Canadiens Best Trade Chips Heading Into 2023 NHL Draft

The Montreal Canadiens have confirmed that they would look to be active again this year leading up to the NHL Draft.

At their end-of-season press conference, both general manager Kent Hughes and EVP Jeff Gorton voiced their desire to make some moves heading into the 2023 NHL Draft.

“I think we’re in a good position where we have a lot assets, good young players, a lot of draft picks. We have the leverage to make some deals and do those kinds of things. I would expect that we would be active at the draft and push it along as far as we can,” said Gorton. “We’ll all cross our fingers at the Lottery. I think we’re in a really good spot, and our scouts think we’re going to get a really good player.”

With the Montreal Canadiens looking to continue their youth movement and take their rebuild up a notch, here are some of the assets that Hughes and Gorton could look to leverage:

Florida’s 1st-round pick

It comes as no surprise that the Montreal Canadiens would be open to moving the Florida Panthers‘ 1st-round pick.

After extracting an unprotected 1st-round pick from the Panthers last spring for Ben Chiarot, the Canadiens have been eagerly waiting to see where this pick would land.

With the Panthers down 3-2 in their series with the Boston Bruins, NHL betting odds point to this pick being the 17th overall selection.

The Canadiens have confirmed that they’d be open to another Kirby Dach trade this season; thus trading a mid-1st-round pick for a top-end young player that could join Montreal’s core.

However, there’s also the option of including the pick in a bigger trade, like the often-rumoured package for Pierre-Luc Dubois.

Lastly, the Canadiens could package the pick along with other assets to move up in the draft and improve their draft rank.

When it comes to a draft pick in the top 20 of such a coveted draft, the possibilities are endless.

Joel Edmundson

Joel Edmundson was nearly traded at the NHL Trade Deadline, but Edmundson’s return to the lineup just hours before the deadline warded off a few teams.

Luckily, Edmundson was able to finish the season with the Montreal Canadiens without any further aggravation of his back and returned to his hard-hitting ways as the season went on.

With Edmundson’s health likely to be less of a concern, and the Canadiens holding an extra retention slot, the possibility of Edmundson being moved increases significantly this summer.

The Canadiens simply have too many cooks in the kitchen on defence at the moment, with Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj and Jordan Harris all being left-handed defencemen.

With the emergence of those four defencemen, and Edmundson only having one year left on his deal worth $3.5M the timing is right to make a move.

Christian Dvorak

Christian Dvorak was a player that teams had started following around during the second half of the 2022-2023 season.

The Montreal Canadiens took calls on the rugged centre leading up to the NHL Trade Deadline, but his $4.45M cap hit for another two seasons was too rich to add at that point in the season.

With teams having more cap flexibility in the summer, the Canadiens could swing a deal to liberate a roster spot and further alleviate their cap situation.

It would be a big blow to the Habs’ centre depth, but they likely feel that, as a rebuilding club, they could replace Dvorak with a cheap free agent or an un-and-coming prospect like Owen Beck.

Josh Anderson

It’s not to say that Josh Anderson needs to be traded or should be traded, but he’s certainly increased his value to rival general managers this season.

The 28-year-old power forward stepped up in a big way when injuries hit Cole Caufield and Kirby Dach, potting 21 goals in 69 games this season.

Scoring at a 26-goal pace, while playing on the penalty kill and imposing himself physically, there were many scouts in the Canadiens’ press box that looked impressed with Anderson’s play.

Even if the Canadiens aren’t openly looking to trade Anderson, it’s no secret that he’s going to generate interest this summer, and Hughes will have no choice but to listen.

The Canadiens have said that they’d still like to add another 1st-round pick for this draft, but it would likely take much more than that to pry Anderson out of Montreal, and rival general managers are well aware.

It will be interesting to see if a team bites the bullet and decides to pay big for Anderson.

*For more NHL Betting lines and futures, head over to FanDuel