{"id":398688,"date":"2026-01-09T02:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/398688\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T02:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:03:10","slug":"canadiens-and-coleman-potential-fit-details-on-canadas-reserve-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/398688\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens and Coleman potential fit, details on Canada’s reserve list"},"content":{"rendered":"

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joins Gino Reda to discuss the interest the Canadiens have in Flames forward Blake Coleman<\/a>, how Team Canada will manage its reserve list for its Olympic roster and what happened with the Blues\u2019 failed attempt to pull Jordan Binnington<\/a> in Wednesday\u2019s loss to Chicago.<\/p>\n

GINO REDA: The surging Habs ready to bolster their lineup on the trade front? Canada\u2019s shortlist to cover for injuries at the Olympics just got even shorter. And a really strange series of events involving Olympic goalie Jordan Binnington<\/a> last night.<\/p>\n

With the details on those stories, here\u2019s our Insider, Pierre LeBrun.<\/p>\n

Pierre, the Habs now just a point out of the top spot in the entire Eastern Conference, and they\u2019ve got their eyes on a Flame?<\/p>\n

PIERRE LeBRUN: Let me just start by saying that I think the Habs are in no hurry to make their next move. They just acquired Phil Danault before the holidays.<\/p>\n

Yes, they\u2019re in a great place right now, playing great, but the Eastern Conference standings, as you know, Gino, are absolutely jammed.<\/p>\n

My sense is Montreal would like to get to the Olympic break and then take stock of where they are in the standings, where their goaltending is – it\u2019s been better lately, as we know – and then decide if they\u2019re going to add another big piece.<\/p>\n

If they do, it is my understanding that Blake Coleman<\/a> is high on their list. Now there\u2019s other players on their trade list, every playoff contender draws up a list at this time of year. But Blake Coleman<\/a> is a player of interest.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a guy that brings some elements that the Habs are not as high on. His physicality, his versatility, he\u2019s a two-time Stanley Cup champion. He is of interest to the Montreal Canadiens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But of course, as I\u2019ve mentioned before, he\u2019s of interest to a lot of teams. He\u2019s the player that Calgary gets the most calls on and have since the start of the season. There is no guarantee Calgary trades him.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s got another year on his deal at $4.9 million. He\u2019s beloved in that dressing room, he\u2019s a leader. We\u2019re not even sure if Calgary\u2019s ready to move him before the March 6 trade deadline. But if they are, I do expect Montreal to try to get in there in a real way.<\/p>\n

The other thing to keep in mind with this, Blake Coleman<\/a> has a say in all of this. He has a 10-team list where he can get dealt to without his consent. Otherwise, two-thirds of the league needs his consent. So he\u2019ll have a big say in whether or not he gets dealt, and where he gets dealt, if that happens.<\/p>\n

REDA: The puck drops on the Winter Olympic hockey tournament in a month and all the teams, including Canada, are facing some question marks because of injury. They want to keep their options open, but they also want to be fair to the players.<\/p>\n

So, how do they draw that balance, Pierre?<\/p>\n

LeBRUN: I was curious, I think a lot of people were, how exactly the process worked after every country named their team, as a lot of countries have done over the last week.<\/p>\n

In theory, the rules allow for the entirety of your IOC long list that was submitted before the NHL season to be your reserve list if you want it. Canada still has 60-plus names on that list.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not what Team Canada has decided to do, because staying on the reserve list right now means that you continue to be in the IOC anti-doping protocol and you get tested all the time. So Canada has shortened their list and prioritized it to about 15 players, I\u2019m told, which makes more sense.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s still a lot of names. It\u2019s flexible so that if certain players get hot between now and Milan, that they can move those names up and down those 15 options. But basically, those 15 players have been told that they\u2019re on the reserve list. And obviously, they can opt out if they don\u2019t want to be on it, if they don\u2019t want to be part of the IOC testing anymore.<\/p>\n

As of now, no one has opted out, I\u2019m told. And so when you think of, let\u2019s say, the forwards, I think there\u2019s some pretty obvious names that are part of that 15.<\/p>\n

Sam Bennett<\/a>, Connor Bedard<\/a>, Mark Scheifele<\/a>\u2026 Wyatt Johnston<\/a> is having a great year, and I know all the 4 Nations players that were not brought back are also part of that 15, so that includes Seth Jarvis<\/a> and Travis Konecny<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see where all this goes but the bottom line is this: there isn\u2019t a guy who\u2019s No. 1 on the list. It really depends on what kind of injury Canada may get before Milan as to who on that list gets the call. It\u2019s really about the role and where you fit on that.<\/p>\n

REDA: Speaking of the Olympics, another rough start for Jordan Binnington<\/a> last night. He gave up seven goals to the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a>, and Jim Montgomery<\/a> tried to pull him but he couldn\u2019t because he couldn\u2019t find the backup, Joel Hofer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What happened, Pierre?<\/p>\n

LeBRUN: I\u2019m glad you asked because I think there was a misconception, and I don\u2019t blame people for the way that looked.<\/p>\n

Essentially people said, \u2018Well, Jordan Binnington<\/a> didn\u2019t allow himself to get pulled.\u2019 That\u2019s not what happened after talking to people around the situation here this morning.<\/p>\n

What happened is Joel Hofer<\/a> wasn\u2019t ready to go in right away. When Jim Montgomery<\/a> tried to do the goalie switch, Chicago, in terms of the backup goalie situation, isn\u2019t ideal. Hofer was back in the dressing room at the time, still wasn\u2019t fully geared up.<\/p>\n

By the time he got fully geared up, and there\u2019s a shot of him in the hallway there, the puck had dropped. They had missed their window to make the goalie switch.<\/p>\n

This was more about Joel Hofer<\/a> not being ready to jump in when that goalie switch was supposed to happen than Jordan Binnington<\/a> having any say in it. So, good to clear that up.<\/p>\n

REDA: Now that we know what happened, it\u2019s kind of an amusing story. But what isn\u2019t funny, Binnington\u2019s save percentage isn\u2019t even in the top 50 in the league right now.<\/p>\n

The full version of Insider Trading with Pierre and Dregs is coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joins Gino Reda to discuss the interest the Canadiens have in Flames forward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,33957,5,42191,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-398688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-blake-coleman-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8476399","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-jordan-binnington-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8476412","12":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115862687249932473","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}