Potential Canadiens Trade Targets Beginning To Emerge

The Montreal Canadiens will look to be active on the trade market this summer, and two prime candidates have seemingly hit the trade block.

With the Habs possessing a solid bank of draft picks, a glut of young defencemen and the necessary cap space to finally add to their roster, the expectation is that they’ll be looking to add scoring punch.

The significant amount of parity across the league, the desire for immediate results (as evidenced by the high number of coaching changes) and the rising salary cap make this offseason one of the most interesting in recent years.

And now, with only a handful of teams left in the NHL Playoffs, certain names have begun to emerge on the trade block that has NHL general managers making calls and gauging prices.

We’ve known for months that goaltenders like Linus Ullmark and Jacob Markstrom will be highly sought-after commodities, but the forward market seemed a little bullish, until now.

Martin Necas

On a recent episode of the 32 Thoughts Podcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman continued to advance the notion that Martin Necas‘ time in Carolina is close to an end.

“Necas, I have believed for some time that one just probably won’t work out there,” Friedman said. “I just don’t think that they’re going to do what Necas wants to do.”

It appears that the situation is mutual, as Necas’ father reportedly mentioned in an interview that his son would prefer to move on from Carolina to challenge for more playing time and better usage elsewhere.

A source close to the situation has confirmed that the Montreal Canadiens have checked in on Necas’ availability and that he would be high on their shortlist of players to acquire this summer.

Necas finished the 2023-2024 campaign with 24 goals and 53 points in 77 games this season, while adding four goals and nine points in 11 games in the playoffs for Carolina.

As a pending restricted free agent (RFA), a Necas move could be very interesting from a “Sign & Trade” perspective. Acquiring teams can only extend their newly acquired players to eight-year contracts if they were on that team’s Reserve List as of the most recent NHL Trade Deadline or have an extra year left on their current contract as of July 1 of that given year.

Since Necas is a pending RFA, and in the same age range as the Montreal Canadiens’ current core (25), it could make a lot of sense for the Canadiens to adopt the same tactic used by both the Florida Panthers (Tkachuk) or the L.A. Kings (Dubois) to acquire a player of need, while lowering the cap hit due to the extra year afforded on the deal.