The Canadian prepares to take back the collar

Let’s start with the obvious, if you will.

Richard Labbe
The Press

Returning from the break for the Stars, the Canadian will find himself confronted with this reality: he occupies the 32^and and last in the National League, three points behind the Arizona Coyotes, who are preparing to play in front of a maximum of 5,000 people in the near future. But that is another matter.

In the case of the Canadiens, there are still 38 games on the schedule, including the next one, Tuesday night at the Bell Center against the New Jersey Devils. The coming week will be very busy at the Bell Centre; after the visit of the Devils, the Washington Capitals will come on Thursday, then the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. These historic matches will be able to be seen by a maximum of 500 spectators, who will be distributed in the boxes.

In order to properly prepare for the big week ahead, the Canadian will resume training this Monday at 4 p.m., at the Brossard center.

That’s for the obvious. As for the more complicated stuff, well, it is actually a bit more complicated.

First, and if it hasn’t already been done, club management will have to draw up a list of players who could move by the NHL trade deadline, which is scheduled for March 21 this season.

In modern reality, it is often the players who could become free agents without compensation (“rental players”) who change address at the deadline, and at the Canadiens, six players have this status, including Mathieu Perreault, who is however on the injured list.

Of these six names, the three who find themselves in defense (Ben Chiarot, Chris Wideman and Brett Kulak) should generate a minimum of interest in the coming weeks. It’s understood there’s no one on this list who will be nominated for the Norris Trophy, but these are three defenders who could help for depth reasons, especially Chiarot, who would surely look a little better if he found himself with a diminished role in a winning formation.

A week ago, in an interview with The Press, general manager Kent Hughes had hinted he was open to the possibility of trading another defender, Jeff Petry. But his contract situation – his current contract is valid until 2024-2025, at a salary of $6.2 million per season – suggests that it would be easier to trade him in the summer, when where the teams are used to cleaning up their payroll.

“Jeff is not the youngest player in the world,” Hughes said last Sunday. If the opportunity for a trade arises, that we can improve the future of our team and improve the circumstances for Jeff, we will do it. Otherwise, Jeff is part of the Canadian. »

Finally, we will have to look very closely at the situation of the goalkeepers. During the bye week, the Canadian lost another, this time Michael McNiven, whose name was quietly added to the injured list. His status is being assessed on a daily basis, according to what the team said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Carey Price, still slowed down by a knee injury that won’t go away, has been waiting since July.

Samuel Montembeault will do well to be ready.