Montreal Canadiens Pull Off Late-Night Trade Involving First Round Pick Justin Barron
The Montreal Canadiens pulled off a late-night trade yesterday involving the first-round pick Justin Barron.
The NHL trade freeze will be in effect between December 20th and 27th, meaning that teams cannot make roster moves between those days.
Teams are preparing for the holidays and many moves occurred last night.
The New York Rangers kicked things off by shipping Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken and the St. Louis Blues sent Pierre-Olivier Joseph to the Pittsburgh Penguins early in the evening.
A few hours later, the Montreal Canadiens announced another trade.
Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton, the Habs' General Manager and President of Hockey Operations acquired Alexandre Carrier from the Nashville Predators.
In return, they sent the first-round pick Justin Barron, who joined the Canadiens in the Artturi Lehkonen trade with the Colorado Avalanche a few years ago.
Read their official announcement here:
Barron, 23, hasn't been able to develop into a real full-time NHLer in his last four seasons with the Habs, and with many young defensemen in the organization, it seems Barron's time in Montreal had to come to an end.
With players like Lane Hutson and Mike Matheson bringing the offensive presence at the blue line, Barron wasn't needed in Montreal anymore and was often a healthy scratch this year.
As for Carrier, the 28-year-old defenseman from Quebec was ecstatic after the announcement.
For him, it's a dream come true to play in Montreal:
Listen to his full reaction (in French) in the video below:
Carrier is on the first season of a three-year, $3,750,000 AAV deal. This season, in 28 games, he has one goal and six assists.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Frank Vatrano | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Aaron Ekblad | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| William Nylander | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Matthew Tkachuk | 2 | - | 2 | |
| J.T. Compher | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Evgeny Dadonov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Patrick Kane | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Clayton Keller | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Lucas Raymond | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Nicholas Robertson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mackie Samoskevich | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Kyle Connor | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Logan Cooley | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Sean Couturier | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Radko Gudas | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Quinn Hughes | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Dylan Larkin | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Carter Verhaeghe | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Colin Blackwell | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Noah Cates | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 34 | 23 | 10 | 1 | 47 | |
Devils | 34 | 21 | 10 | 3 | 45 | |
Capitals | 31 | 21 | 8 | 2 | 44 | |
Wild | 32 | 20 | 8 | 4 | 44 | |
Golden Knights | 31 | 20 | 8 | 3 | 43 | |
Maple Leafs | 32 | 20 | 10 | 2 | 42 | |
Panthers | 33 | 20 | 11 | 2 | 42 | |
Hurricanes | 31 | 20 | 10 | 1 | 41 | |
Kings | 31 | 18 | 9 | 4 | 40 | |
Stars | 31 | 19 | 12 | - | 38 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||