Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

Many holes still need to be filled in the Montreal Canadiens’ lineup if management wants to contend next season.

One of the key positions to address is definitely the second-line center.

We’ve seen it, Kirby Dach doesn’t get the job done at that position, and Alex Newhook is definitely not a top-6 player.

The Gorton-Hughes duo will need to get creative to find a reliable player for next season to lead Ivan Demidov’s future line.

Does Kent Hughes have a Dallas Stars player in his sights?

Plenty of speculation has circulated on social media in recent weeks about who the Canadiens’ future center could be.

The names of John Tavares, Dylan Cozens, Matt Duchene, and even Tage Thompson have all come up.

Now, a new player joins that list, Dallas Stars forward Roope Hintz.

The 28-year-old center is, according to the site NHL Trade Rumor, a target for Kent Hughes.

The rumor mentioned on the site suggests the Canadiens are considering a major trade to pry Hintz away from the Stars.

However, we’ll treat it simply as a proposal-or a “mock trade”, just for the sake of discussion.

Here’s the proposed deal:

To Montreal:

Roope Hintz

To Dallas:

Kirby Dach, Logan Mailloux, Joshua Roy, 2025 1st-round pick (CGY), 2025 2nd-round pick (PIT)

For your information, Hintz signed a contract extension in November 2022 worth $67.6M ($8.45M AAV), which keeps him in Dallas through the end of the 2030-2031 season.

Since entering the league, he has surpassed the 70-point mark twice, once in 2021-2022 (72 in 80 games) and again in 2022-2023 (75 in 73 games).

Just imagining him with Ivan Demidov and Patrik Laine, it’s mouthwatering!

Would you do it?

We weren’t able to double-check their information, but it’s still a great discussion topic, so like I said, we’re treating it as a simple proposal just to chat and entertain.