The Athletic has live coverage of the NHL trade deadline.

In: No one
Out: No one
Grade: C

The Canadiens were always going to approach the trade deadline with prudence as the guiding principle.

The lack of trade activity was not for a lack of trying, as the Canadiens were in on several conversations with hopes of adding some playoff competitiveness to their lineup. General manager Kent Hughes revealed 90 minutes after the deadline passed that the Canadiens had spent a lot of time working on a “significant deal for us” that can be revisited in the offseason, but which ultimately did not happen. That would obviously suggest the Canadiens were talking about a player with term left on his contract who was not traded Friday.

The Canadiens players were publicly campaigning management to leave the group alone, just as they did a year ago, but the context is decidedly different with the Canadiens sitting top-10 in the league standings and having a realistic path to home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The thought of winning a round, or perhaps even two, is not ludicrous.

They were in a similar situation to the Anaheim Ducks and Buffalo Sabres, two young teams that paid high prices to bring in reinforcements. The Canadiens didn’t necessarily need to follow suit if it sacrificed their ability to contend in a few years, but they also have a deep war chest of young players and prospects, as well as all of their own picks in the first four rounds of the next three drafts. Trading some of that draft capital to invest in this young team would have made some sense, especially with the Eastern Conference looking as wide open as it does.

The Canadiens decided not to do that, and while they might regret it come April, they are unlikely to regret it down the road when they are ready to truly contend. But there is also an argument that augmenting the current group to give the Canadiens’ youth a better chance of experiencing more playoff hockey this spring would have been worth the investment, even if the price was a bit too high for their liking. — Arpon Basu

What they’re saying

“It’s not like we’ve tried to build this team uniquely through the draft. When we look at the number of picks we’ve traded away to this point, I think we’ve traded three first-round picks, four if you include (Alexander) Romanov being traded for a pick that was then traded for Kirby (Dach). We’ve traded, I think, three second-round picks so far. We’re not afraid to do that, and I don’t want to leave the impression to our fan base that we’re just going to keep drafting and drafting and drafting.

“We’re going to do what we need to do to keep moving the needle forward if we find those deals. But by the same token, we’re not going to transact for the sake of transacting so that everybody’s happy in the moment, and then next year comes around and we’re all scratching our heads as to why we did it.” — Kent Hughes, Canadiens GM

What it means for Montreal’s lineup

The status quo is not necessarily a bad thing for the Canadiens’ lineup. Hughes pointed to the strength of the Canadiens’ record since the return from the 4 Nations Face-Off a year ago, which was 48-23-15 for 111 points in 86 games when the deadline hit Friday — fifth in the NHL over that span. Hughes expressed confidence in this group’s ability to return to the playoffs this season, but clearly, he and president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton felt improvements were necessary. Otherwise, they would not have spent all that time working on a “significant” trade.