A former Habs predicts the next three players to be traded by Kent Hughes and there are two surprises

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Jeff Drouin
February 27, 2022 (9:40 PM)

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With less than a month to go before the trade deadline in the NHL, there is ton of rumors. Recently, it was the turn of former Canadiens goaltending coach Stéphane Waite to speak out.

On 98.5 FM, on the Mario Langlois show, Waite tried to predict the next three players who will be traded by Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton

As you know, Tyler Toffoli was finally the first to leave, so who will be next? (because unfortunately there will be)

Waite made some pretty surprising predictions. He does not mention Ben Chiarot, not Artturi Lehkonen, not an overlooked player like Brett Kulak,... According to him, the next three players to leave the Montreal Canadiens are: Mike Hoffman, Jeff Petry and Jonathan Drouin.

It's quite a bold prediction, especially since these are players signed for a few more seasons, but it will be interesting to see if he will be right.

Do you believe Drouin and Hoffman will leave before Chiarot?

Waite added that he would like Gallagher to stay with the team going forward:

«Gally will be very hard to trade because of his contract. The other thing is that even if it's a contract that will be heavy in the next few years, he's still the kind of player on whom I would like to build around. A player with character, a real Canadians, a guy who is proud to be in Montreal, he will give everything and he will lead by example. It will take veterans with character."

As for Ben Chiarot, he had this to say:

«I didn't name Chiarot, even though in everyone's mind, he's gone. We have just freed up some money with the Toffoli swap and if we are able to trade Jeff Petry, that would give us a lot more money to try to sign him. It's going to take defenseman in Montreal, we can't let them all go. For me, Chiarot is a guy who plays hard, he sets an example for young people, he works hard and he has a certain leadership."

Do you agree with these comments by Stéphane Waite? Do you believe the next three to leave will be Hoffman, Drouin and Petry?

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