Report: Duchene to meet with Canadian team this week

With the spotlight shining brightly on pending unrestricted free agents Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky for months now, there’s been relatively little attention given to fellow pending UFA Matt Duchene. But make no mistake, the 26 year old center is going to cash in and he’ll have PLENTY of options when the free agent market opens up on July 1st.  

It’s expected that Duchene will meet with both the Blue Jackets and Nashville Predators this week to kick off negotiations, but according to NHL insider David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, Duchene is also entertaining the idea of a return to Canada in free agency. Duchene, of course, played for the Ottawa Senators the past two seasons, but it’s one of the Sens’ divisional rivals that has Duchene’s interest: the Montreal Canadiens.

Check it out:

Interesting. The Habs have over $10 million in cap space to use this offseason, but still need to re-sign Charles Hudon, Artturi Lehkonen and Joel Armia. Still, Habs general manager Marc Bergevin can gain over $4 million in cap space should he find a way to jettison Karl Alzner and his anchor of a contract.

Thoughts, Habs fans?