It’s no secret that the Montreal Canadiens are trying to trade Sean Monahan before this year’s NHL Trade Deadline. In fact, it’s implied that Monahan re-signed with the Habs under the promise that general manager Kent Hughes would do his best to send him to a contender this season. Monahan has done his utmost to make Hughes’ job easier, sitting fifth in team scoring with 31 points and perhaps more importantly, playing all 46 games so far this campaign. Now it’s time for Hughes to fulfill his side of the bargain. The question is, who might have the biggest need for the veteran centre, and what can they offer the Canadiens in return?
Colorado Avalanche
The Avalanche have been trying to find a second line centre since Nazem Kadri departed in off-season free agency two years ago. After a year-long experiment with Evan Rodrigues, Colorado has dabbled this year with Ryan Johansen and Ross Colton. Neither has really fit the role. Johansen, with only 18 points so far this year, is a long way off his peak. Meanwhile, Colton (23 points) is a solid third-line player but doesn’t have the offensive ceiling to be a legitimate second-liner on a Stanley Cup favourite. Barring a miraculous return from captain Gabriel Landeskog, the Avalanche’s only option is to look outside of the franchise for an answer. There’s only so many times one can run out Nathan MacKinnon for 30 minutes a night.
Monahan is no Kadri, but his 31 points on a struggling team shows that he’s a considerable offensive upgrade over Johansen. It’s also important to note that Colorado is not just looking for an upgrade to skate with the likes of Miles Wood and Logan O’Connor, they’re looking for someone with the hockey IQ to make the most out of the eventual returns of Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin. It’s a job description tailor-made for Monahan.
What can Montreal expect in return? Monahan’s stock is not quite as high as Lehkonen’s was in 2022, so a top prospect and second-round selection is probably not in the cards. Colorado’s prospect pipeline is pretty dry, so it’s probably unlikely that either Calum Ritchie or Mikhail Gulyayev would be available. Instead, the Canadiens — if they want to pursue a player in return — may have to settle for Oskar Olausson or Sean Behrens. Given that, it’s more likely that Hughes will target draft picks. A first-rounder is not out of the question, but the Habs may have to make do with multiple second- and third-rounders instead.
Carolina Hurricanes
If the Habs and Avalanche have a relationship based on mutual benefit, then the Canadiens and Hurricanes have one based on mutually assured destruction. There’s no need to go over the whole Sebastian Aho-Jesperi Kotkaniemi affair, but suffice it to say that neither Kotkaniemi nor Christian Dvorak have worked out exactly as planned for their respective clubs. Carolina is very much like Colorado: behind Aho, the Hurricanes have Jordan Staal, who has supplanted Kotkaniemi (18 points) despite only producing 14 points this season. This lack of secondary scoring threat is a particular problem for a Carolina team that has dominated territorially for multiple years, but can never get goals at critical junctures to put them over the hump.
The difference between Colorado and Carolina is that the former already has a Stanley Cup, while the latter is nervously watching their window tick away. The Hurricanes need to make a serious push, and they need to make it sooner rather than later. Compared to Max Domi and Shayne Gostisbehere — Carolina’s key deadline acquisition in the last two seasons, respectively — Monahan represents a much more well-rounded player who can actually address the club’s weaknesses.
What can the Canadiens get back? Alexander Nikishin, the absolute steal of the 2020 draft, is out of the question — not that the Habs necessarily needed another defender. Jack Drury is also likely not going anywhere, having cemented a spot as Carolina’s fourth-line centre this season. The obvious target is Bradly Nadeau, last year’s 30th overall selection. However, again, Carolina would be hard-pressed to part with a prospect filling a position of weakness who has only been in the system for a single year. The same applies to 2023 second-rounder Felix Unger Sörum, fresh off six points in seven games for Sweden at the World Juniors as an 18 year old. Ville Koivunen, 2021 second-rounder and currently second in team scoring for the Liiga’s Kärpät Oulu, might be a worthwhile alternative. Justin Robidas, son of assistant coach Stéphane and signed last May to an ELC by Carolina general manager Don Waddell, could also be a sweetener to any deal.
Toronto Maple Leafs
For all their talk about giving the “core four” support, Toronto is still very much reliant on Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and John Tavares for any form of success. To that end, the “core four” are far and away Toronto’s leaders in time-on-ice among forwards, with Tavares, the least of the quartet, playing nearly three minutes more than fifth-place Calle Järnkrok. When it comes to depth, the Leafs are relying on Domi and David Kämpf. The former’s defensive liabilities were readily abundant during his stint in Montreal, while the latter has eight points on the season.
To his credit, Domi has 23 points this season, only five off Monahan. However, nine of those points are secondary assists, compared to just six for Monahan. Domi is also heavily dependent on Järnkrok, slumping heavily when not paired with the Swede. Monahan’s addition would bring more versatility to a Toronto team that is lopsided both in terms of roster construction and attack-centricity.
The last time Montreal traded a centre to the Leafs at the trade deadline, they came away with two mid-tier prospects and a second-rounder — and then re-signed the centre during the off-season. While that was a certainly a coup, none of the prospects nor the centre really amounted to much for the Canadiens in the long term. Should the opportunity present itself, Hughes will be looking for more lasting impact this time around. The Leafs’ 2024 first-rounder is probably not in play, given that it’s the only pick that Toronto owns in the first two rounds until 2026. Matthew Knies isn’t going anywhere, Easton Cowan and Fraser Minten are likely untouchables, and Roni Hirvonen and Topi Niemelä don’t really move the needle for Montreal. The biggest obstacle to a deal with Toronto isn’t so much the Leafs’ need for Monahan, but rather the lack of anything that they could offer in return.
Boston Bruins
On paper, the Bruins centre corps scares no one. In fact, they’re so interchangeable that what is supposed to be a quartet has turned out to be a septet in practice: Charlie Coyle, Pavel Zacha, Morgan Geekie, Trent Frederic, Matthew Poitras, John Beecher, and Jesper Boqvist. Of course, the Bruins do nothing according to expectations. They were not supposed to contend after losing Patrice Bergeron to retirement this off-season, and yet they sit atop the Atlantic Division — the only team in the league yet to lose ten games.
They were also not supposed to lose to the Florida Panthers last year in the first round.
While they may profess to the contrary, it’s very likely that their unexpected ouster last season weighs heavily on how the Bruins will act this campaign. Boston’s septet down the middle have all proven competent, but none of them have truly excelled. The team has very much relied on its wingers — okay, they’ve relied on David Pastrňák, who not only leads the club in goals, but also has more primary assists than anyone else has goals — and its goaltenders. Can the Bruins’ unheralded centres hold up in the playoffs this year, against a steady diet of opposition stars?
Ask Matthew Tkachuk.
Monahan wouldn’t be the silver bullet cure for this dilemma, but he would represent veteran presence, having played roughly the same number of games as Poitras, Beecher, Boqvist, Frederic, and Geekie combined. He would also represent more offensive potency, as his 31 points would be second among that group to only Coyle.
What could the Habs get in return? Mason Lohrei is intriguing, but it would be very un-Bruins-like to trade anyone listed at 6’5″, 211 pounds. Fabian Lysell is perhaps more of a possibility, currently going at a near point-per-game clip in the AHL — but resident European Correspondent Patrik Bexell is not high on the Gothenburg native. Beyond that, the cupboards are a little bare, if you’ll pardon the pun. The Bruins do not have any selections within the first three rounds in 2024, and only first- and third-rounders in 2025. They have more to offer than Toronto, but it’s likely that someone else can outbid Boston.
Washington Capitals
The 2023-24 Capitals make no sense. Having missed the playoffs for the first time in forever last season and largely expected to take a further step back, they are firmly in the playoff hunt — although holding their position due in no small part to the heroics of the now injured Charlie Lindgren. Alex Ovechkin has eight goals (Joel Armia has seven), Nicklas Bäckström’s comeback attempt lasted all of eight games, and Evgeny Kuznetsov may have become one of the worst — or at the very least, one of the most overpaid — players in the league. Yet Washington marches on.
It’s entirely possible that Washington is a mirage, quietly slipping out of the playoff picture and becoming sellers at the trade deadline. It’s also entirely possible that Ovechkin remembers that he’s Alex Ovechkin, driving the Capitals forward and making them buyers for one last hurrah. If the latter comes to pass, then Washington will need to look beyond the wings and focus on the middle if they want to make their mark on the postseason.
Dylan Strome has been a welcome surprise since joining the Capitals, assuming the de facto role of first-line centre this season. Beyond that, with Kuznetsov’s slide into oblivion (14 points) and the potential end of Bäckström’s career, Washington has turned to 23-year-old Connor McMichael (15 points) and 33-year-old Nic Dowd (12 points). It goes without saying that Monahan would be an upgrade here on anyone not named Strome.
The question is how much Washington is willing to pay during a year where they were not expected to make the playoffs, let alone contend for the Cup. The Capitals have just started the process of rebuilding their prospect pipeline, adding Ivan Miroshnichenko in 2022 along with Andrew Cristall and crown jewel Ryan Leonard in 2023. Those three are likely unavailable — Leonard is as untouchable as they come, while Miroshnichenko’s desire to play with Ovechkin is well-known and Cristall was considered a steal at 40th overall.
That said, the Capitals do offer options for Montreal — some of whom even come with existing connections to the organization; 2022 second-rounder Ryan Chesley was Lane Hutson’s defensive partner at the most recent World Juniors, Russian-born Swede Alexander Suzdalev is flourishing with the Saskatoon Blades after a loan stint with HockeyAllsvenskan team Mora IK, and then there’s Hendrix Lapierre.
Lapierre’s professional career has not gotten off to the best of starts, but the 2020 first-rounder does have seven points this season in 25 games despite sporadic and erratic usage. He also has a 30-point AHL season under his belt. While he’s been supplanted by McMichael in the Capitals organization, Montreal can certainly offer more opportunities for the Gatineau native to try and reach his offensive ceiling. It’s a gamble worth thinking about.
Concluding remarks
This exercise largely looked at prospect forwards, given that it’s an area of need for the Canadiens. However, Hughes is by no means limited to only pursuing forwards. It’s entirely possible that the Canadiens general manager eschews this avenue of thought, instead thinking that a higher-ranked prospect in a position of strength (i.e. a defender) would have more value later than a lower-ranked prospect in a position of need. The Canadiens, after all, are in no rush to insert whatever return they receive directly into the lineup. Hughes could also leverage his surpluses, perhaps offering a defensive prospect to coax a fellow GM to part with a player that Monahan alone could not acquire.
When it comes to moving Monahan, Hughes’s task is not exceedingly difficult. There are a fair number of teams across the NHL with obvious gaps at the centre position, legitimate contenders who have been using patchwork solutions down the middle and relying on the strength of the rest of their lineup to compensate. At the same time, Hughes’s task is also far from exceedingly simple. None of the obvious fits for Monahan are in a position to offer Montreal the prices paid in the past. Some simply don’t have a dragon’s hoard of assets to offer, some are division rivals wary of strengthening the Canadiens, and some are both. Whatever Hughes manages to do, he should be judged based on this year’s more bearish market, rather than what he’s managed to accomplish in years prior.
