The Montreal Canadiens had a successful season, making the playoffs, and they are looking to build on that.
The Canadiens need another centerman to play behind Nick Suzuki. Montreal has plenty of assets to acquire one in a trade, and Canadiens insider Vincent Duquette of TVA links Montreal to trading for New York Islanders star centerman Bo Horvat.
“Horvat would be the ideal center to lead the second line,” Duquette wrote. “He’s capable of scoring 30 goals per season and is responsible in all three zones. He also shoots from the left, another significant advantage for a team that already features several right-shot centers.”
Horvat has six years left on his eight-year, $68 million deal, so he would be able to be part of the Canadiens’ future. However, a knock on potentially acquiring him would be his age, given he’s 30 as Montreal has a young core.
“He just turned 30 this year and his $8.5 million-per-season deal has six more years remaining. The management, which doesn’t want to lock down a youngster, could be put off by his profile,” Duquette added.
However, if Montreal acquires Horvat, it would be a big boost to the Canadiens’ lineup. He would add some offense to the lineup as he recorded 28 goals and 29 assists for 57 points in 81 games.
Canadiens GM Looking to Improve Their Roster
Montreal snuck into the playoffs and was the youngest team to make the postseason.
After making the postseason, Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes says he will look to upgrade their roster.
“Experience, leadership and continuing to add to the team. There are certain things we can and can’t say today, because we don’t want to reveal our plan to the 31 other teams,” Hughes said at his year-end press conference. “That said, there’s no doubt we want to add more talent to our team, and we need to determine to what extent we want to add experience versus gain experience (with the players we have).”
Montreal has a good core of Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Lane Juston, among others, that the Habs can use to build on.
Canadiens Will Explore All Options in Offseason
Canadiens Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations, Jeff Gorton, says they will look to get better everywhere all season.
Gorton believes Montreal isn’t a finished product yet, so he’s eager to add more talent to the roster this season.
“As we’re building the team out, we’re trying to get better in all areas,” Gorton said at the press conference. “We’re not a finished product and there’s not one area of our team where we’re saying, “we’re done there.” So, we’ll continue to look at everything and try to build it out.
“Everyone’s talking about size and Washington and the way they played — we’re certainly aware of that. As we move forward, Kent and I have a lot of discussions about it, and ultimately, compete is the biggest thing: making sure that we have players that are comfortable in a playoff environment and able to play in all situations. There’s really nothing we won’t look at to improve the team,” Gorton added.
Montreal has nearly $9 million in cap space this offseason.
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