Montreal Canadiens' Trade Plan Could Hand Maple Leafs Crucial Advantage Before the Deadline
According to one NHL Insider, the Toronto Maple Leafs could acquire a much needed offensive weapon thanks to their biggest rivals' newest trade strategy.
With the Maple Leafs heading into a tough stretch of the season, they have to balance performance with speculation as Brad Treliving no doubt look to make a move ahead of March 7th's trade deadline.
He wants to add some more defensive depth to his third line, but also has to contend with some pretty glaring scoring issues as well.
There are several options he can choose from but a lot of names come with a lot of baggage; mainly financial restrictions.
So what if Toronto was able to ask their most vicious rivals for help?
Thanks to one NHL Insider's report, it's a very good possibility thanks to their trade strategy.
David Pagnotta Reveals Montreal's Trade Strategy
During an edition of 'The Latest'; a short YouTube video series hosted by The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta, he spoke about Montreal's trade plans and how they could make a deal very appealing to suitors:
So it could be on [David] Savard's $3.25M, it could be on [Christian] Dvorak's $4.45M cap hit, so we'll see where they go but Montreal has options."
Pagnotta also noted Montreal is waiting to gauge interest on their pending free agents before making a deal, so it's very possible a team can come by and wow them enough to part ways.
The main focus for Toronto would be to acquire Jake Evans or Christian Dvorak.
Both men are free agents and it seems that Montreal is quite high on Evans and would part with Dvorak ahead of him.
That's good news for the Maple Leafs and GM Brad Treliving. With the team already in a cap crunch, Montreal eating a good portion of salary means a package with a few draft picks, and perhaps Pontus Holmberg or Nick Robertson should be enough to get a deal done.
The 28-year old Dvorak has struggled in his past two seasons in Montreal, and this year only has three goals and nine assists in 42 games. Before he came to Montreal though it was a different story.
He had 67 goals and 146 points in 309 games with the Coyotes but offense isn't his only strong point.
He's a fantastic faceoff winner, plays both penalty killing and the powerplay, blocks shots and very rarely takes penalties.
With Montreal taking on his contract, Toronto adds a veteran with proven scoring ability who has just struggled with some pretty bad Montreal teams recently.
It's just up to Brad Treliving and Kent Hughes if they can put history aside to make a deal that helps everyone.
