Paul Stastny with the Montreal Canadiens?

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Jeff Drouin
June 24, 2022 (1:13 PM)

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While all of our attention is (rightly) focused on the 2022 NHL Draft, which will take place in Montreal, there's also the opening day of the free agent market, which is fast approaching.

That will be on July 13th.

Kent Hughes has already announced that he wants to be active and wants to sign at least one impact free agent, so it will be interesting to watch.

This year, we have a very strong crop, including players like Johnny Gaudreau, Filip Forsberg, Claude Giroux, Evgeni Malkin and many others.

Another familiar name on the list of players who will be free as a bird is Paul Stastny.

Stastny, 36 years old and born in Quebec City, has 45 points (21 goals) in 71 games with the Winnipeg Jets this season.

He is coming off a one-season, $3.75 million contract and is reportedly interested in staying in Canada. Could he come back to Quebec, his home province? According to some, yes!

Notably, the very popular Twitter account NHL_Watcher went ahead with its predictions for the opening of the free agent market.

Here they are:

Malkin --> PIT
Giroux --> FLA
Kessel --> SEA
Letang --> PIT
MAF --> STL
Gaudreau --> NJ
Radulov --> VAN
Forsberg --> SEA
Leddy --> PHI
Palat --> TB
Domi --> TOR
Niederreiter --> BOS
Burakovsky --> WSH
Trocheck --> BOS
Kadri --> DET
Kuemper --> EDM
Deslauriers --> PHI
Klingberg --> SEA
Manson --> TOR
Rakell --> LA
Stastny --> MTL
Greiss --> PHI
Chiarot --> PHI
Vatrano --> TOR
Nichushkin --> DET
Eakin --> BOS
Holtby --> TOR
Paul --> PHI
DeSmith --> WSH
Copp --> FLA

Effectively, he sees Stastny signing in Montreal. If Kent Hughes ever manages to get a good return in exchange for Christian Dvorak, it could be interesting to sign a solid veteran like Stastny. (1 year / 2 million?)

He could come in and help guide young centers like Nick Suzuki, Jake Evans and potentially Shane Wright.

In my opinion, this signing makes sense if, and only if, Hughes manages to trade Christian Dvorak for one or more interesting elements.

Would you do it, then?

Credit: Alex Desrosiers, Rumeursdetransaction.com