The Montreal Canadiens are in the hunt.
They took the ice Saturday night and picked up an impressive win to slow down an on-fire Buffalo Sabres team, pushing themselves up the Eastern Conference standings into third place in the Atlantic Division.
It’s right where a team wants to be to make a push in the stretch run of the season.
Of course, the second half of this season will be stop-and-start with the Olympic break upcoming, so it may not be straightforward.
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By the same token, Montreal is in position, when it wants, to make a trade to help its chances.
But what do the Canadiens need? That question was answered in a new article by The Athletic’s Arpon Basu.
He writes that they need a “high-compete, penalty-killing forward.”
“The Canadiens’ penalty kill has been bad for most of the season, and while they addressed it with the acquisition of Phillip Danault, it remains broken,” Basu writes. “It is one of the bigger weaknesses on the team. At five-on-five, the Canadiens could also use a bit more jam in their bottom six. They already have too many forwards and don’t have the cap space to add salary right now, so any trade they do make would likely be a hockey trade.”
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Given the cap implications, it might make sense for Montreal to draw this out as close to the trade deadline as possible to see just exactly how the finances will stack up on their roster in the midst of any potential injuries or shifts in the standings.
It’s definitely an area where the Canadiens can improve, though, and it’ll be interesting to see just how they go about it.
