Habs Daily: Canadiens Trade Bait, Hutson Comparables, Hughes

Here are the Montreal Canadiens news items, highlights, and stories you may have missed on Tuesday.

Montreal Canadiens News

Frank Seravalli published his first trade bait board of the season, and it features two Montreal Canadiens players. Forward Josh Anderson, who has enjoyed a resurgence of sorts due to his solid play on the third line and the penalty kill, checks in at No.22, while centre Jake Evans is listed as the top Habs trade target at No.15.

As we noted the last time we discussed Evans’ contract situation, there’s a lot to consider before the NHL Trade Deadline. [Canadiens Analysis: The Jake Evans Contract And Trade Situation]

Exactly two months out from Deadline Day, #Isles Brock Nelson leads our first Trade Targets 🎯 board of 2025.

There are four #NYR, three #isles, three #Sabres, three #flyers, two #CBJ, two #Flames, and one very high-profile #Canucks player.

The list: https://t.co/LttIhoh1pB

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) January 7, 2025

Lane Hutson has earned 30 points in his first 40 games this season, quite the scoring pace for a rookie defenceman. Consequently, Hutson’s name has to be included in any Calder Trophy discussion. To get a better idea of how impressive his production has been, we took a look at some historical and modern NHL comparables. [Calder Talk: Canadiens Defenceman Lane Hutson Historical Scoring Comparison]

General manager Kent Hughes is set to meet with the media around 11:30 am ET for the traditional mid-season press conference. The tone should be interesting as the Canadiens are “in the mix”, just as Hughes hoped they’d be at the start of the season.

#Habs GM Kent Hughes will hold his mid-season press conference on Wednesday (tomorrow) following practice at approx. 11:30am ET

— Priyanta Emrith (@HabsInHighHeels) January 7, 2025

Prospect Oliver Kapanen had an assist in Timra’s 3-2 shootout win over Vaxjo. He’s now sitting at five goals and eight assists in 15 games. Fellow Habs prospect Filip Eriksson was given a little over 10 minutes of ice time for Vaxjo in the losing effort. He’s scored just two goals and two assists in 31 games.

Cat Toffoli and Julie Petry are set to take part in a behind-the-scenes podcast hosted by the NHl.

Some fun news – coming out next week! Julie Petry & I are the hosts of a new @nhl bts podcast 🎙️ Never Offside with Julie & Cat 🖤 please stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/0Qs0ZOjq8J

— Cat (Belanger) Toffoli (@catbtoffoli) January 7, 2025