HabsWorld.net -- 

While there is a roster moratorium in place, the Habs picked up an extra draft pick on Thursday.  With St. Louis signing Marco Scandella to a contract extension, Montreal receives their 2021 fourth-round pick.

Scandella received a four-year, $13.1 million extension from the Blues.  It’s a small drop from his current deal that pays $4 million a year but for someone who is more of a fourth or fifth defenseman at this point, securing that type of money and term is certainly a good move for him.

The deal GM Marc Bergevin made to get Scandella was certainly a good one for the Canadiens.  They dealt a 2020 fourth-round pick to get him and then flipped him to St. Louis for a 2020 second-rounder and now this 2021 fourth-rounder as well.  They paid a sizable chunk of cash in order to effectively buy the higher pick but that’s not a bad way to use some extra cap space.

While the Habs have a whopping 14 picks for the upcoming draft, they’re starting to accumulate a pretty large group of picks for 2021 as well.  They’re now up to 11 for that draft and considering the likelihood that they will trade out of some of their 2020 picks into future drafts (whichever one they wind up hosting), their haul for 2021 will likely only get bigger in the months to come.