The Canadiens may be ready to swing bigger if Dylan Larkin becomes available.
Frank Seravalli said Montreal could put together an offer for the Detroit captain that tops the five-piece package reportedly discussed for Kirill Marchenko. That kind of bid would be aimed at solving the Canadiens’ clearest need: a legitimate second-line center.
That’s where the appeal starts to build. Montreal’s current option there, Alex Newhook, has two points in five games and a minus-3 rating. Larkin, meanwhile, has two points in three games with Detroit and carries an $8.7 million cap hit.
Seravalli believes Kent Hughes would be willing to push hard if the opportunity opened up. He also tied Montreal’s interest to the fact that Larkin would fill a far more urgent hole than Marchenko would have.
The wrinkle, of course, is that Larkin would have to approve any move to Montreal. Renaud Lavoie reported that getting people close to him on board could be the key step.
If the Canadiens were to make a serious run, the kind of names they might be willing to move could include Alexander Zharovsky, Kirby Dach or Oliver Kapanen, and Adam Engstrom. That would be a substantial package, but not one that would touch Ivan Demidov or Juraj Slafkovsky.
And that’s the part that makes the whole thing pop. A second line with Larkin, Demidov and Slafkovsky is the vision here, and it’s the reason Montreal could be willing to sweeten the offer if the chance to land him actually materializes.
"I think back to the package that Montreal offered for Kirill Marchenko. [...]
So a five piece package that was for Marchenko knowing how Larkin would solve their problems like they might be more amen, not that it's a huge problem, but they might be more amendable to making this sweeter to make it work. And I think they're aggressive would aggressively pursue making that."
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