All Habs Hockey Magazine is proud to provide a platform for fans to express their views on current issues. Today, we present a piece on the Canadiens approach to the trade deadline. Fred Arshoff is owner and moderator of the Montreal Sports group on Facebook.  Your comments are welcome.

by Fred Arshoff, Guest Contributor, All Habs Hockey Magazine

MONTREAL, QC. — I feel that the Habs should be sellers at the trade deadline, for the first time in several years. This year’s deadline is February 29th which happens to be Henri Richard’s 80th birthday.

I am not saying that the Canadiens should be ‘tanking’ as I don’t believe in it. Losing not a way to bring confidence to the younger players. I am simply saying that they should be sellers as they are falling further back even when the Habs don’t play as teams just ahead of them or just behind are winning their games in hand. That, no one can control.

The one player who is a free agent at the end of the season who I wouldn’t trade is Ben Scrivens. I believe that Carey Price should be shut down for the rest of the season so that he can rehab his injury. He needs to be ready for next season and strong enough so that he is not injured again.

I would go as far as to say that Scrivens should be signed to a one-year contract at the end of the season. A competition between Ben and Mike Condon in training camp would be good. That way if one of them is claimed from waivers, Montreal will have an experienced goaltender to call on in the event of another injury.

On defence, I would trade upcoming unrestricted free agent (UFA) Tom Gilbert. I am not saying that he played badly but I would rather go with younger players and have them develop as the Habs will need them to step in regularly during the 2017-18 season, when I expect Andrei Markov will be retired.

The two young defencemen I am referring to is Nathan Beaulieu and Greg Pateryn. There is also Marc Barberio who is fully developed with over 125 games of NHL experience. We know that he plays a risky game the way he jumps into the offensive zone but if partnered with Alexei Emelin, a stay-at-home type, any mistakes can be covered.

On the forward side, I would trade Dale Weise as he is a pending UFA making $1,025,000 a season and he will likely want a raise like all other players. I wouldn’t pay a 3rd/4th liner $3-4 million a year. I know that the Habs have played him on the top two lines but I see him more of a third line checking forward.

To replace him the Canadiens have Jacob De La Rose who is a lot younger and will have a much smaller cap hit. Also, I would trade Devante Smith-Pelly as he isn’t hitting like he should given his physical size.

For those three players, I would be very happy to get a draft pick but no lower then the fifth round. I say fifth round as Trevor Timmins has drafted good players for us in that round, such as Brendan Gallagher.

I would also make sure that Daniel Carr and Sven Andrighetto stick with the big team for the 2016-17 as they both can score goals and have played on the top two lines in the AHL.

I feel Micheal McCarron and Nikita Scherbak, the latter due to the injuries this past season, would benefit a lot more by starting the season in the AHL and getting top minutes.