Last minute announcement from the NHL and it will have a direct impact on Kent Hughes and the Canadiens

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Dan
February 28, 2023 (11:07)

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In the last few minutes, National Hockey League officials made a special announcement in advance of the trade deadline.

The NHL has just announced a tightening of its process for verifying trades involving injured players.

See what tipster Chris Johnston reports:

"The NHL issued a memo to teams this morning saying it will now "take a very close look" at trades where injured players are acquired with the intention of keeping them on the LTIR until the playoffs.

This could have an impact on the market for players like Gustav Nyquist, Sean Monahan (Montreal), Adam Henrique, etc.

While the NHL does not categorically prohibit such trades, it says it will investigate the transactions to see if they involve circumvention of the collective bargaining agreement."

If Sean Monahan is indeed injured for several more weeks, as Elliotte Friedman believes, then the NHL would be coming down hard on Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes, in particular, if he wants to trade Monahan.

If there were serious trade talks going on with another team like the Colorado Avalanche for Monahan, it could blow everything out of the water.

Frank Seravalli goes further:

"This could take Nyquist (possibly Monahan) and Henrique out of the game, unless they can return before the end of the season."

You can guess this is getting a huge reaction, especially hours after the Arizona Coyotes made the controversial acquisition of Shea Weber.

In short, this NHL release is not ideal for our Habs:

To be continued!