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State of the team

Surprisingly sprightly. The East features a motley assortment of flawed contenders, the Habs chief among them. It’s hard to imagine a club with David Desharnais as its top centre winning the Stanley Cup this year, but with Carey Price in net, the rules don’t apply. They remain on the fringes of the elite but would get downright scary by adding a good right-sided defenceman and a scoring right winger.

So far

GM Marc Bergevin pulled off a surprise predeadline trade last week, sending zippy third-line winger Jiri Sekac to Anaheim for the stouter Devante Smith-Pelly, who provides more heft along the boards and angrier defence.

Likely scenarios

The Habs end up paying a below-market price for a defenceman and/or a character winger that no rumour linked them to.

Wild cards

Perhaps they’ll move a veteran contract with term left on it (Alexei Emelin, P.A. Parenteau, Tomas Plekanec) in exchange for a younger player. Bergevin is adamant about not parting with young assets, but packaging Lars Eller with one of his shinier prospects, like Jarred Tinordi or Zach Fucale, and a pick might yield a temptingly high return. He is adept at pulling rabbits out of hats (see the case of Vanek, T.), so what if he did something crazy like acquire Phil Kessel? Or a young stud defenceman like Oliver Ekman-Larsson?

Some advice

A pro scout from a rival team said this is what he would do as GM of the Habs: “nothing big.” This is not a time for rash decisions or big bets, the Canadiens’ Cup window isn’t about to slam shut, and it doesn’t make sense to overpay on deadline day. Of course, Bergevin already knows this.

Sean Gordon