Canadiens Trade Talk

Montreal Canadiens Complete Minor Trade With Ottawa Senators

Published

8 months ago

September 13, 2023

According to CapFriendly, the Montreal Canadiens have completed a blockbuster of a deal with the Ottawa Senators. You’re going to want to be sitting down for this one.

And by blockbuster, I mean you’ll probably load up EliteProspects to get a better idea of what’s going on.

The Senators sent forward Jakov Novak to the Habs in exchange for Future Considerations.

TRADE

To Montreal Canadiens
-Jakov Novak

To Ottawa Senators:
-Future Considerationshttps://t.co/STUOqXcJNc

— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) September 13, 2023

Novak is a 24-year-old left wing who was originally drafted 188th overall, in the seventh round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.

He’s unsigned, which means he will not take up one of the precious contract spots available. As it stands, the Habs have used 46 of the 50 contracts they’re allotted every season.

Novak has spent part of five seasons in the NCAA, splitting time between Northeastern University and Bentley. He earned a total of 46 goals and 45 assists in 161 NCAA games. He also played 14 games in the ECHL last year, scoring seven goals and five assists in 14 games.

Considering the Canadiens did not have to send an asset to the Senators in exchange for Novak, we’ll have to temper our expectations as to his potential. This is far from a franchise-altering decision by the Canadiens.

That being said, general manager Kent Hughes is well-connected when it comes to NCAA players, particularly those developing in the Hockey East league. Novak played alongside Habs prospect Jayden Struble as well, which means there’s a certain level of familiarity in play.

Novak is headed to the AHL to join the Laval Rocket, but in the meantime, he’ll attend the Canadiens training camp. The rocket lost important players such as Alex Belzile and Anthony Richard, which means they’ll need some help in the scoring department.

There’s already a healthy influx of talent headed to Laval, including Joshua Roy, Logan Mailloux, Riley Kidney, Jared Davidson, and Filip Mesar, among others, but adding more options to the mix is never a bad idea.

As for Mr.Considerations, he’s yet to score a single goal in the NHL despite being traded to the majority of the teams in the league. We’ll see if yet another change of scenery will lead to a much-needed uptick in production.