The Canadiens trade Luke Tuch to the Blue Jackets

Félix Forget
The Canadiens trade Luke Tuch to the Blue Jackets
Credit: David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

For the past few hours, there's been a lot of talk about Kirill Marchenko in Montreal. The Habs are looking into the matter, and the Blue Jackets—even though they don't want to trade him—are listening to offers.

And seeing Valeri Nichushkin arrive in Columbus has only added to the uncertainty surrounding the situation.

And just moments ago, the Canadiens completed a trade with the Jackets. Except it wasn't exactly the one everyone was expecting.

Instead, Montreal traded Luke Tuch to Columbus, while center Hunter McKown made the trip in the opposite direction.

Both players spent last season in the AHL and are restricted free agents this summer.

McKown, who was never drafted, is a center who will turn 24 at the start of next season and just recorded nine goals and 25 points in 63 AHL games. He's expected to spend the next year with the Rocket.

And it's not really any different for Luke Tuch, who seems to have plateaued as an AHL player.

Remember that Tuch, who recorded just nine goals and 14 points in 68 games in Laval last season, was selected in the second round of the 2020 draft. He's therefore a pick from the previous management… and he was clearly no longer part of the Habs' plans.

He's a big guy who can throw a punch… and that's pretty much it.

Unlike Tuch, McKown has played in the NHL, appearing in 12 games during the 2022–23 season. But what seems pretty clear is that the Habs and the Blue Jackets simply decided to make a trade to try to help their respective farm teams.

The most optimistic among us might say this suggests the lines of communication are open between Montreal and Columbus with an eye toward a much bigger trade, hehe.


Extension

Elsewhere in the NHL, Amadeus Lombardi was traded to the New Jersey Devils. In return, the Red Wings acquired a fourth-round draft pick in this weekend's draft.

A little depth for the Devils, then.

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