SHOULD THE HABS LOOK AT DEMITRA?

Pavel Demitra is in the final year of his contract and (according to several reputable hockey trade rumor sites) is said to be unhappy under Jacques Lemaire.  <br>
Well, the Habs have been looking for a scoring second line centre for sevaral years now. The latest, Grabovski, has NHL speed and talent, but isn’t ready yet for the big show. Demitra, at 32 years of age, will be a good veteran centre whom is a proven goal scorer.

With the Habs, Ryder seems to be in a similar boat: puts up good offensive numbers but fell out of grace from head coach Carboneau.

Therefore, I would speculate the following trade scenario: Ryder-Grabovski-prospect (e.g. Corey Locke or Jaroslav Halak) and second round draft choice to the Wild for Demitra-P.M. Bouchard.

This would be a great trade for the Habs as Bouchard can easily replace Ryder on teh first line (not mentioning that he is french-canadian) and Demitra’s scoring ability and speed will fit right in with the Habs.

The trios would look something like this:
1. HIGGINS-KOIVU-BOUCHARD
2. KOSTITSYN-DEMITRA-KOVALEV
3. LATENDRESSE-PLEKANEC-SMOLINSKI
4. BEGIN-CHICHURA-DANDENAULT (or Kostopoulos)

What do you think?