The Montreal Canadiens remain in a playoff spot, and it appears that their draft strategy could be changing. Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports joined Steve Kouleas and Martin Biron on Sirius XM NHL Network last week, saying that they could use their unrestricted free agents as their own rentals, especially if they remain in the playoff mix.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
NHL Rumors: The Montreal Canadiens Continue to Look at Their Options
Steve Kouleas: “Well, the prospects, the kids, how does it change the plan at management when the team is plus three right now going into the middle of January, and we had already talked about (David) Savard, and (Joel) Armia and (Jake) Evans, going in the future, but now you can’t really move off when, in theory,, Columbus is plus Four, Ottawa’s plus four. And there’s Montreal and Boston. We have a race, and the Habs are in it now. So how does the plan change, Renaud?”
Renaud Lavoie: “As of right now, if you ask Kent Hughes, I’m pretty sure he’s gonna say the plan is not changing. Okay, one thing for sure, though it’s obvious that if the team is still playing like this, he’ll make some moves that are probably different than he expected to start the season, and one of the moves that he can make is not making any moves.
What I mean by that is a guy like David Savard, if you trade him before the deadline, what are you going to get in return? A third-round pick, a fourth-round pick. I mean, who cares? You have so many picks in the last three, four years. The picks are still there for next year and the year after that; you have, you can’t say to yourself, hey, instead of trying to get a rental, I have a rental player already on my team, in David Savard, I have a rental player on my team right now in Christian Dvorak.
NHL Rumors: Montreal Canadiens, and the Pittsburgh Penguins
He is a good example. And there are some players like that around the team that are UFA at the end of the season. Joel Armia is another one. I mean, are you really going to trade these three players for a third-round pick? No, you’re going to keep these players that are the kind of rentals for your team. The other big question here is Jake Evans.
And you look at Jake, he’s having a career year. I think let’s say if the Canadiens were close to a playoff spot, exactly at the same spot right now, in the same standing before the trading deadline, for Jake Evans to be traded if he doesn’t have an extension by then, you have to make sure that Kent Hughes is going to get something really, really big in return. So it starts, obviously, with the first round thing, and let’s see what’s next.
NHL Rumors: Will Jake Evans be on the Move from the Montreal Canadiens?
So is there any team who wants to pay that price? And I am going to be honest with you, Steve, I believe that Jake will sign an extension with the Canadiens before the trading deadline. Talks are ongoing. I think the Canadiens want him to be back. He wants to stay with the team. Now, it’s a question of adding, the right terms and that both teams will be satisfied.
But one thing for sure, there’ll be a lot of people disappointed if Jake Evans is traded before the deadline.
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