A trade for the Montreal Canadiens is coming eventually, but Stu Cowan doesn’t see it as something that has to happen right now.
On The Sick Podcast with Tony Marino, Cowan said there’s no reason to expect Kent Hughes to force a move just to make one. The Canadiens GM already told reporters after the trade deadline that he wished he had made a trade sooner, but also made clear he couldn’t say when the next one would come.
“It could be July. That didn’t happen.
Could be August. He said it could be September.
It could be October. It could be November.”
For Cowan, the message is simple: Montreal isn’t going to panic.
“Why is the reason to believe? Because they’re not going to rush into anything. They’re not going to panic into anything.”
He pointed to the number of moving parts still in play, including Arber Xhekaj and Zachary Bolduc, both of whom remain unsigned. Cowan said those situations could factor into what happens next, and suggested Xhekaj is the more likely of the two to be moved. He also floated the possibility of a sign-and-trade involving Xhekaj.
“There’s a lot of balls in the air when it comes to it.”
That’s why Cowan believes there’s no real deadline attached to this next Canadiens move. It could happen quickly, or it could wait until later in the fall.
“So it could happen tomorrow. It could happen in October.
It could happen in November. I don’t think that if they don’t do it this summer, that doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen.”
He also said injuries could change the picture, and so could a surprise decision from Michael Hage. Cowan raised the possibility that Hage could change his mind and come to Montreal for training camp, even suggesting he could open the season as the team’s second-line center.
“There’s a lot of things that can still happen between now and the start of the season.”
For fans wondering why nothing has happened yet, Cowan said patience has been the defining trait of this front office since the rebuild began.
“So again, it could happen at any time. But I mean, I don’t see us going into December or something like that without a trade being made.”
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