Dale Weise on the Trade Block

Weise believes the chances of him moving to another team between now and the NHL’s trade deadline are high.

For me to sit here and lie to you and say that I haven’t thought about or haven’t heard anything; that would be me lying, said Weise Sunday. There’s a human side to it where obviously this has been a dream come true — playing for the Montreal Canadiens — for me.

It was with the Canadiens — who Weise grew up cheering for as a youngster in Winnipeg.

This is where I want to be. I love Montreal. This is where I want to stay. But unfortunately the business side of it is I’m an unrestricted free agent and our team is on the outside looking in. It was with the Canadiens — who Weise grew up cheering for as a youngster in Winnipeg — that the 27-year-old got his first real chance to be the player he wanted to be.

Weise was originally miscast as a “goon” by coach John Tortorella, who tried to employ him as such in one year with the New York Rangers and one more with the Vancouver Canucks.

It was never something [Tortorella] explicitly said, Weise told the Montreal Gazette last November. It was more like, ‘You played four minutes tonight, but what did you really do out there?

In Montreal, Weise, his wife Lauren and his two young children couldn’t hide from his admirers behind the tinted windows of his SUV. Weise will never have another chance like the one that lies ahead of him. A team with far better playoff aspirations than the Canadiens have will surely come calling, offering him a chance to increase his payout on the open market in July.

In Vancouver, I could have worn my Dale Weise jersey around the block and no one would have recognized me, Weise said last season. This city [Montreal] has the greatest fans in the world, Weise said Sunday. It’s been amazing playing here. I’ve loved my time.

The pending unrestricted free agent is in the midst of a career year, having topped his previous best — 10 goals in the 2014-15 season — with 14 goals in 55 games. Contract talks, which were briefly held between his agent, Allain Roy, and Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin last summer, haven’t been followed up on at any point this season. And his team, which currently has a 5.8 per cent chance of making the playoffs, is in sell-mode.