Montreal Canadiens Fill Need with Acquisition of Alexandre Carrier

As Full Press Hockey has documented , the Canadiens have been looking to make a sense change to either add or subtract to the roster. However, vice President of Hockey Operations Jeff Gorton and General Manager Kent Hughes were going to strike when the time was right.

With a glaring need on the right side, the duo went to work and added a veteran defenseman to play with Lane Hutson, Arber Xhekaj, and the rest of the young defense corps.

As Marc D’Amico of RG Media reported the Canadiens wanted to add on the right side of their defense even with the pieces Montreal potentially could have at the trade deadline. Again the fit and trade had to make sense. This deal did swap a young defenseman for a young defenseman. Not to mention Carrier is controllable.

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Carrier has three years left on his deal, including $3.75 million a season this year. He just signed this deal in the summer, even though there had been talks about Carrier being moved at last year’s trade deadline. Not to mention rumors about him potentially testing the market.

Montreal gets a player with so much potential that it might have been underutilized by the Predators. Alexandre Carrier has 69 points (11 goals and 58 assists) in 245 regular season games with the Predators.

Meanwhile, the Canadiens can move out a player who has been unable to find his way. Remember, the Canadiens got Justin Barron in a package when they traded Artruri Lehkonen to the Colorado Avalanche.

The Canadiens hoped to find a young defenseman to grow with the team. Unfortunately, Kadien Ghule, Lane Hutson, Jayden Struble, and Arber Xhekaj have passed him by. Barron had just signed a two-year, $2.3 million contract with an AAV of $1.51 million.

The Canadiens got ahead of the game. However, as Full Press Hockey has also reported, the Canadiens have several players teams will be interested in at the trade deadline.

This could be the first of several trades with names like David Savard, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans, and Mike Matheson. Savard and Evans are garnering the most interest. But the Montreal Canadiens may not be done.

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