Another major summer trade brewing between Habs and Kings?

The Montreal Canadiens’ season is basically over and while fans awaits to see which name they’ll get to add to the franchise at the upcoming draft, another one is going through the rumour mill. Brendan Gallagher’s…

The chatter is growing more and more everyday and now has some pundits and reporters wondering if the Los Angeles Kings would be a good fit for the winger.

Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette wonders if the Kings have interest in Gallagher. And there is a connection there besides the fact that former Canadiens forward Phillip Danault was moved to LA this past summer: former Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin, who signed Gallagher to his current contract, is a senior advisor to Kings GM Rob Blake. On top of that, Gallagher and Danault were line mates and the latter has been on fire with his new team.

With the Canadiens facing a rebuild and GM Kent Hughes hoping to shred the remaining five years of the winger’s six-year, $39-million contract, a trade could come up between the two teams. Cowen points out that the Kings will up some cap space with 37-year-old winger Dustin Brown’s contract coming off the books following this season. Per CapFriendly, Los Angeles will have projected $22 million in cap space, more than enough room to take on Gallagher’s $6.5-million annual cap hit.

We can see how Gallagher would fit with the Kings while getting a shot at a championship there. They’ve gone through the rebuild and are set to take part in the postseason for the first time since 2018.

But the Kings are likely to be busy this summer: they will look to add at least one top-four defenseman capable of taking some of the burden from star blue liner Drew Doughty. They were linked to the Dallas Stars’ John Klingberg and the Arizona Coyotes’ Jakob Chychrun prior to last month’s trade deadline. It remains to be seen if they will focus on a trade or a free agent to boost their back end first.