Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period and was on TSN Radio on Monday in Montreal. He was asked about the Montreal Canadiens and why they did not make as many moves at the deadline. Pagnotta stated the deals were not there, but he expects them to go big at the draft.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
NHL Rumors: Islanders, Panthers, Hurricanes, Avalanche, and Bruins
Host: “Dave, were the Canadiens close on anything?”
Dave Pagnotta: I don’t think so. Didn’t seem like the offers that were coming in and trickling in for (David) Savard and (Joel) Armia were obviously substantial, or else they would have done it. I don’t think (Christian) Dvorak generated much interest at all. The Canadiens could have retained one more guy from a salary perspective. But again, what’s the incentive? They waited out in turn, in terms of selling off guys. They waited out as either pay us the premium or we’re going to keep these guys going because we want to play meaningful hockey down the stretch.
They may not make it. They probably won’t, but they’re going to play competitive hockey going into April and the middle of April, and that’s kind of the goal from the get go to play meaningful, competitive hockey, to give the younger guys that that vibe, that experience, the taste, and you’re going to let Kent Hughes continue to cook in the off season.
NHL Rumors: Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Vancouver Canucks
He explored different possibilities in terms of hockey-type moves now. And I mean, (Dylan) Cozens, I don’t think they were that close there, he ends up in Ottawa, which I think is great. I think he’s going to do really well with the Senators. But he will, Kent Hughes will continue to look and build off of some of the discussions he had leading up to Friday’s deadline and carry that back into the summer and around the draft.
I fully expect the Habs to do some more type of deals around draft time in LA, not like last year, because last year (Patrik) Laine was much later on in the summer. But the previous two drafts, they got (Alex) Newhook. They got (Kirby) Dach, I would be 0% surprised if they try to pull off something again, maybe a little bit bigger, a little more impactful around draft time and in LA in June.”
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