Possible trade to come for the CH: 4 forwards could be involved in a transaction in the next few weeks
Now that the Habs training camp is starting in a few days, it's starting to smell more and more like hockey.
However, despite Carey Price being placed on the long-term injured list, Kent Hughes is still stuck with the salary cap and as Raphaël Doucet of Lapochebleue.com reports, it's quite possible that a Habs player will be sacrificed in the coming weeks.
And you have to look especially at the forwards because according to the Habs' roster, no less than 18 of them have the talent to start the season in Montreal.
While players like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky are virtually untouchable, others could be good candidates to be traded by the start of the season.
On the other hand, don't expect Kent Hughes to get the moon for certain forwards because of their precarious health and also their contract. This is the case for Mike Hoffman, Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia and Christian Dvorak, who still have a few years left on their contract with the Habs.
Hoffman and Dvorak's names have been bandied about a lot over the summer, while in Gallagher's case, he was just named assistant captain. So it would be quite surprising if he was traded, not to mention his contract weighing heavily in the balance. As for Armia, let's just say that his last season was pretty tough, so his value isn't very good right now.
And there are those who will be unrestricted free agents at the end of the season. In this category, we find Jonathan Drouin, Paul Byron as well as newcomers Evgeny Dadonov and Sean Monahan.
While early season trades are unlikely for Dadonov and Monahan, as they have just joined the team, Byron and Drouin could well be sacrificed by Habs management. In the case of Drouin, he could have some market value. On the other hand, it would be interesting to see what he can accomplish, healthy, with Martin St-Louis, so general manager Hughes absolutely better be patient with his Quebec forward.
That being said, Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton will still have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks and it wouldn't be surprising if one of the players mentioned in this article had to pack his bags sooner rather than later.
Especially since Kent Hughes himself has openly mentioned that he may want to trade a forward, with a considerable salary, between now and the beginning of the season, if the opportunity presents itself.
We'll be keeping a particular eye on Hoffman, Armia, Dvorak and Paul Byron, those are four forwards who could really change addresses, by the start of the season, to address some salary issues.
| POLL | ||
Who do you think would be most likely to leave the CH before the season starts? | ||
| Jonathan Drouin | 77 | 30.2 % |
| Christian Dvorak | 59 | 23.1 % |
| Mike Hoffman | 97 | 38 % |
| Joel Armia | 22 | 8.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
