Will the Montreal Canadiens decide to trade Jake Evans? What could they get?
Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff: Montreal Canadiens forward Jake Evans is a pending UFA with a $1.7 million and will draw plenty of trade interest. Now, will the Canadiens want to move him?
He’d ideally be a fourth-line center on a contending team but has shown he can play on the third line, at center or on the wing.
Teams that might be interested in Evans include the Washington Capitals, Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames (before Thursday’s trade) and Columbus Blue Jackets.
It’s believed the Capitals offered the Canadiens a second-round pick at the draft.
A comparable trade could be the Seattle Kraken sending Alexander Wennberg with 50% retained to the New York Rangers for a 2024 second-round pick and a 2025 conditional fourth.
A first for Evans seems a bit much.
The Montreal Canadiens won’t deviate from their plan regardless of where they are in the standings
TSN: The injury to Montreal Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle doesn’t help their playoff push, but regardless of where they are in the standings, they won’t deviate from the plan according to Pierre LeBrun.
“They’re not going to go out and try to replace Guhle with a rental defenceman and pay the rental prices that you would to salvage the season that way.”
The Canadiens version of buying may be deciding on what pending UFAs they want to keep past the deadline – Jake Evans, Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak and Michael Pezzetta, and David Savard.
“The Canadiens have had discussion with teams,” said LeBrun. The kind of trade that they would make, even before the injury, would be the kind of trades you would do in June or July. For example, a bigger impact deal that can help this team beyond this season. That’s really where their focus is.