Friedman: Canadiens looked at four centres before deciding on Dvorak

Now that the dust has settled on the Jesperi Kotkaniemi offer sheet, we know the Montreal Canadiens targeted, and landed, Christian Dvorak as their replacement at centre. However, we're now hearing that Habs GM Marc Bergevin looked at at least three other possibilities before making the trade with Arizona.

"[Bergevin] spent a week scrambling, or figuring out, what he was going to do at center," said Friedman on the latest 31 Thoughts Podcast. "We said last Saturday when we tapped the podcast that we thought there was a legitimate chance that Montreal wouldn't match. As the week went on I began to believe more and more that they weren't going to match, which is what they obviously did, but then you know you're sitting there and you're looking at your roster... you can't just say 'Ok we're letting Kotkaniemi go and we're done'. They had to have an alternate plan."

According to Friedman, potential backup plans included Tomas Hertl of the San Jose Sharks, Evgeny Kuznetsov of the Washington Capitals, and Sean Monahan of the Calgary Flames.

"I think they went after a few guys, I think they asked about obviously Hertl, obviously Dvorak, I wouldn't be surprised if they asked Washington about Kuznetsov but it didn't make any sense because they are in win now mode... I'm sure they asked Calgary about Monahan," said Friedman.

Montreal managed to land Dvorak for a first-round pick in 2022 and a second rounder in 2024. Whether the first round pick is Montreal's or the one they got from Carolina as compensation for Kotkaniemi will be determined by where both teams finish in the standings. If either, or both, land in the top 10 picks in 2022, Arizona will get the worst one. If neither lands in the top 10, the Coyotes will get the highest of the picks.

Source: 31 Thoughts podcast

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