Rumours abound before the NHL trade deadline, and the Canadiens aren't exempt for these trade proposals. Marc Bergevin and his team are apparently shopping for a scoring Top 6 forward and another defenceman.
The thing about trading for a major piece like Evander Kane, or Wayne Simmonds as we seem to be dreaming about, is that the other team is usually looking for a major piece back, if we’re not talking about rentals. And I don’t know that we have that major piece to flip back.
Sometimes you're in a position to trade, to sell. One such situation was when we had Pierre Turgeon burning a hole in our pocket. He didn’t have a place in the roster, incredibly, being forced down to the third line, so he was used to re-acquire Shayne Corson. We had ‘too many’ frontline centres, and used one to get a big tough winger with skill.
Same with the Canucks, who had a Todd Bertuzzi needing a ticket out of town in the wake of his assault of Steve Moore. With that big piece and throw-ins Bryan Allen and Alex Auld, they got Roberto Luongo out of Florida, when he was at the height of his powers, but had the misfortune of having Mike Keenan as his GM.
Right now, we don’t have this extra piece, this good-to-great player who doesn’t fit in our plans but that other teams are salivating at. If we want to obtain these impact players, and if they're not to be 'rentals', but rather players who are under contract and will help beyond these playoffs, if it is to be a 'hockey trade', and if we don't want to sacrifice draft picks, then we'll have to give up core players. We'll be robbing Peter to pay Paul. It'll be whack-a-mole, we'll always be trying to plug holes in our roster.
So as much fun as it is to envision one of these big wingers on our team, it’s almost a waste of time, or self-torture. It’s like window shopping at the bakery when on an Atkins diet.
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