Canadiens Trade Rumors: Another Blockbuster Deal Coming in Montreal

Keep an eye on the Montreal Canadiens.

Not only are they as hot as anyone on the ice, sitting atop the Atlantic Division for the first time in a very long time, GM Kent Hughes is up to his old tricks off the ice. Hughes has been making a ton of calls recently to gauge who exactly is available, and that includes some big names as Hughes apparently won't be shy when it comes to potentially making another significant deal.

David Pagnotta spoke on a recent episode of Daily Faceoff Live, and opened up about what he's been hearing out of Montreal recently:

I think they’re gonna be a team that’s gonna be looking. They’re gonna be lurking. They’re gonna be making sure, like they usually do, and Kent Hughes is great at this. He wants to know what’s out there. He wants to know who’s available. He’s collecting all of his information. If they make another big splash, and they made a big one in the summer, they picked up Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders, something along those lines would not shock me for the Montreal Canadiens to be engaged in that level of conversation.

A lot of cap space for this group. They’ve got a lot of good young assets, plus still a pretty solid cupboard with respect to draft picks. We’ll see what opportunities present themselves, but you know we’ve touched on this in previous weeks of teams like Carolina, Utah, and Ottawa being teams willing to go big game hunting. I think the Montreal Canadiens are also in that boat. They’re not afraid to engage in those types of conversations. Whether it’s a centerman, which seems to be the primary with respect to the 2C role, Nick Suzuki’s locked in, obviously, on the top line. But if they can pull in, be it a 2C or another top-six caliber, likely for the second-line scoring winger, I wouldn’t be surprised if they go in that direction.

The Canadiens are 9-3-2 on the year, they have $6.5 million in cap space to work with, they have the deepest prospect pool in the league, and they own six picks in the first four rounds of the NHL draft next year. Hughes is in a position of power, and look for the Canadiens to pull off something big.

Artemi Panarin? Nazem Kadri? Brayden Schenn? Jordan Kyrou? Alex Tuch? Steven Stamkos? There's plenty of options out there, now it's up to Hughes on where he wants to spend his trade capital.

Photo credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images