Georges Laraque sees the Habs trading Lane Hutson for a top-6 forward

Over the past few months, there’s been a lot of talk about the Habs looking for another big forward to play on their top-6 forward line of the future. The name of Trevor Zegras has been bandied about, but in any case, it seems clear that Montreal is still missing a big (young) offensive element.

Joshua Roy may play good hockey, and Alex Newhook isn’t a bad player, but in an ideal world, Kent Hughes would find a way to pick up another player of the calibre of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovský and Kirby Dach.

On the other hand, in order to receive, you have to give… and yesterday, Georges Laraque and Stéphane Gonzalez engaged in a rather interesting exercise: they looked at the Habs’ four big blue-line prospects (David Reinbacher, Lane Hutson, Logan Mailloux and Kaiden Guhle) and asked themselves which of the four is most likely to be sacrificed in order to get the top-6 forward in question.

While Laraque explains his choice by the diminutive #20’s puny size, Gonzo mentions that Mailloux isn’t necessarily the organization’s choice and that they could capitalize on his big season in the AHL to maximize his value.

This is something the Habs couldn’t do with Reinbacher, for example, who had a “decent” season with a terrible team in Switzerland. At the very least, he should be arriving in North America soon.

Basically, both hosts are right to note that the Habs won’t get a quality top-6 forward by giving away ordinary players. It’s not with a package that includes Jordan Harris and Sean Farrell, for example, that the club will go looking for another top-notch striker.

Once again, you have to give to get. Remember the Romanov deal: it shocked everyone, but it was the price to pay for a young player of Dach’s calibre.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Habs had to sacrifice one of the four defensemen mentioned (and I might add Arber Xhekaj among the possibilities), and of the lot, I think Mailloux is the most realistic to trade.

If you put yourself in the DG’s shoes… which one would you trade?

In gusto

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