NHL Rumor Mill – March 30, 2026
Do Patrik Laine, Arber Xhekaj, and Jayden Struble fit into the Canadiens’ plans beyond this season? Could Ducks center Mason McTavish become an offseason trade chip? Find out in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE: A reader asked Stu Cowan if Patrik Laine will play another game for the Canadiens. The 27-year-old winger was sidelined in October by abdominal surgery. He’s been practicing with the team for weeks, but there hasn’t been any room for him in their current lineup.
Montreal Canadiens winger Patrik Laine (NHL Images).
Cowan noted the rebuilding Canadiens needed Laine’s offense in 2024-25, and wouldn’t have squeaked into the 2025 playoffs without him. However, the Canadiens are this season’s third-highest-scoring team, and no longer need his power-play contributions. He doesn’t fit into the Canadiens’ fast-paced style of play this season.
Laine is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Cowan believes he will seek a fresh start elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble have been battling for the sixth spot on the Canadiens’ blueline all season. Xhekaj has been a healthy scratch in several recent games as Struble has moved past him on the depth chart.
However, Cowan wouldn’t be surprised if both defensemen were traded during the offseason. Promising young blueliners David Reinbacher and Adam Engstrom could be ready to make the jump to the NHL next season. General manager Kent Hughes could also be in the market for a veteran right-shot defenseman.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It’s been another difficult season for the oft-injured Laine. There simply isn’t any room for him now with the improving young Canadiens, who are expected to soon welcome prospect forward Michael Hage into their lineup.
Laine’s injury history means he won’t be getting any lucrative long-term offers in this summer’s free-agent market. Nevertheless, his big shot should help him land with another NHL club seeking a power-play specialist, though he’ll likely have to accept a significant pay cut on a one-year contract.
Xhekaj’s physical style has made him a fan favorite in Montreal, but he’s struggled to nail down a full-time spot on the Canadiens’ third defense pairing. A strong performance in the upcoming playoffs might help him, as his style of play seems better-suited to the postseason’s physical grind.
However, with those promising youngsters knocking on the door, this could be Xhekaj’s final season with the Canadiens. He might’ve been part of that mysterious blockbuster trade that Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes was working on before the trade deadline.
Struble seems the least likely to be moved this summer, but that doesn’t ensure his long-term future in Montreal. He could be moved next season if Engstrom or Reinbacher make the club.
DAILY FACEOFF: Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton recently spoke with Felix Sicard of the Crash the Pond podcast regarding Mason McTavish’s future with the Anaheim Ducks.
McTavish missed most of training camp last fall before signing his six-year, $42 million contract. The 24-year-old center has struggled this season and was recently scratched from a couple of games. He has 14 goals and 34 points in 66 games.
Sicard noted that McTavish was supposed to have nailed down the second-line center position. His struggles could be attributable to missing camp or playing under a new head coach. Sicard doesn’t think it’s reached the point where McTavish will get traded, but he didn’t dismiss the possibility.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Sicard also pointed out that the Ducks have succeeded this season despite McTavish’s difficulties. That could make his future in Anaheim less certain than it was a year ago.
Nevertheless, I concur with Sicard that it’s unlikely McTavish will be traded this summer. The Ducks will remain patient and anticipate a bounce-back performance from him next season.
Anaheim may have to look at trading McTavish because they have $40M in cap space for next season and it will likely take close to half of that, if not more, to sign Carlsson and Gauthier. Plus they will have Sennecke the following year to sign too.
With the remaining $20M they need to sign 5 or d-men since only Lacombe and one other guy is under contract. John Carlson (who IMO likely won’t be back), Trouba and Gudas are UFAs and Mintyukov, Zellweger and Moore are RFAs. Plus they will need a 13th and 14th forward and a backup goalie.
Maybe they could be a good trading partner with Montreal. Montreal would likely be interested in McTavish as a 2C to play with Demidov and likely Hage next season, especially since McTavish is a L shot.
Maybe a deal like:
To Mtl: McTavish
To Ana:
Dach (rights since he’s RFA),
Montembault (for a change of scenery),
Struble or if Ana wants more of a prospect D then Engstrom instead,
A pick (depending on the combination above up to a 2nd rounder)
This could fill out several of Anaheim’s needs; a backup goalie, more R shot fwds (they only have Terry and Sennecke) and get a young D who is still on a ELC.
Montembault’s stats are worse than Dostal or Husso who are both signed next year.
Dach just can’t stay healthy. Dach + Montembault combined salaries (if Dach were to be qualified) are just shy of Mctavishs salary.
Can’t see Anaheim jumping on that type of proposal.
Wow another one trade who makes these up anyway
As a Habs fan, I can agree that the offer from my team’s side is lacking in the acknowledgement of the shortcomings in the stated assets and more than unlikely to evoke any interest from the Ducks.
Kudos to you, Captain, for pointing that out and not resorting to character assassination as a rebuttal.
Drive,
I agree that Monty needs a change of scenery and has no future with the Habs, and that Dach is too unreliable to sign to anything but short, inexpensive contract — which he might not accept. Struble only has a future with the Habs as a 7th D.
But I dispute the notion that the Habs would be very interested in McTavish at 2C. He’s signed for 4 more years after this season. What do they do with Kapanen? Hage is projected as a center.
Acquiring McTavish made more sense last July.
Husso is signed for another year as BU. Monty would be excessive.
McT would be a better fit in Detroit, and Y and Verbeek are trading partners and long time friends.
Wouldn’t mind Xhekaj on NYR. Since dumping Trouba they’ve lost that fear factor for teams entering zone.
Is Granlund 2c with Ducks? Can’t see team trading McTavish, unless they get back another center. Ducks have plenty of cap space next year but, 6 of their 8 rostered D men need new deals. Leo Carlsson is going to get a significant raise. Gather new deals probably not as much. Will be interesting summer for them. Let’s see how well they do in playoffs.
McT is currently playing wing on line 4. Very much in the dog house! Granlund is line 2 C.
Starting to look like McT might be a reclamation project. His trade value would be low. A very good prospect goalie and 3rd line C would be considered a good return. I would see if Postava, Rasmussen and a 3rd would be enough to get McT. Postava is sporting a .932 SA in the AHL backing up Cossa (.918) and can be in the AHL will Husso is gone in a year. Raz would help their PK. And it would give the Ducks around $4M in cap savings.
I disagree Johnny. With the premium on centers and no trade protection there will be plenty of suitors willing to bid to drive his value up. The trade scenarios I’m reading here are unlikely to be close to what he’d actually return.
Where the Habs really hit the jackpot is with the untried Martin St Louis as coach. Believe he’s the best teacher & roster maximizer (perhaps after Cooper) in the league.
High praise, Richard.
But let’s not step over their draft picks: Hutson, Kapanen, Demidov and especially of late Dobes have made a major impact on the team.
HF30, from late yesterday, in your hallelujah chorus on Zacha (who certainly is playing well for the Bs), you made an eyebrow raising statement:
“Zacha 52% on faceoffs compared to Kapanen’s 46.7%, that equates to 34 more faceoff wins in Kapanen’s 604 faceoffs. We are all aware how important possession on faceoffs is and it probably contributes to the 20 extra points.”
You state this based on?
You may be tired of me pushing back but how about a rebuttal from a different source, AI:
“While faceoffs provide immediate possession, research indicates that winning them has little to no long-term correlation with a team’s final goal differential or position in the standings.”
Re: Zacha to Habs. Sweeney stated publicly he hopes to re-sign Zacha, so last summer he would have asked for a lot. Likely why he didn’t move.
This summer however, Sweeney will have an idea of what his ask will be for $$ and term, which may make him more of a trade candidate, or less depending what they value him at.
Zacha has been a quality 2C his entire time in Boston, and he isn’t a one year wonder in that regard. Pumping in more goals of late as he is on a heater, and his SH% is really high, so not sustainable. That’s fair.
But he has been a big, reliable 2C who plays a responsible game and provides 2C offence. His 82 game average would be 58 pts during those 4 seasons. This year he should hit between 65-67, so a nice bump, but not crazy.
B’s don’t have many C’s in their pipeline, many folks think Hagens is better suited to the wing in the NHL. We’ll see.
I can see the B’s keeping him unless the ask is outrageous. Guys like him don’t grow on trees.
Zacha to the Habs isn’t going to happen, Ray.
Even though he is having a banner year as you note he has played well for the Bs. Unless he asks for crazy money I am sure the Bs will re-sign him. We all know good Centers are hard to come by, and your boys have a projected cap space of 17 million. The only significant UFA the Bs have to deal with is Arvidsson.
As an aside: I am annoyed at the Bs resilience.
Ray Bark the Bruins have several centers in their pipeline.The problem is they are all young and not as mature as Minton. Hagens projects more as a wing.NJ does that with Hughes. For centers they have Poitras, Letourneau,Locmelis, Pelosi.Lindholm,Zacha ,Minton aren t going anywhere. Kuraly is easily replaceable as a 4th line center.Kastellac played there before they brought Kuraly in.
Agree LJ, Habs unlikely. Everyone seems to think Hage is the real deal, and Kapanen has done very well for a youngster. You really don’t want to block either of them for an extended period let alone give up assets to do it.
Last year would have made sense for the Habs IMO as they had him for 2 years, but the B’s understood where they are at the C position, so didn’t make sense for them unless it was a haul.
Sr, the only real 2/3 C prospect the B’s have IMO is Letourneau. And he is still raw so a question mark, but they knew that when they drafted him. He may spend another year in college, and then some time in AHL. Again normal for a guy who is 6’7″.
Poitras doesn’t have NHL C wheels. He might be able to overcome that like Krecji did with crazy good vision, smarts and skill, but that hasn’t happened in Providence yet and he’s 22.
It would be great if Hagens could be that #1 guy, but he seems more built for wing at NHL level. All good, seems like a guy who should bring some offence consistently, we will need that too.
Maybe we get lucky and draft in the 6-7 hole and a guy like Malhotra slips. But methinks he goes before that.
Almost forgot LJ, happy to hear the B’s are back to being annoying to Hab fans! Rest assured the feeling is mutual.
Unfortunately a 1st RD matchup is unlikely, or maybe that’s fortunate?
I dunno, every time I start publicly believing in the B’s this year, they take a step or 2 backwards. So I will continue with public negativity on their chances of success, because so far it is working.
As f’d up as that is.
LJ,
Check this out:
https://www.sloansportsconference.com/research-papers/how-much-do-faceoffs-matter-translating-faceoffs-to-goals-wins-and-championships-in-hockey
One of the problems with AI is getting a result stitching together conflicting data and opinion and drawing incorrect conclusions depending on which is being given more weight.
Hockey isn’t a game of chance and metrics regarding possession are integral to the outcome of the game more often than not.
If one wants to say faceoff wins not in the offensive and defensive have little impact ok.
There’s a reason teams have set plays off the faceoff and there’s a reason why coaches put two centres on the ice at what they consider important points.
A players points accumulate in many different ways and for many different reasons but one thing for certain, more face off wins and more possession is likely to influence production positively.
Agreed, AI is a roll up from a wide variety of sources, and I would not make life changing decisions based on it.
Nor am I denying the value of face off wins. Of course they will have a positive effect, particularly on OT these days. What I am pushing back on is the assertion that face off wins can result in a 20 point swing.
Here is the concluding remarks in your article:
“We suggest that elite faceoff performers can eclipse over five goals per season in projected effect and that, with strong personnel decisions, faceoffs can win meaningful amounts of games over the course of a full season.”
What this says is what anyone knowing hockey knows, but quantifying it into a points per game projection is a WAG (wild ass guess). Not something to construct a case on, and not something your source concludes.
I will drop this Zacha debate if you will. It surely is beyond tedious for others now. It is for me.
Rich a little early for a jackpot description. He at least has to win a playoff series Reminds me a little bit like Brinda mour in Carolina. Problem is he has become a bridesmaid every year. Never winning the big one.
Habs tried something different last night, Arber Xhekaj dressed as a LW.
He didn’t play much, 5m got in 5 hits and one blocked shot, +/- 0 but that’s a decent first outing on the 4th line. Plus if a D-man gets hurt he could slide right in.
Rather surprising that MSL tried it against a high tempo pressure team.
I’ve always been a fan of the d/w combo player. Loved Ian Moran for the pens. Much better to still have 6 d if one goes out than 5. Running 11 forwards much easier.
I too was surprised but with Texier, Anderson and ever injured Dach out it was a resource issue.
Still, a possible option for the playoffs against a heavier team.