Here are the 3 Montreal Canadiens players that most fans want to trade

PUBLICATION

Jeff Drouin
August 19, 2022 (9:38 PM)

SHARE THIS STORY

With the recent acquisition of Sean Monahan, it's safe to say that Kent Hughes has had a busy first summer as the Habs' GM.

If we do a quick summary, he traded defensemen Shea Weber, Jeff Petry and Alexander Romanov as well as forward Ryan Poehling. For all these departures, we must add the arrival of Evgeny Dadonov, Michael Matheson, Kirby Dach and of course Sean Monahan. Of course, we must add the selection of Juraj Slafkovsky at the very first rank of the last draft.

Despite all these changes, the team is still stuck with the salary cap and some players could be traded before the start of the next season. But of course, the news about Carey Price has changed the game as he has just been placed on the long-term injured list, which now gives Kent Hughes more room to maneuver.

But for some fans of the team, some players should leave the Habs before the season starts since they haven't brought much to the organization during the 2021-2022 season and on this subject, Cimon Asselin, from Habsolumentfan.com, has compiled a list of the three players that Habs fans want to see leave Montreal as soon as possible.

The three chosen are forwards Mike Hoffman, Jonathan Drouin and Joel Armia. In the case of Hoffman, his harvest of only 15 goals in 67 games is far from having met the expectations but it is especially his work ethic that irritated the fans, he is not the most valiant player to have worn the tricolore uniform. And let's not forget his salary of $4.5 million per year for two more seasons.

As for Armia, let's just say that the 2012-2022 season was a catastrophic one for him, as he only collected 14 points, including six goals in 60 games. He had a great series in 2021 though when he had five goals, only one less than his production last season, but he seemed to look lost on the ice and one wonders where he really belongs on the team.

As for Drouin, he has been unlucky in the last three games, getting hurt more often than not. But you have to admit that since his arrival with the Habs in 2017, the comparisons with Mikhail Sergachev, the one Marc Bergevin sacrificed to make his acquisition, have hurt him immensely and you have to wonder if a change of scenery would do him the world of good.

If we add up the salary of these three players for the next season, we arrive at 13.4 million dollars, which starts to cost a lot of money. On the other hand, with Martin St-Louis in charge at the start of the season, these three players could regain their scoring touch, especially in the case of Drouin and Hoffman, and as we know, Habs fans sometimes have short memories.