Habs Daily: Trade Targets, Suzuki’s Evolution, Tij Iginla

Here are the Montreal Canadiens news, highlights, and stories you may have missed on Tuesday.

• It’s never too early to take a look at some of the potential moves the Montreal Canadiens could make this summer. Kent Hughes will have several interesting options if he decides to find talent in the NHL’s trade market. [Potential Summer Trade Candidates For Montreal Canadiens]

• ICYMI: Speaking of options, here’s the team’s salary cap situation and roster projection for this summer. Things can change, but for now, it appears the Habs will have a little more than $17 million in available salary cap space. [Canadiens Salary Cap Outlook Gives Team Many Exciting Options]

• Nick Suzuki is enjoying the best season of his career, but is it sustainable? To get a better idea, we broke down his 5v5 scoring and compared his powerplay production to superstar centres. Spoiler: the results are very encouraging. [Canadiens Analysis: Suzuki’s Breakout Year & Future Projections]

• Suzuki scored his 31st and 32nd goals of the year, which means he registered yet another multi-point effort. Consequently, he joined a list with some of the most offensively talented Montreal Canadiens players in franchise history.

• One of the major benefits of having David Reinbacher in North America is easy access to the Canadiens development team. Paul Byron spent some time working with the Reinbacher on Tuesday. As a reminder, Byron was named a Player Development Consultant upon his retirement from the NHL.

• According to Stephane Gonzales from BPM Sports, the Canadiens are quite interested in 2024 top prospect Tij Iginla. Of course, Iginla will be one of the best forwards available at the NHL’s Entry Draft, but some analysts have suggested there’s a significant discrepancy between his potential and those of other forwards expected to be drafted in the top 10. Much of the decisions regarding his ideal draft position will take place now that Iginla and the Kelowna Rockets are participating in the WHL playoffs. For the record, the talented forward has scored five goals in the first three games of the series versus the Wenatchee Wild.

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• The Vegas Golden Knights are beginning to assert themselves in the Western Conference playoff race. Wins are stacking up like poker chips in front of Daniel Negreanu. The Golden Knights won their third straight and sent a loud message to their rival, the Pacific Division-leading Vancouver Canucks [Vegas Golden Knights]

• The Pittsburgh Penguins’ playoff chances were barely visible to the naked eye before their game against New Jersey at Prudential Center Tuesday night. And they were a whole lot smaller by the time the second intermission rolled around. The Devils had a 3-1 lead then, and could have been significantly farther ahead if not for some inspired work by Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic. [Pittsburgh Penguins]

• Amid the New Jersey Devils’ awful 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, interim head coach Travis Green benched Alexander Holtz. Ah, yes. Here we are again. The Devils’ former seventh-overall selection has not received the benefit of the doubt from just about anyone this season. [New Jersey Devils]

By Marc Dumont

Marc has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for Journal Metro, The Athletic, The ... More about Marc Dumont