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Canadiens ‘gauging the market’ for P.K. Subban trade: Report

Greg Wyshynski
Subban

Ask an NHL team executive how trade talks work, and they’ll tell you that every GM is asking every other GM about every one of their players – especially if there’s even the slight whiff of discontent between that player and his team.

Also, if you ask an NHL executive about a certain player whose name may or may not be in play, you occasionally end up speaking with some crap-stirrer looking to turn up the burner on a rival team feeling the heat.

All that established: Louis Jean of TVA reports that the Montreal Canadiens are “gauging the market” on star defenseman P.K. Subban.

From Jean:

Subban is signed through 2022 with an annual cap hit of $9 million.

Now, according to General Fanager, here’s the rub: Subban’s no-move clause doesn’t kick in until next season. So while a Subban trade would be idiotic, inexplicable and undoubtedly something that would further alienate Canadiens fans from the current direction of the team … if they were going to do it, it would have to be now.

Elliotte Friedman calls the scenario "extremely unlikely" but reminds us that a Subban trade once wasn't so outlandish. Via Chris Nichols: 

“I will tell you this. Nobody has ever confirmed it, but before that contract got done – or around the time the contract got done… – I think the Canadiens thought about it. I’ve always believed the team was Philadelphia that had the biggest offer. I don’t know what that offer was.

“But at the end of the day, the Montreal Canadiens thought having P.K. Subban was better than whatever Philadelphia’s offer was. But I heard Philly’s was the best.”

Again, this is just as likely to be a team executive making life more miserable for GM Marc Bergevin and company as it is the Canadiens actually kicking tires on a Subban move. But if Montreal needed their season-long migraine to intensify, a report like this is like someone hitting them square in the temple with a sledgehammer.

Oh man ... could you IMAGINE if the Canadiens traded Subban and brought Michel Therrien back for 2016-17?

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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