Adam Engstrom has turned into a real trade candidate for the Montreal Canadiens, and the timing is no coincidence.
This week, The Athletic's Arpon Basu reported the Habs are scouring the trade market and using their surplus on defense as capital in that search.
Engstrom's name keeps coming up in those conversations. Other teams have already asked about him, and Montreal hasn't shut the door on moving him.
Part of that comes down to timing. His entry-level deal is heading into its final year with no extension talks happening yet.
Engstrom is only 22, an AHL All-Star with Laval last season, and still ranked among Montreal's top five to ten prospects by most accounts.
He put up 34 points in 45 games with the Rocket, finishing at a plus-14, the kind of number that keeps his stock high even amid trade rumors.
Why Montreal's crowded blue line makes him expendable
In his 15 game NHL look, Engstrom managed one assist and a plus-2 rating, averaging 13 minutes a night, a fair sample for a rookie call up.
The real issue is the traffic jam above him. Lane Hutson, Noah Dobson, Kaiden Guhle, Michael Matheson and Alexandre Carrier already own the everyday jobs on that blue line.
Add in David Reinbacher, another left-shot puck mover still developing, and it's clear Montreal has more of Engstrom's exact skill set than it actually needs.
As Basu put it, the question becomes how much of the same thing one blue line can have, especially when that's not historically what wins in the playoffs.
That's a fair read. Stockpiling smooth-skating, offense-first defensemen looks great in August, but it doesn't fix what beats you in a seven-game series.
Whether Engstrom actually gets moved before camp, or Montreal keeps betting his ceiling is worth the logjam, is still very much unresolved.
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Should the Canadiens trade Adam Engstrom given how crowded their blue line already is?
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