Canadiens holding Chiarot out as trade talks heating up
Eric Engels: The Montreal Canadiens have made the decision to hold defenseman Ben Chiarot out of tonight’s game.
Pierre LeBrun: This is a smart decision by the Canadiens, Trade talks heated up in the past few days and the Canadiens don’t want to risk an injury.
Eric Engels: Hard to say where Chiarot will end up. He was real close to being included in the Tyler Toffoli trade to the Calgary Flames but that fell through.
The Flames are not out of it for Chiarot. Believe the St. Louis Blues are heavy in on it. Other teams to watch are the Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, Florida Panthers and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Eric Engels: The Maple Leafs should be the most interested in Chiarot but don’t think that he’s at the top of their list.
Stu Cowan: The Maple Leafs are an analytical team and Chiarots analytics aren’t great.
Andy Strickland: The St. Louis Blues are linked to Chiarot.
Scenario’s for the Avalanche after Landeskog and Girard injuries
Peter Baugh of The Athletic: (before the Manson acquisition) Colorado Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog had surgery yesterday and a timeline for his return isn’t known yet. It’s expected that he’ll be back before the end of the regular season. He carries a $7 million cap hit, with Sam Girard out four weeks and has a $5 million cap hit.
Scenario 1: Don’t use LTIR – The Avs have $291,860 (after the Manson trade) in projected trade deadline space.
Scenario 2: Use up to $12 million of LTIR cap space – If both Landeskog and Girard are out for the regular season, they could LTIR them and gain an extra $12 million and lots of flexibility. If either would return before the end of the regular season, they would need to be able to their cap in.
Scenario 3: Use $7 million of LTIR cap space – Just LTIR Landeskog and Girard’s timeline has him back in four weeks. Potential trade targets could be Claude Giroux, Andrew Copp, Phil Kessel, J.T. Miller, Calvin de Haan, Calle Jarnkrok and Justin Braun.
Scenario 4: Wait and see