No rush to move Dvorak
Eric Engels: Don’t see the rush for the Montreal Canadiens to trade forward Christian Dvorak.
He is a better player than the one that has played this season. They should continue to give him a chance to re-establish himself as opposed to selling when his value is low.
Lots of interest in Lehkonen but…
Pierre LeBrun: It’s feeling like 50-50 that the Montreal Canadiens trade pending RFA Artturi Lehkonen by the deadline.
There is real interest in Lehkonen.
Get the sense that the asking price starts with a first-round pick or a prospect that is equivalent to a first-round pick and another asset.
Marco D’Amico of Montreal Hockey Now: Darren Dreger was on TSN 690 and said that Montreal Canadiens forward Artturi Lehkonen is in play and that things are heating up.
Dreger tweeted that there is a lot of interest in Lehkonen. If re-signed, he could help the Canadiens for four to five years. So they are weighing that to what they could get for him.
Teams going for it look for players like Lehkonen and he may not be easy to replace. His trade value has never been higher.
“For sure there’s some players that are playing great hockey right now,” Hughes during yesterday’s press conference following the Ben Chiarot trade.”But if the question is whether or not we would sell high on another player who’s doing well? What we’ve learned over the last little while is that the room is strong. We obviously have to evaluate things moving forward, we have to consider the dynamic in the room.”
If the Canadiens got an offer based on the Blake Coleman trade in 2020 – a first-round pick and a top prospect, they might think on it.
Hughes also said they could be looking for more salary cap flexibility.
“The thing we’re looking at is our room under the Salary Cap and seeing if there’s any move to give us more flexibility”
Defenseman Jeff Petry could be moved, as well as Joel Armia ($3.4 million) or Christian Dvorak ($4.45 million).
Cap Friendly: Canadiens Petry has three years left on his contract at $6.25 million per. He has a 15-team no-trade list and is owed $20 million of the $25 million total after this season.