Hockey Trade Rumors

It seems like we just finished with free agency and now we are fast approaching the trade deadline.

Last year at this time my stance was that Montreal was an average team at best fighting for their playoff lives. Down the stretch they didn’t get many bounces but even had they made the playoffs, were they good enough to do any damage? Now some will argue that if you get into the playoffs anything can happen, especially if you get on a role. I agree, however the Habs were and are a young team and will be in a much better position to take a run at the cup in a couple of years.

I know this sounds painfull to Hab fans, including myself, but I believe they have drafted well and that is the key for this team to be successful as it is quite apparent that free agents don’t want to play in Montreal. Not high profile ones anyway.

Last season Montreal dropped the ball by not moving Sheldon Souray at the trade deadline. Yes, he has a booming shot and is great on the power play. He also is a solid leader with character. But he also had a brutal plus/minus. You have to give up quality to get quality and we lost him for nothing. Montreal should have moved him at the deadline for a top draft pick or a quality young player and rolled the dice the rest of the way. We all knew that Souray was not going to resign with Montreal. We all also knew that he was not going to duplicate his offensive output of last year not to mention he has always had a history of injuries.

My question now is will they do the same with Michael Ryder and Cristobal Huet? I’m not sure what Ryder will fetch in a trade but he surely will not resign with the Canadiens. Huet definitely has value but I can understand holding onto him unless the right deal comes along.

This season the Habs screwed by keeping Carey Price up with the Canadiens past his allowable ten games. He should have been sent down before he played too many games and used up a year of eligibility. Judging by the number of games he stayed up this year and the fact that Cristobal Huet is an unrestricted free agent I’m assuming Price will be the number one goalie next year. If not why was he kept up for so long? And then why not trade Huet for the right price. There are plenty of teams in need of a number one goaltender and Huet could fetch a decent price.

Will the Habs make the playoffs this year? At this point I will say yes. Are they good enought to beat Ottawa, New Jersey, Detroit, San Jose or Anahein in a seven game series, I doubt it.

I say move one or both for a few more pieces to the puzzle. I believe they are on the right track and hope they continue to move in that direction. I also believe with a solid young core and some success they might just be able to lure that elusive superstar free agent.