On Wednesday night, just a couple of days before the holiday trade freeze, the Montreal Canadiens traded defenceman Justin Barron to the Nashville Predators. In return they have received defenceman Alexandre Carrier.
Barron was initially acquired from the Colorado Avalanche in the 2022 trade that sent Artturi Lehkonen to the eventual Stanley Cup champion. Barron played 109 games with the Canadiens, being a frequent healthy scratch this season. He scored 13 goals and added 18 assists in that time, while running a -11 goal differential.
There were reports early in the season that the Canadiens were looking to add a top-four, right-shot defenceman to bolster the group of Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, and Lane Hutson, who all shoot left. In Carrier, Kent Hughes has added a right-shot blue-liner averaging just over 20 minutes per night who has a career plus/minus of +25, even while being a -14 on a shockingly poor Predators squad this season.
Montreal wanted more defensive ability on the back end, Nashville desperately needs an injection of offence, and each club feels it’s addressed its main issue with this move.