Teams wary of two trade baits ahead of the deadline…

The Montreal Canadiens got interesting returns last season when moving players like Tyler Toffoli, Brett Kulak and Ben Chiarot ahead of the deadline. However, the plan appears to be much different ahead of March 3rd, seeing that the Habs are facing a vastly different set of circumstances this year. And according to Pierre LeBrun, who shed some light on the situation on last night’s Insider Trading on TSN, teams aren’t calling as much as expected.

“It’s just shaping up differently so far. I mean, you think about there are two most marketable trade pieces, if you will – Joel Edmundson and Sean Monahan – they’ve both been out and Monahan in particular, who was playing so well before he got injured, he’s had a delayed return, they hope will finally be back sometime next week. But teams are nervous about how long he’s been out. Same with Joel Edmundson - his recurring back issues. There was some interest in him, but now teams are wary about that.”

It’s completely understandable that contenders look to add healthy pieces to their respective roster ahead of the postseason, and maybe the Canadiens cannot guarantee that Monahan and Edmundson will be ready to go. However, LeBrun points to other trade targets available in Montreal that could convince some teams in need of forward depth to give GM Kent Hughes a call.

“There’s Evgenii Dadonov and Jonathan Drouin. The reality is there still isn’t a lot of interest, if at all, in Jonathan Drouin. Dadonov is a little different – starting to hear some teams maybe say, ‘Hey, if we don’t get the top players on our list, maybe we’ll come back and call you closer to [the trade deadline].’ Dadonov has played a lot better of late.”

Let’s see how busy Hughes gets ahead of March 3rd to get his hands on interesting picks and prospects to continue the retooling in Montreal.

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