Looking at the makeup of their roster, it’s clear that the Montreal Canadiens have more young defencemen in their system than they know what to do with.
That problem could soon be solved, though. According to a recent report from David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, Canadiens GM Kent Hughes is willing to make a deal to acquire a forward in exchange for a d-man before the upcoming NHL draft.
“It’s no secret the Montreal Canadiens want to add a scorer this summer, and they plan to dangle some of their young defencemen as bait,” Pagnotta wrote in an article published Thursday. “Habs GM Kent Hughes isn’t afraid to pull the trigger on a deal at/around the NHL Draft, and that seems to be his target again this June.”
Acquiring Kirby Dach in the middle of the 2022 draft and fellow forward Alex Newhook one day before the 2023 draft, the Canadiens are no stranger to moves of the sort.
Coming off three seasons of rebuilding, Montreal has accumulated and developed a ton of talent on their backend in recent years and are well aware that they don’t have enough space to keep every blueliner under 25.
With that in mind, the Canadiens would theoretically be dealing away one of the following young players this summer:
- Kaiden Guhle
- Jayden Struble
- Arber Xhekaj
- Justin Barron
- Jordan Harris
- David Reinbacher
- Lane Hutson
- Logan Mailloux
- Mattias Norlinder
- William Trudeau
Obviously there are untouchables, which, if one had to speculate, would probably include NHL standouts like Guhle, Hutson, and maybe even Mailloux.
With a 28th-place finish in 2023-24, the Habs have the fifth-best odds of winning the draft lottery next month, with an 8.5% chance of landing the first overall pick in the draw.
They’ll head into the draft with a total of 12 separate picks.
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