Canadiens Linked To Blues' Star In Trade Rumors
The Montreal Canadiens are mentioned in a lot of rumors already this offseason and they haven’t disappointed so far with the acquisition of Noah Dobson. While the team’s defense looks solid and likely won’t get any more upgrades this summer, the forward group still needs work.
According to rumors, the Canadiens are all over that. Elliotte Friedman said that there’s a lot of rumors with Montreal this offseason and it is one of the teams he wonders about for Jordan Kyrou of the St. Louis Blues.
Why Kyrou is in trade rumors is more of a mystery to me considering he’s going into year three of a $8.125 million AAV deal and he led the Blues with 36 goals and also had 70 points. The 27-year-old is a top-6 winger and is the highest paid player on the team along with Robert Thomas.
While his production is high and it would be a lot to replace, the Blues are looking to free up some cap space in order to take a run at certain free agents or players on the trade block. Kyrou’s cap hit would be the easiest of the large contracts to move other than Thomas and the Blues may be able to replace his production sooner than later with young players like Dylan Holloway, Jimmy Snuggerrud, Zack Bolduc, Jake Neighbours, Dalibor Dvorsky, Otto Stenberg, Nikita Alexandrov, and Justin Carbonneau.
Kyrou would also fetch a large price and the Canadiens still have the assets to make a move. I would think that a young defenseman, likely Loga Mailloux, would be involved in a trade. Montreal has their first and two second-round picks next year as well. This would help solidify the top-6 for the Canadiens for a long time as Patrik Laine is not the answer there despite extension talks.
The Canadiens are expected to make a splash, and even though it seemingly sets the Blues back to move Kyrou, they likely have other things up their sleeve to replace that scoring immediately after a playoff appearance and a competitive first round series.
