Montreal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin wants to make a deal - just don't come to him if you're offering a rental.
He's looking to buy long-term.
Bergevin, rumored to be very active in the NHL trade market, has made it clear that he's only interested in adding a player with term on his deal.
"The Montreal Canadiens are a very good hockey team and general manager Marc Bergevin would like to continue to improve that, and much more likely to do it as a hockey deal as opposed to rentals, which he did last year with Thomas Vanek," said TSN's Bob McKenzie on a recent episode of Insider Trading, per NicholsOnHockey.com's transcription.
Bergevin is said to be eyeing a top-6 scoring winger - with term left on his deal, of course - and has made a couple if his valuable veteran NHL assets available in exchange.
"But two of the names we've been hearing out of Montreal for a considerable period of time now - weeks, if not months - would be Lars Eller up front and Alexei Emelin on the blueline. Now the goal here for the Montreal Canadiens obviously if they're going to move those two guys is to bring in other guys that are under contract that they can stay with long term," McKenzie explained.
The only hindrance to this point according to McKenzie is, ironically, the combination of term and cap hit that Eller and Emelin's deals carry and the uncertain NHL cap figure for next season.
"Eller has three years left at $3.5 million cap hit after this season. Alexei Emelin, a very physical defenseman, has three years on his deal after this season at a $4.1 million cap hit. It is not easy to move players with term and dollars when nobody knows what the cap is going to be."
While it's still entirely possible that a deal could get done - Bergevin and the Habs have been linked to numerous names: Antoine Vermette, Ryan O'Reilly, Nail Yakupov to name a few - it looks like Bergevin's preference for a player with term and interest in moving Eller and Emelin may make things more difficult.
