The Vancouver Canucks could still use some depth at center
Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet: There is a bit more positivity surrounding the Vancouver Canucks right now than there was a couple of months ago. They re-signed Brock Boeser, extended Conor Garland and Thatcher Demko, and brought in Evander Kane.
They do need to add some depth down the middle, but they can be patient. They may need to move out salary to be able to do that, with Dakota Joshua and Teddy Blueger as trade candidates. Joshua is an emerging power forward, and Blueger is a penalty-killing center. They need to be careful.
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The Montreal Canadiens are comfortable with their second-line position for now
Jimmy Murphy of RG.org: Montreal Canadiens executive VP of Hockey Ops Jeff Gorton said they are still looking at the trade market for a 2C, but they’re comfortable going into training camp without adding one as they believe they have some internal options to start the year. Gorton did add:
“We’re going to still look and try to improve our team always. A lot of people are talking about centers, but we have centers in our organization, and we’re comfortable with that going into camp.
I have mentioned before that we don’t look at it like opening day as the end of when you can change your roster. There are a lot of teams around the league that add players after that and all the way up to the deadline, so we’re comfortable with where we’re at and the moves we’ve made.”
Defenseman Mike Matheson has been in the rumor mill of late, but Gorton said Matheson has been really good for them, playing upwards of 25 minutes a game in all situations. Lane Hutson has taken PP1 time from Matheson, but they’ll see what the next step is. He has one year left on his deal.
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Matheson could be paired with Noah Dobson if he’s not traded.
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