Larry Brooks of the New York Post shares a rumor in his Sunday column that qualifies as curious.
Brooks says the Montreal Canadiens are getting calls on forward Max Pacioretty and both the New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers are “taking serious runs at him.”
Pacioretty being mentioned at all in this light is fascinating because he’s on a cap-friendly deal that sees him get $4.5 million per season through 2018-19. Pacioretty also leads the Habs in goals scored with 15 and he’s missed nine games this season. He’s also led Montreal in scoring the past two seasons.
While all of those traits would make for great reasons why teams would want to pick him up, it doesn’t make a world of sense for Montreal to do it.
Ideally, Pacioretty is the kind of player Montreal GM Marc Bergevin would love to have around, but Brooks says coach Michel Therrien isn’t a big fan of his.
Teams will always call to find out about a player’s availability, but if there’s anything at all to this chatter, the reaction in Montreal won’t be positive.