{"id":490831,"date":"2026-02-21T22:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490831\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T22:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:43:08","slug":"the-montreal-canadiens-are-second-in-the-atlantic-division-with-a-strong-prospect-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490831\/","title":{"rendered":"The Montr\u00e9al Canadiens are second in the Atlantic Division with a strong prospect pool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meet the Buyers: The Montr\u00e9al Canadiens are second in the Atlantic Division with a strong prospect pool<\/p>\n

The Montr\u00e9al Canadiens made the playoffs in 2024-25, and have built off that in a big way.<\/p>\n

Heading into the Olympic break, the lone Qu\u00e9bec team has a 32-17-8 record, with their 72 points being tied for the second-most in the Atlantic Division. They have a bright future ahead of them, with tons of solid young players and burgeoning superstars like Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens are an example of a team that rebuilded the correct way. After losing in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, both Shea Weber and Carey Price essentially retired. They then had three high first round picks with solid drafting the latter rounds to put them in the position they are in now.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something that the Flames can learn from. Heading into the Mar. 6 trade deadline, the Flames have several notable players who could be on the move, such as Nazem Kadri<\/a>, Blake Coleman<\/a>, MacKenzie Weegar, Zach Whitecloud, and Ryan Lomberg.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at the Canadiens\u2019 needs, their cap situation, and what they\u2019d have to offer in a hypothetical trade.<\/p>\n

Canadiens\u2019 needs and cap situation<\/p>\n

As it stands, the Canadiens have no players on the long-term injured reserve, meaning that they are accumulating cap space heading into the trade deadline. They have about $1.098 in current cap space, and by Mar. 6th, they\u2019ll have a little over $1.49 million.<\/p>\n

Kadri ($7 million cap hit), Coleman ($4.9 million cap hit), Lomberg ($2 million cap hit), Weegar ($6.25 million cap hit), and Whitecloud ($2.75 million cap hit) are all well over the $1.49 million cap, but one player that\u2019d off-set the salary is Patrik Laine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Laine hasn\u2019t developed into the scoring threat he was once believed to be early in his career, he is a solid top six forward with a solid shot. He has a cap hit of $8.7 million and is a pending unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. If the Flames were to acquire Laine, they could realistically flip him at the deadline while eating 50% of his cap, or let him play out his season as an addition of sorts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Kadri was a Canadiens fan growing up and they could use him in their top six. According to Daily Faceoff\u2019s line combination, Oliver Kapanen is penciled in as their second line centre, and while he\u2019s off to a solid sophomore campaign (18 goals and 31 points), Kadri would give them a Stanley Cup-winning second line centre. Coleman would also fit on their second or third line.<\/p>\n

One area the Canadiens don\u2019t need help in is on defence. They have a strong top four of Lane Hutson, Noah Dobson, Mike Matheson, and Kaiden Guhle, so Weegar is not needed.\u00a0 Alexandre Carrier is the right-shot defenceman on their third-pairing, so Whitecloud isn\u2019t needed.<\/p>\n

What the Canadiens have to offer<\/p>\n

Any trade between the two teams would require the Canadiens to clear cap salary, and the easiest way to do that is by trading Laine. That could lead to an additional trade for the Flames, or potentially an option for the 2026-27 season if he re-signs.<\/p>\n

As for their picks, the Canadiens have their first round picks for their next three seasons, as well as their next three second and third round picks. They have two fourths, no fifths, and two sevenths in June\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n

Unlike other teams that we\u2019ve covered so far in this series, Daily Faceoff rates the Canadiens farm system highly, with their top centre prospect being Michael Hage, who ranked fourth heading into the season. David Reinbacher is their strongest defence prospect, while Jacob Fowler (who has National Hockey League experience) is their strongest goaltending prospect.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine that the Flames would be able to acquire any of these prospects for a player like Kadri, so targeting either a first or a lower ranked prospect in need of an opportunity, like Owen Beck or Joshua Roy, could be an option for the Flames.<\/p>\n

Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for FlamesNation<\/a>, Oilersnation, and Blue Jays Nation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.This article is brought to you by Platinum Mitsubishi\"\"This article is a presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family-owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the industry-leading 10-year, 160,000-kilometre powertrain warranty. Check out their showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca<\/a>.The Mitsubishi Motors lineup includes the industry-leading Outlander and Outlander PHEV, as well as the compact Eclipse Cross and RVR models. New for February, take advantage of available 0% financing for up to 84 months on all in-stock 2025 Outlander PHEVs! Check out Platinum\u2019s inventory here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meet the Buyers: The Montr\u00e9al Canadiens are second in the Atlantic Division with a strong prospect pool The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-490831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}