Rumor: 3 teams “begging” the Canadiens for a trade.

The Montreal Canadiens are completely out of the playoff picture at this point and with major changes made to their management structure throughout the regular season the questions surrounding the team now are all about the future.

As a result the Canadiens are expected to be a significant player at the National Hockey League's trade deadline, not as a buyer but as a team selling off some of their key assets. During the most recent episode of the Daily Faceoff podcast, National Hockey League insider Frank Seravalli and his cohost Jason Gregor were asked who they felt the player most likely to be traded at the deadline was. Both men gave very different answers, but what was most interesting was how Seravalli characterized his prediction.

According to the NHL insider, there may very well be a bidding war over a somewhat unexpected player:

"The player that I believe is most in demand from the Montreal Canadiens is Artturi Lehkonen," said Seravalli on the podcast. "Teams see Artturi Lehkonen as this year's version of Blake Coleman. The scouting report on Artturi Lehkonen is he does just about everything in his game exceptionally well except finish, which is ironic because he is Finnish, and that's the guy that teams are really after to get."

"I know of at least 3 teams that are begging the Montreal Canadiens to try and get Artturi Lehkonen."

That would suggest that newly appointed Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes may have a pretty good chance of fetching a significant return in this trade, especially considering the fact that Lehkonen would not be a rental. The 26 year old Finnish forward is currently on a 1 year deal that expires at the end of the season, but he will be a restricted free agent at the end of that contract which means any team trading for him will have an excellent chance of retaining him in the offseason.

Gregor on the other hand suggested that he believes Canadiens defenseman Ben Chiarot is likely to be traded, which lines up with the rumors that have circulated over the last few weeks. Chiarot is a big physical defenseman and come playoff time those types of players are always in demand. Unlike Lehkonen however, Chiarot would be a rental player with his contract expiring at the end of the season and him becoming an unrestricted free agent at the end of his deal.