Frank Seravalli has added a revealing wrinkle to the Canadiens’ plans, and it points straight back to Kirby Dach.
Montreal’s thinking, dating to the start of training camp, apparently centered on using Dach as part of a bigger move rather than treating him as the final piece. After giving up a significant price to land him in 2022, the Canadiens were said to be hunting for immediate help this summer, and Kent Hughes’ ideal setup would have been to fold Dach into a larger trade package.
That’s where Kirill Marchenko came into the picture. Seravalli’s reporting about a possible Dach trade lines up with Marchenko as the kind of impact forward Montreal had in mind - the “big fish” type target that would have made the idea work.
Now that Marchenko has been traded to the Canadiens’ archrivals in Toronto, Montreal’s path gets a lot narrower. The Canadiens will have to pivot and chase another forward with that same kind of impact.
The Dach piece still matters. Taken third overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2019, he has played 306 NHL games and produced 136 career points. Montreal paid up to get him in 2022, and according to Seravalli, the Edmonton Oilers had already shown strong interest in him earlier this week.
Still, the read here is that Hughes wanted to keep Dach available for a bigger swing, with Columbus appearing to fit the sort of team Montreal had in mind.
With Marchenko off the board, the Canadiens may need to move quickly if they still plan to use Dach as a trade chip before another target disappears. Hughes, at the very least, clearly pushed hard.
In Other News...
Canadiens Sent David Reinbacher Down For A Bigger Reason
David Reinbachers latest assignment to Laval says more about the Canadiens roster picture than it does about his play. Montreals decision was not a reflection of how he performed, but a sign of how the club wants to manage a young defenseman who is still best served by getting major minutes rather than sitting in a limited role on the NHL bench.
The timing matters, too, because the Canadiens are getting healthier on the blue line. With Kaiden Guhle edging closer to a return, the immediate need for an extra defenseman has eased, leaving Montreal with a choice that favors development over depth. For now, Reinbacher stays where the games can give him more responsibility, even if the path back up becomes clearer again soon. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Make A Tough Early Call On David Reinbacher
The Canadiens final roster cuts brought a notable early-season decision on David Reinbacher, who will start the year with the Laval Rocket in the AHL. The former fifth-overall pick had a strong preseason, but Montreal is clearly taking the long view with a young defenseman whose development has already been shaped by injury history and a crowded battle for minutes on the blue line.
For now, Reinbacher should get the kind of heavy workload in Laval that can be harder to guarantee in Montreal, where the club had to balance roster spots, waiver concerns and its depth chart on defense. The door to the NHL is hardly closed, though, and if he keeps building through the season, the Canadiens are leaving themselves plenty of room to bring him back up when the timing makes sense. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Still Need One Big Piece As Trade Pressure Builds
The Canadiens have been searching for one more top-six forward as the season approaches, and the trade chatter around them is starting to sound less like background noise and more like a real deadline. Darren Dreger indicated that general manager Kent Hughes may still be working on a deal before opening night, with Montreals salary-cap flexibility giving it room to stay in the hunt for an impactful addition.
One name drawing attention is a right-shot winger from Columbus who brings proven scoring and a manageable cap hit at $3.85 million, along with the kind of production that would fit Montreals need for immediate help. The Blue Jackets have signaled they want a good player back and have also maintained he is not available, which leaves the Canadiens weighing how aggressive they want to be without emptying out the sort of assets they would prefer to keep off the table. [Read more 🡒]