Montreal Canadiens offseason: trade targets, potential UFA signings still on the board, and more
today on locked on Canadians are there any free agents left you’re locked on Canadians your daily podcast on the Montreal Canadians part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hi everyone and welcome to episode 1,18 that is a mouthful of locked on Canadians as you know we are your daily podcast where you get your team every single day as part of the loged on podcast now where can we thank you for making us your first Liston of the day today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more as playoffs wind down the Sports Stop sporting like we want them to but this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a booster bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everyone every day all summer long visit fanduel.com to get started my name is Laura Sab also known as the active stick and I’m joined as always by the wonderful Scott matla of Hal’s eyes on the prize and the clock is ticking on Scott’s time with us so we are going to get the most out of it and do as many mailback questions from you guys as possible Scott how are you doing on this extremely humid day uh it’s hot here in Buffalo in that I have not stopped sweating since I got up this morning uh surviving uh the the worst part of Summer I think for everyone who likes summer more than winter or fall I think you’re wrong I don’t what now I’m saying what is wrong with you yeah like truly it’s going to be 95 tomorrow and I’m not made for that it’s I can only take off so many layers of clothes I would rather be under a nice comfy blanket or something else because it’ll also be football and hockey season but that’s neither here nor there right now well that’s it like like like our the sports stop sportting but also like everybody who’s always begging for summer and then calling weather like this nice like it is not nice nice weather is like 15 degrees and fall like that is nice weather nice weather is you can go outside without dying anyway this is about the offseason and we’ve got tons of mailbag questions some left over from last week and some that popped up in our uh mailbag today so Scott what do you say are you ready to tackle some of our mailbag questions from longtime friends and newer writers I mean I’m always ready for mailbag questions because we love summer content because currently GMS aren’t doing much of anything at all so we are uh begging and pleading for content in that regard all right so uh let me start with a question from our good friend Robert Rice submitting this one before I forget and hopefully it gets made irrelevant by a trade or two I’m not sure how many are aware that Washington is currently 13 .3 million over the cap as of right now with a 22an roster for the 2024 2025 season while I imagine some of this may be relieved by Nicholas Backstrom being placed on IR that still leaves them over the cap and in need of relief I know many names have been thrown around for possible veterans to add to the roster for upcoming season but has anyone considered TJ Oshi he’s on the final year of his contract with the capitals at 5.75 million so he’s instant relief for them and doesn’t burden tril after this year given that we’ve seen this move by Hughes already do you think it’s possible he offers Washington relief on their cap situation in exchange for a first or second round pick I mean they’re currently $113 million over the cap and even with ltir meaning TJ ooshi they’re still over $4 million uh I’m not against it but I also think Kent Hughes is looking to get into the not needing LTI at this moment sort of thing uh he said he wants to be able to not have to put carry price on ir and fit everybody under the cap before they make that move and it seems like they’re inching closer and closer to that uh I would be curious because Oshi said that he’s trying to see a doctor something about you know the cause of these that it seems like he might attempt to try and play again which maybe not the best idea it gives Washington some cap relief not enough to get off the uh to get off of that which I’m very curious what they’re going to do uh seeing as they’ve spent a bajillion dollars this off season uh I’m not against it but that’s got to be a good first round pick and it seems like Washington is loaded up to try and be good for the last two years of oetkin contract with plld under there trading for Andre man Japan extending a guy like Alexi protus uh signing Matt W forever trading for Jacob Chan extending Rasmus sandine this feels like a team that’s trying to bank on a couple years of contending still there’s still just a mishmash of dudes uh who are both old and somewhat young in here that I would be curious what happens especially since the capitals now have a new GM in Chris Patrick who took over for uh their previous GM Brian mlen I couldn’t think of his name for some reason I almost called him Michael and I’m like that’s definitely not the right answer for this um they do have to have a little bit of faith that this is going to work out but I’m not against if the parice is right it’s just like the Shawn mahand only this guy is never going to play a game again uh for them but I also think they don’t want to just kind of ship Oshi off uh they might want to do right by him as best they can I’m not oppos to the idea if the pick is good enough though and I think for me it’s like it’s really TJ ooshi seems to think that he could come back and I think Robert’s question was kind of based on the idea that he could but we’ve seen back injuries in the past we’ve seen what they do to players even if they do come back they never come back the same as they were right and that to me is the biggest thing so I would personally like I would try to avoid it but TJ ooshi is going to be attractive to anybody who was trying to use the ltir buy out um all right so we’ve got a question from Bill van v now that the initial wave of free agency has passed us and the dust has settled do you think the Habs will sign any players that remain they have a proximately 10 million reportedly under the cap so they have room to Tinker or do they keep this for future trades or cost savings for example Daniel sprong is available and could be a nice second line addition at a decent price who’s 27 and can grow into a leadership role or to a lesser extent Michael McLoud is only 25 and can score some and should have room to go if the Habs trade away mat they may need a veteran like Tyson Barry to help the younger players and help the power play what are your thoughts okay so here’s my question does everyone who keeps talking about a ma ma maton trade know something I don’t know like I feel like some of the discourse is kind of like it’s a done deal I think it’s people projecting and also to go back in this question the guy suggesting that we signed Michael McLoud knows that he’s on on trial for the hockey Canada case and I don’t want him anywhere near this team correct it doesn’t matter that he’s 26 and a free agent absolutely not uh and that goes for any of these players right and so I can’t remember which player it was that was like he was like oh he was only there and he didn’t actually perpetrate anything but either way I don’t want to touch any of those players no there’s a reason why they’re a free agent like there’s a reason why Carter Hart is a free agent and why these other players are free agents and that absolutely absolutely not and I also look at Michael mccloud’s stats and I’m looking at this and going there’s not really a player in there that I feel like adding to this team right now we don’t need another bottom six forward Daniel sprong is the name I think that I am most intrigued by and that he still isn’t signed and feels like this is going to wreak a guy who shows up to someone’s camp on a PTO and then gets a one-year contract scores 20 goals and gets cashed out at the deadline that would be perfect for the Canadians I think that many fans want to see Joshua W in that second line spot understandably I am also one of those fans but if they’re intent on you know kind of slow playing this this is the last year of trying to maybe trade some of these one-year deals and whatnot sprong is a perfectly fine thing and if W plays him okay move sprung to the third line then you’re probably not going to be paying him too much if he were truly in demand at this point and was getting you know the money out of this he would have been paid by now at least that’s kind of my head cannon on this I’m curious what money is going to be left after the Jacky and baron deals like I talked about in yesterday’s episode and Kaden gh’s extension won’t kick until next year so I’m not worried about that assuming that you know Jacky and baron come in at a combined $5 million you sell $5 million a cap to play with uh and then also you have carrier Price’s LTI cap hit which if they are taking on TJ ooshi might get you right to like where that threshold is that when you put kry price on ltir you get that full pool to play with so uh yes to sprong absolutely not to McLoud and the whole Mattis and trade thing to me is I don’t understand it his value is going to be highest next year especially if he has another strong let’s say 40 Point season this year I don’t know if he’ll hit 60 points again it would be super cool if he does but if he hits another 40 45 Point season going into next year on an expiring deal with those kind of point totals and those kind of minutes he plays he’s going to be an in demand piece and the price for him is going to be even higher at that point we have plenty more mail questions and so many really fun offseason ones and that’s all coming up in just one moment but first this episode is brought to you by FanDuel I love sport Sports I know you love sports this is a sports podcast I love them so much I never want them to stop but as the playoffs wind down we get fewer games and the sports aren’t sportsing like we want them to but FanDuel lets us keep the sports going whenever we want all we have to do is open the app and dream up bets anytime we’re in the mood and this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that’s right they’s suming for everyone every day all summer long so head over to fanduel.com and start making the most out of your summer there’s still so much football going on well soccer going on that’s what you guys call it here there’s Major League Baseball going on there’s still so much going on in this summer I know it’s not hockey I know it’s not um it’s not basketball I know football isn’t coming back until closer to the to the fall but there’s still so so much going on on F fanduel.com FanDuel the official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball all right let’s really quickly get back into the mailbag questions this is another one from bill vany um everyone is sad to see Scott go and we hope his new challenges are smoother than the Habs power play as a parting gift I would like to throw you a dinner party and you get to choose three all-time great Hales as guests well sort of you’re completely free to choose players from any era but the three guests have stipulations they that must be followed they are only one player can be born in Quebec only one other can be from any other Province or state in North America and a third guest must be from Europe you have quite the selections perhaps a few cocktails may make the things easier my European is going to be Saku because he’s my I mean there’s probably more legendary players I know there’s more leg legendary players but for me the European has to be Saku I am actually going to not pick Saku in that regard because that’s the easy answer I’m gonna pick Matt nasland actually um who I think is one of the most underrated players in Canadian’s history uh I I love Matt snazan and he played in just an era where there are probably so many insane stories and I want to ask him about that photo with Larry Robinson that he took uh I can’t remember if it was a Summit Series or an Olympic games or what it was where they swapped jerseys and he’s standing there in Larry Robinson’s jersey and it looks like a blanket has been draped over him in that regard uh I think that Matt’s nasland is my pick from Europe for that and I also realize I’m kind of going mostly back in time here because I want to hear a lot of the stories from some of these players uh out of anyone I mean are we going with players that are just alive at this point because that also does help a little bit in this I assume they have yeah can be any era they just only one Quebec or one North American outside of Quebec and uh um what do you call it and one European I need to check one thing oh that’s Chris chellos uh no not Chris Chelios I my no my other two picks are going to be Larry Robinson and Patrick W then in that I get a snapshot of several years of H of Canadian talk you have Robinson who started in the 70s into the 80s played into the 90s you have Patrick W who started at the end of the 80s and Matt nasland that kind of Blends in the middle of both them there and W played in the 2000s and just putting the three of them together I think that you’re gonna get stories from Larry Robinson about playing the Broad Street Bullies playing the Don Cherry Bruins you’re G to get Patrick W stories of playing everybody and mattz nasin being a guy that came in when smaller guys were generally not thought of as a bigger part of the NHL and successful teams I think the three of them there there’s going to be some incredible stories and just incredible things to hear about from all of them uh if we’re doing a second tier of all of this I’m picking Saku Kovu I’m probably picking Jean Bello and then I’m probably picking uh I’ve already picked a European I need someone else from who is not from North America um you know you want Chris of stories come on I the thing is I do and I don’t cuz I’m I’m indifferent to that a little bit uh okay but’s see it’s a dinner party so mine I I didn’t finish mine hold on I I pick gur Chris Chelios and Saku it Saku being is such he’s such the odd man out in that because he’s so like more he’s from the mediocrity era I I get it I know and he’s like he he’s not well I’m sure he partied but not like those guys did yeah my other thought was is potentially would be Steve shut in there too who played for some of the best years in the Canadians team history as my non kebec qua non-european uh selection for that second dinner party but my main one is going to be nasin Robinson and W um this younger generation I’m going to give them a couple of years uh before inviting guys like Carrie Price Brendan Gallagher and whomever to that next round of dinner parties uh that that I should just go look at all their Instagram stories from this past weekend of that wedding where I hope somebody anybody got Jake Evans a bottle of water at some point please please help tell me someone did that all right if you were consuming this content on social media can somebody tell me were all the guests wearing black like I I feel like it was like it must have been like a request like this wedding was fully black and white I don’t know I couldn’t tell but uh if if you have some idea let us know and the wedding of course we are speaking about is uh Bron Gallagher and Emma Fang congratulations to the happy couple and speaking of Brendan Gallagher I have a mailback question from Jordan Roberts one of our friends our sorry one of our brother friends um hey Lauren Scott with the recent news of stamp Coast leaving the lightning and the fan reaction that has come about it got me wondering about Brendan Gallagher and his tenure in Montreal do you think the Canadians will see out his contract if they’re competitive in a couple of years or could we see a buyout trade and what would that reaction look like I think they’re going to see out the end of his deal I think that he still has plenty of value and that he we’ve talked about it a lot on the show is that he still generates scoring chances he still does all the things that he does is just that he doesn’t have the same shooting ability that he once had which he shattered both of his hands that’s not an easy thing to come back from and then he also had a knee or a hip or whatever it was that was really slowing him down another full offseason to rest Brendan Gallagher ended last year on a pretty strong note double digit goals looking a little bit rejuvenated playing alongside yoel armia and I believe it was both Jake Evans and Christian Dvorak as their Center and that’s a good thing and I think that even he’s got I believe three years left by the time that they’re competitive he’s likely going to be playing a fourth line role there and I look at like what kyak poo did for uh not Columbus but Florida this year as a veteran guy that he can be a locker room leader an on Ice leader and everything even if he’s you know not the guy that he once was a 30o guy I think that Gallagher does enough nice things that unless his regression is very sudden this year that he’s not generating anything I think you keep him on the team for now I think that there’s value in that especially with guys who are upcoming like an Xavier Simo who play a very similar style and want to get to that net front and create Havoc learning from Brendan Gallagher is not the worst thing in the world there even if he can I’m not even saying petta is going to be on the team Beyond this year but someone like Michael pizetta that you want to be an energy guy here are the things that you can do with that uh I think that there’s every opportunity for that as well I don’t think he’s gone this year I think with term on his contract unless another team is looking to make the floor uh I can’t see Brenan Gallagher going anywhere until there’s at least a year left on his contract and even then the Canadians might just hold on to him as a veteran you know leader on this team as they continue to get younger in this starting lineup a bit what do you think the fan reaction will be it’ll be split because there’re gonna be some people that look at oh that contract can’t wait to have that off the books those who do not have the same emotional attachment and that look at things purely from a number statistical capfriendly standpoint on things Brendan Gallagher was part of that next Generation coming up well patri shti and Panet and suban and marov and price were already here he was coming up with uh Alex Galchenyuk and then years of just empty you know Prospect promises behind that waiting for someone else to step up and help him I think fans are going to be sad to see him go and I think they’re also underselling how good of a player he was before the injuries took their toll he’s you know not a point per game player but he’s put up over 400 points and he’s chasing some pretty big names in the goal category for the Canadians I think he would be sorely missed by this fan base and if he were to get a return game in that season for whatever it might be uh there would be a huge Ovation for that I and I think it would be a lot like when PK came back that this was a fan favorite and a longtime fan favorite you go to a game and you see Gallagher 11 jerseys everywhere uh I think he’d be sorely that some people are going to say well the contract but I think the majority of people are going to go that’s you know a guy who bled the Canadians every single time he stepped on the ice we’ve got a few more mailback questions coming up in one moment all right I will tell you we are not done with a mailback questions so we will still have some more on tomorrow’s show because a lot of these are like really good questions we’ve got one from Kyle R the other brother in the equation but wait there’s more Brothers Kyle says hi Laura Scott my alleged cooler yet actual younger brother Jordan and then Nicholas are you there too Nicholas if you are please we want to hear from you as well I was wondering what your ideal lineups would look like using with the players we have on the team and have drafted no trades call up no trades or cups are allowed no worries about European or NCAA rules if they’ve been drafted or assigned to the rocket the Habs they are eligible for the lineup mine would be feel free to share discuss what could be improved or bash my line because I’m a terrible armchair GM here’s the lineup slavkovsky Suzuki Cofield first line obviously if it ain’t broke don’t fix it new hook doc demidov Harvey penard Beck Gallagher kidney Evans ra and then defense pairings Hudson svard ghouly Ryan Bacher maton Mayu goalies mono and Fowler and then PS if you have to sign off as the cooler brother are you really that cool asking for a friend all right this brother duel we’re going to resolve it before the end of the summer well that’ll be up to you and Ian then by by the time August rolls around you’re gonna have a mediation session starting in August if it’s not solved by then uh my lineup then this is going to be tough because there’s a lot of good prospects in this lineup uh and without the Restriction of as long as they are under the Canadian’s umbrella that we can include them got it we just can’t trade them yes so slap Suzuki Coffield first line done dusted I’m going to say and this might be slightly controversial W doc demidov new hook I’m gonna put Owen back in there for right now man I don’t want to put Josh Anderson in this lineup I don’t I’m sorry uh I might actually put Brendan Gallagher in there just as their kind of netfront guy and then on a fourth line you have Harvey penard you have Jake Evans and you have Xavier Simo on defense assuming this is next year I think you go mat and ghouly you have Hudson and you have I want actually you know what I want to put David reinbacher there because Hudson ryer seems like it could be a lot of fun and then you have Jack I Mayu as your third pairing they worked really well together the AHL despite playing very similar Styles but it seemed to bring out the best in both of them and then monmo and Fowler for right now eventually fer will uh take that other spot uh healthy scratch I think you have Rafael hary penard as your 13th forward which is a pretty good spot to be in Justin Baron is probably your spare defenseman uh I would also not say no to Jaden strubel over uh Logan Mayu on that third pair if mat is gone you can kind of shift people up in this lineup as needed on that there’s so much talent that this is hard to do because we’ve left off guys like Adam angstrom uh players who are going to be coming uh out of the NCAA it there’s so much uh I think that’s the best I can do with that and this goes to show and we talked about this a lot is if one of these prospects does not crack the NHL roster this year it’s because there’s a million players in this organization right now and sometimes you just go where you’re going to get the most ice time that is good for them if Lane Hudson plays AHL games I don’t think he will that’s not a problem uh it’s a good problem to have that we have too many good potential prospects that we can’t fit all of them in the lineup at once I like it it is it it’s definitely like it feels like an embarrassment of riches and hopefully my saying that didn’t jinx anything um and then we’re going to close out the show with another question from Robert Rice but again we’ve got fun mailback questions still coming up this week don’t like if we didn’t ask it now it doesn’t mean we didn’t ask it at all uh or we’re not going to ask it at all from Robert Rice again uh our good friend we’re going to see we open the show and then we close the show with the trading of kovich do you think this is all the tinkering we will see regarding the Habs Blue Line before the regular season starts as it stands we have a presumptive grouping of MAT card ghouly Jacky Harris Baron but also need to weigh the emergence of strubel Hudson reinbacher and Mayu while obviously some of the latter four will start in the AHL how do you project the likelihood of someone like Harris or even card gets moved to make room for someone like Hudson I mean for me I think Harris is the most likely piece to just move in any kind of deal because he’s got an easily digestible contract and he’s a very use yeah he’s a plug- Inplay piece on a lot of teams sard I still think is going to be at the deadline but if Harris moves I think Hudson’s going to be in your lineup no matter what uh I also think Justin Baron is someone who might get moved at this point just because Hudson does what you do offensively but potentially better and you have waiver eligibility this is why what I just said is hey if Hudson goes down at to start the season here there’s no guarantee he’s going to sit down there forever either they may just be like hey we’re going to put you here and then we’re going to work out some trades because we know preseason like that first week of the Season injuries will hit everybody whether it be because of offseason or whatnot uh I I I think the idea is you move both Harris uh sard and I think Baron are your top three trade movements now that kovage is gone uh he’s not you know he’s gone to New Jersey which is worse than dying I think at this point so poor guy we love that guy in his van life yeah just I hate New Jersey so it’s fine uh there are do well yeah because any no I’m not doing that rant on this we’ll do that during hot ones at some point uh the thing is is that I Hudson’s going to probably Force his way into this lineup he showed last year that he can hang in big minutes at the NHL level against a team it’s not like Detroit wasn’t playing for anything this is not like they were playing a team that had been eliminated from the playoffs and he was playing big minutes this was Detroit at their most desperate and playing some of their best hockey when it counted in those two games and he held up pretty well to that task he’s going to force his way in and it’s GNA Force Kent Hughes to make a move I still think that as this summer kind of slows down and dies down a little bit here you’re GNA see a move get made in there at some point very likely Harris or svard I don’t think sard will move this year because they like that veteran leadership and I think they might pair Hudson up with him svard is that safety valve out let basically and Lane can go off and be jacked up on pixie sticks and Mountain Dew doing all of his cool Lane Hudson stuff and David Savard can be the exasperated parent at the park tra chasing after their child uh and then you have mat ghouly as your top pairing and whatnot in that so you know what I wish I had done throughout our tenure is I wish I had clipped and saved all of your metaphors and then made a super cut of them but I did not and I do not have all of the if someone wants to go back and do that I’ll venmo you for it um there’s going to be a lot of metaphors about toilets on fire I think during part of the Dom charm era uh bears bears toilets on Fires car crashes poop a lot of poop oh um buses things no that was just me wanting to be run over by a bus that’s not really a metaphor that was a cry for help um there I know there are metaphors because there was one and I there’s a clip of it on Twitter somewhere still from when Nolan from lock on Red Wings clipped this for the national show that they should nuke the department of player safety let it be eaten by a bear let the bear poop it out and then nuke the poop and then burn whatever’s left and that would it’s we are very off topic on this which I know you’re so surprised on this podcast but if anyone wants to go and send us your favorite metaphors that I’ve said on this show please tweet us at lorc Canadians or lockon Canadians gmail.com because we love that YouTube comments yeah because we could start reading them out when I do hot ones at the end of the month here uh when the show is all when my time on the show has come to an end um so yes and Ian and I will have very big shoes to fill when it comes to metaphors but you heard the man it is time to send us your favorite metaphors and all kinds of mailback questions um also no comments on that virtual background I am in the middle of a move that is going to take most of this month so I’ve been mandated by the network to not show what’s going on in my apartment right now um and in the meantime you can email us at lockon Canad gmail.com you can find us on Twitter lore Canadians DM us um you know reply us tag us whatever you want to call it you can leave them in the YouTube comments as well your favorite metaphors thoughts opinions um guest requests topic requests all of that stuff um and in the meantime subscribe to this podcast wherever you get your podcast as well as on YouTube thank you so much for listening we will see you all tomorrow
Today’s episode is a continuation of the Friday Habs mailbag in which we mostly discuss the Canadiens offseason, with NHL trades to potentially be made and cap space to be used as a trade chip. We discuss how long Brendan Gallagher will be around to be the face of the Montreal Canadiens, and what the blueline will look like next season.
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