Rumor: Canadiens linked to 2 more potential trades.

The Montreal Canadiens made some major moves this summer as executive vice president Jeff Gorton and general manager Kent Hughes looked to quickly move on from the Marc Bergevin era and move forward towards rebuilding the team into one that better reflects their vision of a National Hockey League roster.

Hughes made significant trades at the draft that saw the team add the likes of Kirby Dach and ship out relatively young defenseman Alexander Romanov, but it sounds like the Habs general manager may not be done shaking things up on his roster. The latest comes to us courtesy of Habs reporter Patrick Lortie who over the weekend reported that the Canadiens were currently in talks with the New York Rangers regarding a pair of potential trades.

From Lortie:

Can confirm via an NHL exec that the [Canadiens] have been chatting with the Rangers for weeks now. Habs are said to be high on Nils Lundkvist and would love to poach Vitaly Kravtsov as well. Not sure if or how they can pull this kind of trade but let's keep an eye open.

Nils Lundkvist is a 22 year old defenseman that was selected in the first round (28th overall) by the Rangers at the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. The Swedish blue liner has appeared in just 25 career NHL games, all of which came last season with the Rangers. Over that stretch he had 1 goal and 3 assists for a total of 4 points and finished with a plus minus rating of +4.

Vitaly Kravtsov on the other hand is a former Rangers first round pick (9th overall) from the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. Kravtsov and the Rangers have not seen eye to eye when it comes to his deployment in the NHL and as a result the 22 year old Russian forward split his time between the NHL and the Kontinental Hockey League last season. If the Rangers were indeed trying to move Kravtsov it would come as little surprise given the apparent conflict that there has been between player and team.

Unfortunately we were not provided any details on what the Canadiens are prepared to give up or what they might be offering the Rangers for either player, so we will have to wait and see if anything materializes from these talks.