On Wednesday night, the Montreal Canadiens traded Justin Barron to the Nashville Predators in exchange for defender Alexandre Carrier.
Jared Book, Matt Drake, and (briefly) Patrik Bexell came together to discuss the trade and what it means for the Canadiens going forward.
The trade marks an end to Barron’s time with the team after he was the main piece of the Canadiens side of the trade that sent Artturi Lehkonen to the Colorado Avalanche. Thoughts on that trade are mixed in retrospect (and at the time) but it was refreshing to see Kent Hughes not try to force a key asset into the team’s future.
Barron’s offensive game is not as good as Lane Hutson’s or Mike Matheson’s, and his defensive game is behind Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj, and Jayden Struble. That left him in perpetual no-man’s land among the Canadiens’ young defenders, not to mention Logan Mailloux and Adam Engström in Laval and the injured David Reinbacher.
In Carrier, the Canadiens get a 28-year old signed for two seasons after this one. They get a right-handed defender who is known for his defence, and fits into the Canadiens current defence better. In a way, it’s almost like they traded for a younger David Savard, whose contract expires at the end of the season and surely would not have returned to the team. This move also can make it easier to potentially trade him at the deadline.
Carrier won’t be a instant difference maker on his own, but his skill set fits the needs of the Canadiens very well. He played against top competition this year in Nashville, and his ability to stop plays can allow the Canadiens to get the puck back quicker instead of watching the other team dismantle their defensive zone coverage.
To use Martin St-Louis’s analogy of the Canadiens throwing up over themselves in games this season, Carrier is like Pepto Bismol, and at 28, he fits in to the emerging veterans of the group like Jake Evans and Samuel Montembeault.
It makes the Canadiens better in the short and medium term while not sacrificing anything in the future. For Barron, it gives him a better opportunity to find a way to establish himself at the NHL level.
Listen to the full podcast below, and also if you haven’t heard, EOTP’s podcast is nominated for Best Hockey Podcast at the Sports Podcast Awards. You can vote for us here.
