GM Marc Bergevin continued his tremendous trading stretch last night when he dealt Ilya Kovalchuk to the Washington Capitals in exchange for a 2020 3^rd round pick. Essentially, Bergevin traded a 4^th round pick for two months of Marco Scandella, two months of Ilya Kovalchuk, a 2^nd round pick (STL), a 3^rd round pick (WSH), and a conditional 4^th round pick. Obviously, this is a job well done by Bergevin and the Canadiens’ are in a great position for the 2020 draft under his leadership.

With Montreal being the host city for the 2020 NHL draft, Bergevin has made sure his team will give the home fans plenty to buzz about, as the Canadiens own thirteen picks. Montreal has their own 1^st, their own 2^nd, Chicago’s 2^nd, St. Louis’ 2^nd, their own 3^rd, Washington’s 3^rd, their own 4^th, Anaheim’s 4^th, Winnipeg’s 4^th, their own 5^th, Florida’s 5^th, their own 6^th, and Chicago’s 7^th.

Ilya Kovalchuk has spent time with two NHL teams this season, as he played 17 games with the Los Angeles Kings before being signed to a two-way contract by Montreal on January 3^rd. In those 17 games with LA, Kovalchuk had 3 goals and 6 assists in 9 games. He was -10 during that span +/- wise. With Montreal, he has played 22 games and registered 6 goals and 7 assists for 13 points. He was +6 +/- wise in that span. His combined giveaway/takeaway ratio is 25:9 and his combined penalty taken/drawn ratio is an impressive 7:9. Kovalchuk has a -2.53 career AB score over 7-year sample size. He has only registered one positive AB season in his career and is coming off four straight negative seasons. Last season was Kovalchuk’s 2^nd worst AB score of his career at -5.24. Montreal will be retaining half of Kovalchuk’s league-minimum salary to make the money work for the cap-crunched Capitals. Washington will be the 4^th team Kovalchuk is taking up cap space on, as he is currently on New Jersey’s, Montreal’s, LA’s, and now Washington’s payroll.

With only a few hours remaining until the trade deadline, it doesn’t appear that Marc Bergevin is done making trades, as he still has many players of interest still available. Jeff Petry, Tomas Tatar, Nick Cousins, Nate Thompson, and perhaps even Max Domi could be dealt today by Montreal, as Bergevin could look to keep adding draft picks to his stockpile. It will surely be interesting to follow the Canadiens throughout the rest of the day today, as they currently sit eight points out of a playoff spot with a 29-27-8 record. Much more to come out of Montreal (hopefully).