HabsWorld.net --
Friday was the NHL’s trade deadline and with the Habs in a playoff spot, many wondered if they’d be making a trade. However, 3 PM ET came and went with Montreal staying on the sidelines.
With very limited cap space to work with having spent the bulk of the season in LTIR, the Canadiens basically needed to either match money or move out Patrik Laine’s contract. While there were some discussions on the latter front going back over the last couple of weeks, evidently nothing came to fruition which likely limited what else they could look to do.
That said, GM Kent Hughes noted during his post-deadline press conference that there were discussions on a trade of significance that went down to the wire. He added that he hopes to continue to work on that deal over the offseason so it wasn’t a move for a rental player. As we’ve seen from this management group, they tend to do their heavy lifting in the summer. Notably, he declined to comment on what position(s) the player(s) they were discussing.
On the rental front, Hughes said that they did pursue some moves that would have helped the team in the short term. Had they found a deal that made sense, they would have pulled the trigger, which suggests that they found the asking prices to be too high.
He also added that a couple of players had the Habs on their no-trade list which also could have impacted things. That said, it’s possible that had a deal for one of those players been reached, they could potentially waived that trade protection as several players across the NHL did today.
As a result of standing pat, there are no pending additions to the roster, beyond Laine whenever he’s cleared to return from injured reserve. At this point of the season, there are no limits on roster sizes so they won’t have to open up a spot when he’s cleared to return. Michael Hage could also be in the mix closer to the playoffs, depending on when his college campaign comes to an end.
It’s also worth mentioning that the cap on non-emergency recalls is now in effect. There is now a limit of five of those between now and the end of Laval’s regular season and playoffs and a maximum of four of those being in effect at any given time. There wasn’t anyone to be papered down this year so Montreal will have all five of those available to them when they’re needed.
In the meantime, they’ll have to hope that the team remains healthy for the stretch run to help justify the inaction. Beyond that, we’ll have to wait a while to see if the deal that just got missed out on gets pushed across the finish line over the summer.
