Jarred Tinordi's season with the Montreal Canadiens has been a strange one. He played well enough during the preseason to stick in the NHL, but with the Habs icing a deep and talented defensive corps Tinoridi's done nothing beyond watch from the press box as the Canadiens hacked their way to a league-leading 36 points. In fact, with Alexei Emelin back, the team announced on Thursday that Tinordi was being sent to the AHL for a conditioning stint so he could, you know, playing some hockey. So, despite Tinordi's talent, the chances of him hitting the ice as a Hab this season are slim and/or none.
As such, Tinordi is, as has been suggested previously, reportedly being shopped by Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin. This has seemingly been an ongoing effort for Bergevin. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet indicated on Friday, via Chris Nichols, that Bergevin was pushing hard for two second-round picks for Tinordi in the summer. Now, with the team playing well and Tinordi's availability so widely known, he expects the price to be much lower.
Per Friedman, other GMs have been playing "hardball" with Bergevin on Tinordi, an asset Montreal is actively looking to move.
Friedman: Bergevin trying to get something for Tinordi, rather than lose him for nothing, "and everybody is playing hardball w/ him." #Habs
— Chris Nichols (@NicholsOnHockey) November 27, 2015
Tinordi, a former first-round pick and still just 23 years old, is, in many ways, still an unknown. But the stay-at-home talents he displayed in the preseason likely intrigued a number of the league's personnel men.
Unfortunately, Bergevin's suffering from his own personnel success and Tinordi's one-year, two-way contract. With the Habs playing so well, fueled in large part by the success of P.K. Subban and Co., he's forced to carry a talented player that he can't get on the ice.
But something almost has to give where Tinordi is concerned. It just sounds like Bergevin won't be landing anywhere close to two second-round picks for the big blueliner.
