A defender from the Montreal Canadiens is reportedly about to leave, and a name has just been targeted
As the 2023-2024 NHL season is fast approaching, many fans are already preparing their pools with office colleagues and speculating on what kind of season the Canadiens will have.
But for Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton, the preparation is very different as the upcoming season will be a decisive one for the team's rebuilding process. Even though there have been some changes within the organization during the offseason, there will be a few available positions, but as reported by Habsolumentfan.com site, this situation might upset a few people in the locker room.
If the forward positions are practically sorted out, there should be some interesting battles on defense as a group of six defenders will fight for possibly four spots within the defensive brigade.
I believe everyone will agree that Michael Matheson, David Savard, and Kaiden Guhle are almost guaranteed a spot among the top four defenders, but afterwards, we should witness a nice battle between Arber Xhekaj, Jordan Harris, Johnathan Kovacevic, Justin Barron, Chris Wideman, and Gustav Lindström for the last four available spots.
Not to forget a certain Logan Mailloux who might shake things up if he ever had a thunderous camp and forced the higher-ups to start the season in Montreal.
But what is interesting in all this is that only Xhekaj, Harris, and Barron can be sent to the Laval Rocket without having to go through waivers.
As for the other three, the other 31 NHL teams will have the opportunity to claim them if the Canadiens ever decided to put them on waivers, and since the chances of seeing the three youngsters (Xhekaj, Harris, and Barron) start the season with the main team are very good, Kent Hughes will certainly have to make a decision that will not please everyone.
A defender will have to be sacrificed.
Since Lindstrom has just been acquired in exchange for Jeff Petry, and since Kovacevic turned out to be a nice surprise last year, one might bet an old two that Chris Wideman might be the one to be sacrificed by the organization.
More to follow.
| POLL | ||
Which one of these three defenders could be sacrificed by the CH before the start of the season? | ||
| Johnathan Kovacevic | 47 | 4.8 % |
| Chris Wideman | 837 | 84.6 % |
| Gustav Lindstrom | 65 | 6.6 % |
| Other | 40 | 4 % |
| List of polls | ||
