Could the Montreal Canadiens Be Eyeing a Controllable Young Asset?
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined TSN Radio on Monday and was asked what type of player the Montreal Canadiens are actually looking for as they explore the trade market.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
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Host: “I don’t know who this player is, that that they’re looking for, you know, like, all right, we want a player who is not going to cost us a piece of the future, and we want a player under a reasonable contract. And we don’t want a player who’s too young, but we don’t want a player who’s too old, like, Who is this guy?”
Pagnotta: “Yeah, well, that’s the thing like this. It’s in terms of coughing up young assets and, prospects and picks and things like that, they’re willing to do that. It’s just they’re not willing to do it for a 32-year-old or a 35-year-old who’s going to come in here for the rest of the season or for a couple years as a stop-gap for the kids. That’s not part of the plan.
If it’s a guy early mid-20s, that fits. Then I think there’s more of an appetite, and it’s a lot more palatable to go after that type of thing and give up necessary assets to get them. It’s kind of like what they did when they went after Kirby Dach or Alex Newhook.
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Similar type of pathway for them in terms of giving up quality assets in order to get a quality piece back. So if you’re looking at somebody who’s in the, you know, let’s say 24 to 26 range, that would be ideal, and, and fits then, yeah, they’ll give up the pieces.
But that’s kind of where, you know, that’s kind of where they’re at. It’s, again, not a situation where they want to bring in a guy who’s on the second half of 30, or is even in his early 30s, and cough up anything significant because it doesn’t fit the model and doesn’t make sense to them to add and then potentially take away from some of the younger guys that are trying to develop.”