Should the Canadiens be worried they can’t get a big trade done?

The big news still reverberating around the NHL is the blockbuster trade between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets that went down on the eve of the season, with Toronto getting winger Kirill Marchenko and Columbus getting winger Matthew Knies in a six-player deal.

While obviously that deal is of most interest to Leafs fans and Blue Jackets fans, it’s also particularly noteworthy for the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens were reported to have nearly swung a deal for Knies at last season’s trade deadline, and were reportedly pursuing Marchenko over the offseason. This trade between Toronto and Columbus means Montreal got neither player, and will have to look elsewhere for that coveted piece up front.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton were joined by Jeff Marek to discuss how much the Canadiens should regret not landing Knies or Marchenko this offseason.

Tyler Yaremchuk: That fanbase seems disappointed they haven’t landed one of these big fish via trade, and I’m curious, Jeff, do you think that disappointment rings true to the front office as well? Internally, do you think the Habs are bummed out that they haven’t gotten one of these done?

Jeff Marek: No, I really don’t think so. I think that this is a really mature management group, and this is a really aggressive management group. If you ask any of the restricted free agents that have signed, there’s not a whole lot of, and Hutts I’m sure you’ve seen this before where the general manager doesn’t call the agent for weeks upon weeks, but that’s not (Canadiens general manager) Kent Hughes. When Kent Hughes gets something in his head, he’s all over it, whether it’s a trade, whether it’s signing one of his free agents. It’s an aggressive group, it’s a smart group, it’s a mature group.

The way that I looked at it was, for any team that is going to be competitive and is on the uptick and trending upwards in their winning cycle, there comes a moment where they need, most times, the big trade. You have to time when that is. We’ve seen teams do it way prematurely, and maybe the best example of that was Phil Kessel in Toronto. Before the team had started to make the turn, all of a sudden there was the big deal. I kind of looked at Marchenko and said “If they get him, that’s great. I wouldn’t want to give up anybody from my roster because a lot of these guys still exist in a state of potentiality as opposed to actuality.” We still don’t know how good (Lane) Hutson’s going to be, how good (Ivan) Demidov’s going to be, or any of these younger kids’ are going to be, so to move them now can be considered risky. When those players start to mature and we get a better handle on just how good they are, and the Montreal Canadiens are starting to trend upwards towards the top of their winning cycle, that’s when you pull the big deal.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Thursday’s episode here…