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Deadline: CH will take a few weeks to decide on the strategy to adopt.
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The Canadiens are in a somewhat strange situation.

With the club’s recent successes, it is difficult to determine what the team’s plan will be as the NHL trade deadline approaches.

Will Kent Hughes want to take advantage of the value of some of his players to send them elsewhere, or would he prefer to keep everyone to make a push for the playoffs? The question would have seemed illogical to ask a month ago, but now…

Pierre LeBrun discussed this during a segment on TSN and mentioned that there are interesting names in Montreal for other teams in the National Hockey League.

He mentioned Jake Evans, Christian Dvorak, and Joel Armia. And the informant also noted that teams have already started calling about these three guys.

But LeBrun also said that it is too early to know what Kent Hughes is really thinking.

What we have to know is that the Canadiens want to give themselves a few weeks to decide on the strategy to adopt:

The deadline is in seven weeks (March 7), and by then, the Canadiens will play 19 games.

If they can win the majority of those games, I tend to believe that Hughes will be more relaxed at the deadline because his goal is to see the club continue to progress.

And it’s not by sending several guys elsewhere that this will happen.

But if the situation deteriorates by then, I primarily see two guys leaving if there is interest elsewhere in the NHL: Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia.

Jake Evans – in my opinion – should reach an agreement with the Canadiens on the terms of a new contract in the coming weeks because we can see how useful he is in Montreal. Kent Hughes will not let him go for peanuts, and even if Evans has a fantastic season, the chances of seeing another team offer (at least) a first-round pick for him are minimal.

And Hughes will not trade him unless he can get an excellent return for his services.

This all remains interesting because two months ago, we would never have had this conversation.

No one could have predicted that the Canadiens are the only NHL team to play for at least .800 since December 15 and that changes the expectations quite a bit at the moment.

It certainly changes the game.


In Brief

– Unsurprisingly, Tristan Jarry was not claimed on waivers.

– It’s not crazy.

Ping!

– Intriguing…

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