Big trade between the Habs and Canucks 'makes a lot of sense.'

The Vancouver Canucks find themselves in the middle of a nightmare season and there is a growing sense, in spite of their recent 3 game winning streak, that something is going to have to give sooner rather than later.

Most believe that the shake up from Canucks general manager Patric Allvin and Canucks president Jim Rutherford will come either in the form of a coaching change or a trade, with a number of the Canucks players being linked to trade rumors in recent weeks. At the forefront of those rumors though has been Canucks former first round pick Brock Boeser, whose agents recently received permission to speak to other teams about a potential trade.

There's still no indication of where Boeser will be traded, if he even ends up traded before the National Hockey League's trade deadline, but recently Canucks insider Rick Dhaliwal shared his thoughts on a destination he believes makes sense. Dhaliwal linked Boeser to a potential trade with the Montreal Canadiens, citing a number of factors that made them make sense as a potential fit.

First and foremost among those factors was the inclusion of veteran forward Sean Monahan.

"This is me purely speculating, but Sean Monahan is exactly the kind of contract that the Canucks would find attractive in a Brock Boeser trade," said the Canucks insider. "one year left, $6.3 million, Monahan's having a decent season and he's a veteran centerman which would help if you move Horvat at the deadline."

According to Dhaliwal, the Canadiens have had their eyes on Boeser for several years dating as far back to the season played inside of the bubble during the pandemic.

"I've been told Montreal's interest in Boeser goes back to when Marc Bergevin was GM of the Habs," said Dhaliwal. "If you go back to the bubble year there was a big rumor that the Habs had made the Canucks a pretty decent offer. I was told it was centered around Alexander Romanov."

While Dhaliwal didn't link the talks to Boeser directly, he also mentioned that the Canadiens and the Canucks have talked very recently.

"Someone told me the Habs and the Canucks talked a couple of weeks ago," revealed Dhaliwal.

The Canucks would take on Monahan's cap hit of $6.375 million for the remainder of this season, but would rid themselves of Boeser's cap hit of $6.65 million for this season and 2 more beyond that in the process. Whether or not the Canadiens would be interested in making such a move in this flat cap era of the NHL however is another question entirely.

Monahan also has a modified no trade clause in the final 3 years of his deal, a 10 team no trade list, so he could also potentially block any deal between these two teams if the Canucks find themselves as one of the team's on that list.

Dhaliwal appears to believe there could be a fit between the two sides.

"The Monahan contract makes a lot of sense as a contract the Canucks could take back in a Boeser deal," concluded Dhaliwal.