Exploring a Canadiens’ Potential David Savard Trade

The most likely scenario in which Savard is dealt elsewhere prior to next season is in the event that general manager (GM) Kent Hughes and company are confident enough in the abilities of Mailloux and/or Reinbacher. If the team is confident enough that either of those two are NHL-ready, it will create a further logjam on defense which Hughes may need to take action to unclog.

Cap Situation and Free Agent Pool Encourages Hughes to Be Patient

The Canadiens have virtually no breathing room in terms of spending money. No significant money is being taken off the books at this moment, with only Tanner Pearson, Colin White, and Chris Wideman (who has since retired) becoming unrestricted free agents. Xhekaj and Jesse Ylonen will need new contracts as they are restricted free agents, though the latter may not have played well enough down the stretch to earn one. Perhaps more importantly, two significant players are now one season removed from needing new and more lucrative contracts — Juraj Slafkovsky and Guhle, which will undoubtedly take up a large chunk of the team’s cash. The $12 million annually tied to Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson will eat up a great deal of the team’s potential spending money, as both of those anchoring contracts don’t expire until the end of the 2026-27 season.

The team will gain a heap of cap space following the 2024-25 season, with Christian Dvorak’s $4.5 million salary coming off the books, in addition to the $3.4 million Joel Armia commands and the $3.5 million tied to Savard. Those three players alone command more than $11 million. Carey price’s contract will evidently yet again head to the long-term injured reserve (LTIR), giving the team a chance to make a splash via free agency should they feel comfortable doing so. Hughes can be patient here, with the only real incentive to deal Savard being if Mailloux and/or Reinbacher prove they are capable of stepping into an NHL role and are able to hold on to it. Perhaps he could feel inclined to take a risk and give one of them (or both) a role and ship Savard away given the relatively low expectations for the team, though they are expected to enter a turning point in their rebuild with the likes of Mailloux and Lane Hutson finally making their long-awaited debuts. Hughes and company may want to test their patience (as they did with Slafkovsky).

Savard Doesn’t Fit With the Team’s Long-Term Plans

Savard is 33, Mike Matheson is 30, and Johnathan Kovacevic is 26. No other Canadiens rostered defenseman is older than 23, meaning all but those aforementioned three were born after 2000 — emphasizing the youth and inexperience of this defense group. Realistically, Savard will be 35 to 36 before the Canadiens are a genuinely competitive team with Stanley Cup aspirations. Surely he will begin to decline from the steady, reliable defender he has been for many years. While he fetched a first-round pick from the Tampa Bay Lightning (where he would go on to defeat the Habs in the Stanley Cup Final, assisting on the Cup-clinching tally), the Canadiens may not get the same treatment if they wait and hold on to a potentially-declining asset all season. This is a risk the team must be willing to consider in addition to the risk of moving him and starting the season with Mailloux or Reinbacher.

Given Hughes’ patience as GM — opting to trade only Jake Allen at this season’s trade deadline (and moving Sean Monahan several weeks prior in a showing of fantastic asset management — fans should probably expect a relatively-quiet offseason. The most likely scenario is a mid-season trade to a stronger team in order to bolster their roster, as has been the case for three seasons now. While Savard is a valuable addition to any team, he still provides value for the Canadiens. Hughes and President of Hockey Operations Jeff Gorton will have several factors to consider when assessing the situation Savard is in.