As the Montreal Canadiens look to the next phase of their rebuild and hope to take a step forward, one important task for Kent Hughes is to find the right group of veterans to mentor their young core.
David Savard and Brendan Gallagher have provided leadership to the Canadiens but earlier this summer, reportedly discussed the possibility of acquiring another veteran piece to help as a mentor and eat up minutes on the blueline.
According to Mark Madden, a sports reporter based in Pittsburgh, the Penguins and Canadiens had discussions regarding a trade involving future Hall of Famer Kris Letang. He added that Letang expressed interest in wanting to join the Canadiens, his hometown team, but nothing ever materialized.
Letang, 37, is coming off the seventh 50+ point season of his National Hockey League career and for the first time since 2010-11, played in all 82 regular season games, a big positive for himself and the Penguins. In 82 games last season, the Montreal native had 51 points (ten goals, 41 assists), 62 penalty minutes and was a plus-13.
For the Montreal Canadiens, it's probably best to steer clear of adding anymore defencemen to their roster at this point. With David Reinbacher and Lane Hutson likely to become full-time NHLers at some point next season, along with Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, David Savard, Jordan Harris, Arber Xhekaj, Justin Barron and Jayden Struble on the current roster, the Canadiens need to clear their logjam before thinking about adding anyone else to the blueline.
POLL | ||
AOUT 12 | 146 ANSWERS Canadiens and Penguins reportedly discussed massive trade involving Kris Letang Do you think Kris Letang would be a good fit for the Montreal Canadiens? | ||
Yes | 90 | 61.6 % |
No | 56 | 38.4 % |
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