The Montreal Canadiens made two minor moves in before the bell rang and the NHL trade window closed for this season. On Sunday, defenceman Jon Merrill was acquired from the Detroit Red Wings for a fifth-round draft choice and prospect Hayden Verbeek. Merrill was then followed into quarantine by fellow defenceman Erik Gustafsson from the Philadelphia Flyers. The return in that trade was nothing more than a seventh-round pick in 2022, while the Flyers retained half of Gustafsson’s $3 million cap hit.
In a special episode of Habsent Minded, recorded just about an hour after the trade deadline, Jared Book, Patrik Bexell and Anton Rasegård reconvene to talk about both of these moves, and what impact they can make for the near future.
The trio also touch upon Victor Mete’s sudden departure to the Ottawa Senators, where he certainly will get more opportunities in the lineup than he has for the Canadiens this season. Since Ottawa ended up trading away three veteran defencemen before the window closed in an attempt to get younger on the back-end, they jumped at the chance to get a 22-year old with 150 NHL-games.
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