Montreal Canadiens Started To Explore the Market When Losing Happened
Even though the Montreal Canadiens have two straight games, the organization is still exploring the trade market to add and improve their team. While the outside message was one thing, internally, the Canadiens management group wanted to play meaningful games in the spring.
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Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period was on TSN Radio on Monday and was asked if the Montreal Canadiens started looking on the trade market when Patrik Laine got hurt or when the team started losing and not looking good in the losing.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Host: “Do you think that this inquiry of forwards started happening the moment Patrik Laine went down, or when the losing was happening early in the season?”
Dave Pagnotta: “I think it was it’s more geared towards the second part. I think it’s more geared towards the losing and the manner in which they were losing. Marty (Martin St. Louis) sat out (Arber) Xhekaj guy for a little bit, which is part of his development period, talking to someone it’s because of this. You got to develop players in certain ways. Certain players get developed differently.
But you can’t always rely on one or two guys to kind of be the wrecking balls out there, because you also need them to be part of the the offense and part of the pace of play and things of that nature. So if you’re basically, if this team can find itself a mid-six power forward and 25 years old, that’s beautiful. That’s exactly what they love to add.
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But those kinds of pieces come with a price. So I think there’d be a willingness to pay that if you find that particular piece who can go out there and build a body around and get grimy and get greasy and have that jam with them throughout up and down the lineup that compliments the rest of the roster and the pace of play that’s out there, as long as that player can keep up.
So it’s a, I think it was more, I don’t think this was a scenario of them trying to potentially replace what Laine can bring. I think this is a complimentary piece that would work either alongside Dach and Laine eventually, or again, as I mentioned, somebody who, who may be interchangeable, that can stabilize that third line, whatever it ends up being.”