Last year, the Nashville Predators found themselves trapped in a salary-cap crunch that prevented them from pulling off a franchise-altering trade. This season, RG Media senior news editor Marco D’Amico says the Montreal Canadiens are in a prime position to avoid the same fate.
Could that lead them to target a two-time 40-goal scorer facing the potential of another rough season in northwestern New York?
On a recent episode of “The Starr & D’Amico Show,” D’Amico and co-host Shaun Starr discussed the likelihood of Montreal diving into the trade market for a midseason move. While debating whether a deal could happen before the league-wide roster freeze (Dec. 20–27), D’Amico pointed to a similar situation that unfolded last season — when chatter around the NHL began heating up around Thanksgiving about the possibility of the Buffalo Sabres trading young center Dylan Cozens.
“The Nashville Predators, prior to the trade freeze in December, were heavy, heavy on Dylan Cozens,” D’Amico said. “They thought he was available and were going to be able to do something, but they just didn’t have the salary-cap space to make it work.”
According to D’Amico, the Predators even tried to convince Buffalo to retain a portion of Cozens’ salary, but the deal ultimately fell apart. The Sabres later sent Cozens to Ottawa just before the trade deadline in a deal that brought Josh Norris to Buffalo.
“Well, the Canadiens are not going to be in that kind of situation this time around,” D’Amico said.
Because unlike Nashville a year ago, Montreal entered this season prepared to make in-season additions.
Canadiens in a Prime Position to Make a Significant Upgrade at Center
As detailed in a recent Heavy.com article, the Canadiens have set themselves up with a healthy amount of cap space and a deep pool of prospects — giving them a legitimate shot at making a significant upgrade before the freeze. The question, as always, becomes how much the team is willing to part with in making that upgrade.
“They’re rich with prospects, but do they want to spend, spend, spend, you know?” Starr asked. “Do they want to go into Royalmount and go into the Hublot store and drop 30K on a beautiful time piece or are they going to, you know, look for the Timex cuz it keeps on ticking?”
If the Canadiens are willing to shop in the more expensive aisle, perhaps their upgrade, similar to Ottawa’s, could come courtesy of Buffalo as well. As luck would have it, an injury to Norris in the team’s season opener has put a serious dent in the Sabres’ hopes of ending their 14-season playoff drought, and the co-hosts of the “32 Thoughts” podcast said with an 0-3-0 start and just two goals scored in those first three games, there could be some drastic actions taken in the near future.
“I think the Sabres don’t have a long runway for this,” Elliotte Friedman said.
“Because of what’s gone on around there the last number of years, the whole notion of, ‘It’s early, it’s early, give it time,’ there isn’t that same patience anymore,” Kyle Bukauskas agreed.
Buffalo’s Poor Start Could Open Possibility for Trade of Tage Thompson
Friedman said that lack of patience is felt by superstar center Tage Thompson as well. Now in his eighth season with the Sabres, Thompson has expressed his desire to see improvement in the team, and barring that, maybe Buffalo would consider flipping the soon-to-be 28-year-old for multiple assets.
“I do think that it gets into dangerous territory here for the Sabres quickly,” Friedman warned.
Montreal certainly has the type of assets to get Buffalo’s attention. A package of Kirby Dach, Joshua Roy, and David Reinbacher might do the trick.
“From the people that I’ve spoken to, everyone expects the Canadians to be aggressive in that front when a player becomes available that they like,” D’Amico said.
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