The Montreal Canadiens, their want for a second line center, and what would the cost for Sidney Crosby be?
Sportsnet: Renaud Lavoie talking about the Montreal Canadiens and their need for a second line center.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Lavoie: “What, what the team is looking at right now is to find that, you know, that second line centerman that they hope to get at one point. But obviously they’re not the only one.
What’s out there? And it’s been mentioned by a few people already is, I think Montreal and probably a couple of other teams are waiting to see what’s going to happen with Sidney Crosby. If at one point, Sydney wants to leave the Pittsburgh Penguins and just say, ‘I, you know what, I want to go win another Stanley Cup.’ I think the Montreal Canadians, they need to be ready for it. So they need some cap space. They need to to make sure that, you know, they’re not going to be handcuffed. So, so we’ll see.
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I’m mentioning Sidney Crosby. Can it, can it be another really good centerman? So they’re going to be patient, because right now they, they’re, they, they’re in no rush to make that move, you know. But they at the same time, there’s a reason why they traded, you know, Carey price contract before the start of training camp. Was important for them to create some cap space. And you know, if, if there’s a team who’s ready to do real business, I think the Canadians will have a really open minded.
And that’s, that’s, that’s about it. They’re looking for that second-line sentiment right now. And if it’s Sydney, Crosby, I’m pretty sure that my friend Nick Suzuki is going to be ready to be that second line forward, and centerman, I should say, and Sydney the first line centerman of that. But we’ll, we’ll cross, you know that bridge when we’ll be close to the river.”
Nick Kypreos: “Rene, you don’t know our show. We crossed that bridge now, my friend. We cross it now.
So, all right, you, hey, you brought it up. We did. So let’s, I want to take one more, I want to go one step ahead and pick your brain on it.
Lavoie: “You want to take another swing at it?
Kypreos: “Yeah, in a different angle. Okay, so let’s hypothetically say that Sid’s ready for this, and he has picked the Montreal Canadians.
Lavoie: “Yeah.
Kypreos: “What do you envision to get the deal done?
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Lavoie: “You know, that’s, that’s the, probably the million dollar question, because I’m pretty sure that Sidney if, and it’s a big if, right, What are the odds that it’s going to happen? Is it 30%? Is it lower than that? Is it, I don’t know.
Okay, but if it happens, and he choose the Montreal Canadiens, the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t have much leverage. If he’s saying it’s Montreal, or I’m not going anywhere, or, you know.
But knowing the Canadiens management, obviously you can talk about first-round pick here. But after that, they’ll probably look, you know, at the Montreal Canadiens D core. Can it, can it be a David David Reinbacher who’s, he’s a right shot defenseman. Can it be some, someone else on the roster, an Oliver Kapanen and who’s right, right now, trying to understand the league. But he’s playing way better right now that he did a year ago when he arrived in the NHL. So I believe you have to throw picks. You have to throw probably a couple of really good young players.
But I’ll say that’s about it, because you’re not gonna, you’re not gonna jeopardize, you know, the future of your franchise by giving five pieces for a player that is gonna finish his contract, probably in Montreal or wherever he wants to play. If he still wants to play with Pittsburgh, obviously there’ll be no trade. But can it be Colorado? Can it be LA? We don’t know.
But right now, I believe that what the Pittsburgh Penguins are looking for is youth and picks. They’re in a rebuild mode, so we’ll see how things are going to evolve. But don’t, don’t expect that Juraj Slafkovsky to be traded, or Cole Caufield to be traded, or Kaiden Guhle to be traded. I don’t believe that, that’s going to be that’s, I don’t believe it’s going to happen.
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