while he’s injured, but added the veteran forward is close to returning to the lineup. Monahan was only placed on long-term injured reserve on Tuesday, but it was retroactive to Dec. 6.
The GM said he sat down with Monahan after the fifth game this season and told him he wasn’t looking to trade him in the coming weeks and that he wanted him to feel part of the team and “jump in with both feet.” Hughes also told Monahan that three things could happen: the Canadiens could look to re-sign him, they could trade him before the deadline, or they could trade him and then look to re-sign him during the summer.
Defenceman Joel Edmundson and forward Josh Anderson are other players that could be on the move before the trade deadline.
“(Edmundson’s) name’s been out a lot,” Hughes said about trade speculation. “Josh’s name is out all the time it seems like — at least since I’ve been here. So I met with both of them just to say: ‘I’m watching some of the stuff on TV — it’s not necessarily accurate. I can’t really control speculation, so if you have questions or if you’re uptight about things come see me’ and just try to tell them what I can tell them without lying.”
Last season, Hughes dealt forward Tyler Toffoli to the Calgary Flames, defenceman Ben Chiarot to the Florida Panthers and forward Artturi Lehkonen to the Colorado Avalanche ahead of the trade deadline.
“We went through it last year and kind of came into a situation where certain players like Ben Chiarot, we had made it pretty clear we’re trading you,” Hughes said. “But it was still difficult for him because he never lived through that uncertainty. So we said: ‘The door’s open.’ There were other players where we said: ‘We may or we may not (trade you). We don’t have to do this, but if the situation presents itself where we think we’re advancing our objectives here we’ll do it and if not we won’t. But the door’s open.’”
One player Hughes isn’t interested in trading is goalie Samuel Montembeault. The 26-year-old has played the last five games since Jake Allen was sidelined with an upperbody injury, posting a 3-2 record with a .946 save percentage. Montembeault has improved his season record to 9-7-2 with a 3.05 goalsagainst average and a .912 save percentage.
“Oh, we want to keep him,” Hughes said. “He’s on a very good stretch right now. He’s still young for an NHL goalie.
“He still has a lot to experience as a goalie, but we see the potential so Sam definitely isn’t going anywhere.”
Hughes will have to re-sign Cole Caufield before the forward becomes a restricted free agent this summer. Caufield leads the Canadiens with 26 goals and has scored 48 goals in 82 games since Martin St. Louis took over as head coach last season.
Hughes said re-signing Caufield is a priority and that the Canadiens want to keep him long-term. The GM believes Caufield also wants to stay in Montreal long-term, but added the manner in how that happens remains to be determined through contract negotiations. Hughes said he won’t get into details of the contract negotiations because from his previous experience as a player agent he said that only leads to speculation and can also become a distraction to the player and the team. Hughes said he’d be happy to answer questions about the negotiation process after a deal is reached with Caufield.
Captain Nick Suzuki is the highest-paid player on the Canadiens roster with an annual salary-cap hit of $7.857 million on his eight-year, US$63million contract that kicked in this season. You have to think Caufield and his agent will be looking for something close to that — if not more — in a new deal.