It seemed like a Halloween prank, meant to scare the bejeepers out of Habs fans everywhere by raising the spectre of Nazem Kadri like the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Perhaps we should have a Rumour of the Week club for this sort of clickbait. This time, it came from the usually reliable Pierre LeBrun — and it’s destined to end up with all the others in the round file. Remember Ryan O’Reilly, anyone? Matt Duchene? Dylan Cozens? Mikael Granlund? Pierre-Luc Dubois? Trevor Zegras?
Total number of games they have played for the Canadiens to date? Zero.
Total number of games Kadri will play for the Canadiens in the future? Also zero.
LeBrun, surely, was right about one thing. There would be a list and Kadri would be on it. Canadiens GM Kent Hughes is nothing if not thorough. Never mind that Kadri is 35 years old, that he has the better part of four years to run on a contract with an AAV of US$7 million or that he’s about as popular here as halitosis in a crowded elevator.
Kadri would be on the list, the Canadiens would discuss him — and the conclusion would be that they’d sooner bring back Alex Galchenyuk.
Why would the Canadiens not want Kadri, you ask? He scored 35 goals last season and he could fill that second-line centreman role with a more experienced player than young Oliver Kapanen.
Let us count the ways.
On one of his first shifts in the NHL, Kadri cross-checked Andrei Markov in the back of the head. Kadri did the crime yet didn’t serve the time on that one, but by 2013, the league was catching up to him and in November that year, he was suspended three games for running Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom and causing a head injury.
There followed a team suspension in March 2015 for showing up late to practice and missing a meeting. “There comes a point,” said team president Brendan Shanahan, where you’ve got to grow up. … It’s time for Kadri to start making better decisions. There’s a history here.”
Kadri immediately demonstrated his maturity on March 18, 2015, by getting himself suspended for four games for an illegal hit to the head of Oilers forward Matt Fraser, a blindside headshot. In February 2016, it was a $5,000 fine for making a throat-slashing gesture toward Flames captain Mark Giordano.
On April 1, 2016, he was fined for several violations of the diving/embellishment rule. Kadri’s response? “I’m not really too concerned about it to be honest. It’s not going to change the way I play.”
It didn’t. A few days later, Kadri was suspended for the last four games of the season for a cross-check to the face of Luke Glendening of the Red Wings.
During the 2017 playoffs, Kadri was penalized but not suspended for a low hit on Alexander Ovechkin that left Ovechkin limping off the ice. Regular season, he probably draws a suspension for that one.
Bruins’ Jake DeBrusk lands a punch on Maple Leafs’ Nazem Kadri during Game 2 of first-round playoff series in Boston on April 13, 2019. Kadri was suspended for the rest of the series after delivering a vicious cross-check to DeBrusk during the third period of the game.
On April 12, 2018, Kadri was suspended for three games for boarding after a dangerous hit on Tommy Wingels as the playoffs opened in Boston.
During the playoffs in April 2019, Kadri drew a three-game suspension for cross-checking Boston’s Jake DeBrusk in the face. Even the Leafs had finally seen enough. On July 1, 2019, Kadri was dealt to Colorado.
Kadri behaved himself for a time, but in May 2021, Kadri (then with the Colorado Avalanche) was suspended for eight playoff games for a “high, forceful check” to the head of St. Louis Blues defenceman Justin Faulk.
Blues centreman Brayden Schenn said of Kadri, “the guy can’t control himself. In the playoffs, he’s a repeat offender. Bad hits. Greasy hits. He had a guy in a vulnerable position and he picked nothing but the head.”
The NHLPA, predictably, appealed the length of the suspension. The lengthy and well-reasoned response from commissioner Gary Bettman refused the appeal and Kadri had to serve the full eight games.
To his credit, Kadri hasn’t been suspended since 2021. Apparently six suspensions (three in the playoffs) were enough. But his yearly penalty minutes are still at the same level — and does anyone trust him not to snap in the playoffs?
Based on the way the Canadiens operate, they would not consider trading for Kadri at any price. He’s too old, he’s too expensive, he has that troublesome history and he’s absolutely detested in this market.
The Canadiens already have Kapanen, with young Michael Hage on the way. Brian Wilde points out that Hage has 14 points in eight games, the most in college among players younger than 20, and that he might be the best forward prospect in all of college hockey.
Is it too much to ask that the talking heads know this? That they take into account the way Hughes and Jeff Gorton operate? That they understand that along with improving the lineup, they needed to impose a firm rule: the Canadiens must be held to a higher standard.
The late, great Red Fisher, who really was an insider, always said this when asked about the latest whopper: “I don’t deal in rumours.”
If only today’s “insiders” would learn from Red.
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