Interesting! Who Was The Habs MYSTERY TARGET??

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There's Marco de Mico. I'm Sean Star. Welcome to the aftermath of NHL Trade Deadline right here

on the star and a Demiko show wherever you get your podcasts. And this is the week, my good man.

We're going to be at Morella's on Thursday night. Coming up at six o'clock for a live presentation.

We're also going to do our VIP draw. So you have the rest of this week, basically up until Thursday

to enter for a chance to win two tickets to see the Habs and Bruins at the Bell Center with you

and a friend, VIP luxury transportation to and from the game and $200 to spend at Morella's.

Marco, let's dive into, I mean, the strongest takeaway from from Friday's Trade Deadline where

General Manager Ken Hughes, if he didn't spend all of his time, he spent most of his time prior to

the deadline on a trade that would have been, quote unquote, a significant deal to move this rebuild

along. Obviously, they were incapable of getting it done. And the Canadians did no moves.

Now Hughes refused to more or less expand on what that deal might have been. It's time for

Star and Demiko guessing game. What do we think here? What's our educated opinions on?

Who can Hughes was likely targeting here?

I mean, so let's just put, let's just clarify things, right? Because we were, we had a lot of our

fans that were watching us live as the trade deadline ended. The Canadians weren't just on one

one thing, right? First of all, they have, you have Jeff Gordon, you have Ken Hughes both take calls

during that day and reconvene or if something gets close like they'll jump, they'll both jump on a

call like that's how it works. The Canadians came close to a couple of deals, not just one.

And the one that went down to the wire, because as we reported, there, there was discussions with

the Calgary Flames with those discussions kind of died when Flames ownership didn't want to retain

as much as the what the Canadians wanted. And then they circled back with Colorado and now he is

an av. What we do know is that the Canadians had multiple discussions on a couple of players,

but one really came close. Who that player could be? Anybody who tells you they know is alive.

Yeah. Because nobody on either side, everybody in hockey is trying to find out who that team or

player was that the Canadians went down to the wire to. But from what I was told, it was supposed to

be a Ford in the 20s, in the age of 20s. I know that the Canadians checked in on Ryan O'Reilly.

You know, source close to national informs me that they were that Nashville was for the first time

taking calls in a real way on Ryan O'Reilly. And that's a player that the Canadians have liked for a

while. But I just went for all of being told, I don't believe that it's a player of that age.

If they were going to make a significant trade, it was age appropriate. Though, and it's worth saying,

well, cadre wasn't age appropriate, but it's because the fit was going to work. Exactly.

And the key word there is significant deal. You know, whether we talk about Ryan O'Reilly,

I mean, obviously, I mean, maybe we should start with Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues. That

would, that would all under the umbrella and the descriptor of significant deal, age appropriate,

decent cap hit. Obviously, a first line, second line center, perhaps playing behind Nick

Suzuki. What about that? I mean, does that kind of fit with you? Would you imagine that was the

player that went down to the wire before Friday's deadline? Yeah, I mean, there's also a part of this

that's very PR, right? Like the Canadians didn't have a deal in place. Like, they weren't on

the registrar call at 3 p.m. I was confirmed by a colleague, I don't know what I was. So,

it's not like they were in the queue and something fell apart. So, what happened between 3 and 430?

Right? And so, I think part of it was to properly fashion the response because fans

understandably were not happy at the lack of moves at all, especially with Patrick Liny. The

expectation was that Patrick Liny was going to get traded. And from what I was told,

if they did their significant trade or if they're in their pursuit for cadre, for example,

there was Patrick Liny involved. So, there would have been a two bird one stone kind of situation.

So, you have to answer to that and you have to give hope to the fan base. So, I can understand

him saying, you know, they came close on a player and it's a thing that they're going to revisit.

So, you know, right off the bat, he wasn't talking about cadre because I don't think you're revisiting.

I don't think the Avalanche are trading cadre after just having acquired him, right? You get

him for that. You fit him in your budget. You're good to go. You know, in terms of players that

they're looking for, players with that are rare profiles. So, you bring up Robert Thomas.

We know that they had interest in Robert Thomas. A couple of teams had interest in Robert Thomas.

I could tell you it was not there. Doug Armstrong was not taking many, many, many calls on Robert

Thomas on Friday. The price did not go down. People just called, we're like, hey, is the price the

same? Yes, okay, that's it. And instead, the Blues focused on trading Shen. They focused on trading

Falk. There were discussions on Jordan Cairo, but like those are going to get kicked down to the

summer again. So, it could very well be Robert Thomas because they were and have been in discussion

with him, but I just don't know that that's the player that went down to the wire just simply

because, you know, the Blues already had two deals that were in the registrar or announced

right as of 3 p.m. So, I think that you have to take that into consideration as well.

I'm going to tell you who I think it is. It's just a guess. I mean, even Elliott Friedman

on Saturday during the second intermission in the Habs and Kings game, he had a guess. And to

your earlier point, nobody knows. Nobody knows. And the reason why no one was calculating whatsoever.

So, he didn't even, the reason why the reason why nobody wants to put names out there is because

the moment one person, like I'm sure the person you're going to name right now, trade rumors galore.

Correct. Yes. I mean to say it then you, you know, people, people take you out of context on a

daily basis on all your favorite social platforms, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You'd be crazy

what people do with technology nowadays. So, brother, here's my name. Okay. And it checks every box.

It goes back to Jeff Gordon talking in the summer about getting that dog player, getting that

intense forward. He fits the age. He fits the contract. He fits with the Montreal Canadians

are trying to do. And I think we're starting to see maybe this team retool.

I think it's Tom Wilson of the Washington capitals. What an ad that would be, what a desire target

in my opinion. That would be for the Montreal Canadian. It's obviously, you know, the much beloved

John Carlson gets moved to Anaheim when he was when he was sleeping. I personally believe

I have no obviously no insight here. It's just my opinion. I think Alexander Ovechkin is done

after this year personally. And I think there's going to be a little retool on the fly. And

how many teams right now can help the Washington capitals either with a couple of prospects with

some picks, whatever the case may be. And they begin to retool on the fly, as I mentioned. And I

think Tom Wilson would be that desired trade target. That's the player that not a lot of people

were talking about. And I think it checks a lot of box for Jeff Gordon and Ken Hughes and what

they're trying to do in this rebuild here to move it along as he said to move it along.

Yeah, I mean, the issue that I have with Tom Wilson, like on paper, perfect target.

Absolutely, you know, 31 years old turns 32 in May. I don't necessarily have a problem. I think

he brings exactly what the Canadians are missing. But if this fan base had a problem with Nazim

Codri, signed for three more years till he was 38. Go look at Tom Wilson's contracts. He signed

6.5 million. Yes. So just 500,000 less than Codri. But he signed for another five years.

You know, he'll be 39 at the end of that. It expires in the summer of 2031.

Yeah, I'm, you know, you talk about age. I have no, like, I have no problem with him.

I think he's a fantastic player. I think he's exactly the persona that Montreal is missing.

It's going to be expensive. And there are significant risks that could put you in a situation

where he becomes another kind of Josh Anderson situation. I'm not saying he's going to drop off

that hard. Yeah. But, you know, it becomes an anchor at a certain point in your window of contention.

So I don't, I think he's a great target. I think you're, you're on the right path in terms of

players thinking outside of the box because I don't think the Canadians were necessarily going

after a player that was heavily rumored. That's it. Yeah. But yeah, I just, I don't even think

he would be the most attractive piece for the Canadians on the, the Washington capitals. I think

maybe Dylan Strom would be probably, if you're going to blow it up, that's probably a guy that

the Canadians would look at because you can play him center. You can play him wing. He's big.

You know, signed short term gives him a little bit of flexibility. That's those are options.

I had a lot of people ask me about Jason Robertson. Yeah. That's, like if you're talking about

significant, that's significant. That's huge. Yeah. Yeah. But I was told that the Dallas stars were

not taking calls on him. They took calls and they said, we don't want to trade them. Obviously,

because if you're trading a Robert, Jason Robertson, you have to have like an equivalent coming

back, right? You have to have, if you're a Dallas, it's a win now. You're not going to, you're

leading score. You have to, one of the leading scorers, they play flip-flop between him and Hank

between him and speaking of MVP's. Yeah. Get this guy on the show. Big baby. But yeah, so I don't

think it was Jason Robertson. One name give it to me. Give it to me. One name is interesting to

me is Matthew Nies. Hey, now, because Toronto, for example, Toronto, Toronto took calls. Like I

know that Toronto took calls on Nies. I know that Toronto listened on Nies. I know that the Canadians

and Toronto spoke. I would be lying to you if I knew what the exact nature of that conversation

was, but I know that they had a conversation. If there was a player that I think can't use what

overpay for, that maybe wouldn't cost Thomas, like Robert Thomas price point. Matthew Nies to me

is the perfect missing ingredient for the Canadians at Ford. I mean, he checks so many boxes. I mean,

I just, I just, he would jump at the top of my list, Marco. He would be at the top of my list.

I mean, Jason Robertson's hard to knock off personally, but, but the thing is Jason Robertson,

Jason Robertson would have to come with a new contract that would probably be over $12 million.

If he wants to extend in Montreal, right, like there's so many things that factor into that. Whereas

you know, the Canadians going and looking at a guy like Robert Thomas, he signed at $8.1 million

from five more years. Well, have you seen Matthew Nies' contract? Yeah, yeah. Just an absolute

steal of a contract. And I think he still hasn't finished, you know, really hitting his peak.

You know, and it's unfortunate that the Canadians could, could have had Matthew Nies.

They chose Logan Mayu instead, but that was then in the draft of 2021.

I just, I, I feel like that's, that's also a player that makes a tennis sense for them in terms

of going to get a player in the 20s. If you're going to overpay for someone, you're going to overpay

for that. I will say, Sean, I think that that makes a ton of sense for me in terms of that kind

of asset value, that kind of player that maybe not a lot of people were talking about was kind of

out there. I think that's can't, you, like, can't use as the type, like, I'll bring it back.

Because I know people are really tired of me talking about the no adopts in situation, but the

moment the Canadians heard that no adopts in was available through the grapefines, they announced.

Right. The moment that they saw the trade rumor that Philip DeNoe was available, they

pounced. I'm wondering, you know, the name of Nies was not put out, silly willy, right? When,

when, like, when it comes to me, like, I get my information from, from the people I talk to in

hockey agents, players, coaches, execs, et cetera. When you're the Pierrela Bruns, when you're

the Elliott Friedman's just to open up, you know, the back of the world a little bit in this,

they get there, like, they obviously do the same work that I do, but on, because of their platform,

they also sometimes get information given to them. Yeah. Specifically to get it out there because

of the platform. It will, you know, continue and propagate because of second and third levels

of media, right? Matthew Nies' name put out there is not by chance. Right.

I'm not saying he's getting traded absolutely, but remember last summer when the Dallas stars were

thinking about trading Jason Robertson, I think it's going to be a very realistic thing to

summer that Jason Robertson is going to be, is going to be traded. I think I, I, I just don't see,

they're going to have to do some major surgery in, in that lineup to, to make it fit. Maybe they

trade LaBouche in, you know, and, and maybe that's a target for Montreal for, for, bottom pair

right shot, but I still feel like Robertson trade is coming. Well, I feel like when you start hearing

rumblings of a player like this, like we heard, like I heard rumblings of Robert Thomas in October,

there's a chance that player could be available. That would be an incredible get, but, of,

of very costly one with that. I've got two more thoughts before we wrap up today's discussion.

As we, not 32? No, not 32. That's trademarked. So that's going to be like the sidebar of our

podcast now. Two thoughts. Two thoughts. Hey, listen, that's only two pennies. When, when they

talked about revisiting in the summertime, after Friday's deadline, does that mean the player's

going to be a potential UFA? I mean, what, what, what did we read into that language? No, that

it's someone to revisit in the summer or is that inheriting and already done deal with another

organization? How do you interpret that? A lot of it, a lot of the times, like I'll give you an example

that I, I, you know, the Canadians had checked in on, on Phil to know last summer.

Just to kind of see what was going on. They had checked in on Noah Dobson at last year's

trade deadline to see what was going on. So there's always like seeds that are put in place for

the summer. And the Canadians do their best work. I think we can all agree in the summer. Yeah.

You know, especially buyers, I would say. So I don't think it's an, it's an

undistricted free agent. I don't. And the fact that he said that the players were, were willing to

lift their clauses for Montreal and the conversations they were having and was also kind of

interesting to me. It's not something that was lost on me. So this is why I, I say nice because

I feel like that works, but I feel like nice is kind of a pipe dream to, to say the least.

It feels more like a Robert Thomas kind of player, but I also feel like the Canadians probably

going for players that may be aren't on our radar right now. And that's probably a good thing.

But we're definitely going to be able to circle back on this, you know, probably in May and June.

But for all intents and purposes, I was told the Canadians had a couple of things on the burner.

Not simply just one. They just went, it went like a lot of these things fell off. A lot of these

things fizzled. There was one specific player that they went all the way to the end on.

So we'll see, we'll see definitely what could happen. But I'm, I'm willing to, I'm willing to

bet here. And this is the information that I have. The player in question was afford in, you know,

in their, in the age range of this team's core on the higher end, like towards Nick Suzuki's age

is what I was told. And so that leads me in perfectly. I guess to, I guess the last thought to,

to get your take on is the Ford position player, considering where the Canadians are in terms of

rankings, short-handed and in goal prevention. And still, you know, a top three team in the Atlantic

division now. They've got a little help on Saturday night after that crazy comeback win over the LA

Kings to wrap up the Cali trip. You surprised that it's not another, that it's not another

defenseman. I guess a significant player wouldn't be a fifth or six defenseman, I guess, right?

That's what it falls into. Correct. And I also feel like the, I can also say the Canadians did try on

defense. They, they did. I got not a liberty to say right now, because obviously I'd get in

trouble for it. But they were, they were, there was a, there was something that they thought was

getting close that fell through on defense, I believe, as well. So I'm not, I can't confirm that.

I don't have a second source on it. So I'm not reporting it. But it's definitely, I feel like,

you know, if, if I, you know, we have this conversation again in June, I wouldn't be surprised if

the Canadians also added another defenseman. But for those that want to stick around for tomorrow's

episode, there could be another reason why the Canadians didn't necessarily have to get another

defenseman. And we'll definitely be able to, to break that down because sometimes the best deals

you make are the ones you don't. There's Marco Domingo. You can follow him at M and Domingo,

one half of star and Domingo. If you like what you've heard, what you've listened to and what

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We'll see you tomorrow. Thanks, Ben. Have a good one everybody.