{"id":829681,"date":"2026-07-27T18:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/829681\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T18:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:15:13","slug":"montreal-canadiens-urged-to-land-9-5-million-veteran-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/829681\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens Urged to Land $9.5 Million Veteran Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

There is no secret that the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> are eyeing another top-six forward. In an ideal world, general manager Kent Hughes would land a true number two center. This, however, has proven to be a difficult task for the club. With Vincent Trocheck and Mason McTavish now off the board, there are not many available players in this position on the market.<\/p>\n

Because of this, the Canadiens are more likely to land a star winger instead. A recent report<\/a> claimed that Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> star Kirill Marchenko remains a serious option for Montreal. Nevertheless, a deal between the two clubs is not imminent at the moment. While pursuing Marchenko, or another top winger via trade, is still possible, NHL insider Marco D\u2019Amico has urged Hughes and the Canadiens to take a look at Vladimir Tarasenko.<\/p>\n

The reporter connected the Montreal Canadiens with the veteran forward during the most recent episode of The Starr and D\u2019Amico Show<\/a>. According to the insider, targeting the veteran would save Hughes from giving up prospects, as he would if he made a significant trade. \u201cVladimir Tarasenko is still unsigned,\u201d stated D\u2019Amico<\/a>. \u201cYou know, a one-year deal in the $1.5 \u2013 $2 million range if he so accepts. He was almost a 50-point player last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he\u2019s used to playing with a guy like [Ivan] Demidov, because he played with [Kirill] Kaprizov. So maybe that\u2019s how you appease in the short term, and then as the season continues, if a player like Marchenko, or another winger\u2026 you\u2019re able to add from there. But it doesn\u2019t cost you assets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens Have the Money to Afford Vladimir Tarasenko\"The<\/p>\n

GettyVladimir Tarasenko would be a fairly low-risk option for the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n

As D\u2019Amico alluded to, Tarasenko is coming off of a solid season with the Minnesota Wild<\/a>. The 34-year-old forward recorded 47 points in 75 regular-season games<\/a> on the campaign. He also added five points in 11 recent postseason games with Minnesota. Despite this relative success, the veteran remains unsigned. The Montreal Canadiens could, however, change this in the coming days.<\/p>\n

The Athletic\u2019s Chris Johnston<\/a> recently rated Tarasenko as the 30th-best unrestricted free agent this summer. Johnston also projected that the forward would receive a new one-year contract in the neighborhood of $3.3 million. He recently finished off a two-year, $9.5 million deal<\/a> in Minnesota. While this is slightly higher than D\u2019Amico\u2019s guess, the Canadiens can still afford such a deal. According to PuckPedia.com<\/a>, Montreal has nearly $10 million in projected cap space.<\/p>\n

Bleacher Report\u2019s Erik Beaston<\/a> is also predicting that Tarasenko will soon sign with a contending team. The reporter hinted that the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> may be the favorites to land the veteran. Nevertheless, it has been revealed that Edmonton is perhaps more likely to target a young forward<\/a> instead of an aging veteran.<\/p>\n

Montreal has Young Star Waiting in the Wings<\/p>\n

If the Montreal Canadiens do target Tarasenko, it would make sense for the development of Michael Hage. Montreal\u2019s top prospect<\/a> will play for the University of Michigan this coming season. The forward, however, is expected to finally land with the Canadiens as early as April 2027. Bringing in Tarasenko on a short-term contract would not block a long-term roster spot for Hage.<\/p>\n

As D\u2019Amico also points out, the question mark surrounding the prospect is not whether or not he will make it in the NHL. He is expected to transition well in the big league. Instead, there are debates on whether Hage will eventually pan out as a winger or center. Despite this uncertainty, D\u2019Amico is \u201cconvinced\u201d Montreal will land a top-six player soon and then Hage will join the club next spring.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChristopher Moore<\/a> Christopher Moore has been a Heavy.com contributor since 2025. With over a decade of experience in the industry, he has published thousands of articles reporting on multiple professional sports. He was previously a sports writer for World Soccer Talk, the Yahoo! Contributor Network, and the Maryland Sports Blog. More about Christopher Moore<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty There is no secret that the Montreal Canadiens are eyeing another top-six forward. In an ideal world,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-829681","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\/829681","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=829681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}