The Canadiens spoke with the Leafs… even before the trade deadline.

Marc-Olivier Cook
The Canadiens spoke with the Leafs… even before the trade deadline.
Credit: YouTube

The Canadiens were in talks with the Leafs last Friday.

There has been a lot of talk about Matthew Knies in the last few hours… but Marco D'Amico (On the Market) wonders if the discussions also involved Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

After all, we know that the Habs were interested in the veteran defenseman.

But in his comments, Marco D'Amico also mentioned that the Habs and the Leafs had been in talks even before the NHL trade deadline.

This means that there have been several discussions between the two teams over the past few days. And that's interesting, given that it's quite rare to see this happen between two clubs in the same division.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Sur le marché (@surlemarchelnh)

That means, in a sense, that Kent Hughes wasn't afraid of anything in order to make a move.
He was active on his phone with the goal of improving his team… and, knowing that there would likely be players available on the market in Toronto, he spoke with Brad Treliving to come to some sort of agreement.

Which, in the end, never happened.

But it's still interesting when you take the time to think about it properly. We know that the Canadiens' GM was looking to add a quality forward to his team, but we also know that the idea of bringing in a defenseman who could stabilize the team's blue line was on the table.

And that's where the names of Knies and Ekman-Larsson come into the discussion. Both guys could have helped the Canadiens fill a certain need, and Kent Hughes didn't hesitate to call the Leafs' GM, even though we don't often see these two clubs making trades.
Hughes was ready to do whatever it took, so…


In a nutshell

Oh, really?

— It's going to be a blowout tonight. 5-1 CH!

— Too bad.

— News in MLB.

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!