The Habs don’t see the start of the season as a deadline for improving their club

Dose
Crédit: MONTREAL, QUEBEC - JULY 08: Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Jeff Gorton of the Montreal Canadiens talks with his draft team during the 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Bell Centre on July 08, 2022 in Montreal, Quebec. (Photo by Vitor Munhoz/NHLI via Getty Images)

Although the off-season is drawing to a close and the Montreal Canadiens have yet to add a top-6 player, that doesn’t mean we have to wait until the trade deadline. We know that the majority of trades in the NHL are completed at the deadline or during the off-season, but when it comes to the Canadiens, that’s not entirely true.

Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton like to make trades during the season, precisely before the December trade freeze. The latest addition to our list is Alexandre Carrier, who was acquired on December 18, 2024, just before the famous trade freeze. And needless to say, it was quite an addition to solidify the defensive brigade. But there were also the acquisitions of Patrik Laine on August 19, 2024 and Sean Monahan on August 18, 2022. But as Jeff Gorton once mentioned to Marco D’Amico, the Canadiens don’t see the start of the season as the deadline for improving their club.

[content-ads]It should be pointed out that the additions of Laine and Monahan were types of transactions that will most likely not happen in the coming months: acquiring a contract to lighten another team’s load.

Right now, the Habs are nearly $6 million over the salary cap, which would mean they’re certainly not looking to add a big contract to relieve another club’s financial burden. Obviously, placing Carey Price on the long-term injured list would put the Habs back under the salary cap, but to give themselves more wiggle room, the Habs could certainly trade Price’s contract to a team close to the floor.

And if that were to happen, it would be very soon, as my colleague Mathis Therrien recently mentioned, at which point the Montreal club would look deeper into adding a second center.Let’s wait and see how the market evolves to find out what happens next in Montreal. Overtime] – A happy birthday to one of the greatest legends in the history of the Habs.

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