With just a few days left before the NHL’s famous trade deadline, Pierre LeBrun has new information regarding Kent Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens.

In the past few hours, LeBrun provided a major update on the Jake Evans situation, confirming that the Canadiens’ general manager is receiving several interesting phone calls about Evans.

“There is no shortage of calls regarding Jake Evans, from what I’m hearing around the league.

Montreal’s post-break surge obviously makes things interesting.

As I’ve mentioned before, the Canadiens have told teams that they are fine with keeping Evans if their asking price is not met.

This could go either way.”

Pierre LeBrun, TSN

 

This is very intriguing and quite encouraging.

Essentially, much like with Artturi Lehkonen a few years ago, Kent Hughes’ stance on Jake Evans seems very clear.

He will be traded only if-and only if-the offer is truly worth it.

Pierre LeBrun confirms that Kent Hughes is receiving multiple trade calls involving Jake Evans

In any case, this puts Hughes in an advantageous position, which is obviously good news.

 

Personally, I believe this is absolutely the right approach.

If the Canadiens can get a good young player or a late first-round pick for Jake Evans, as reported earlier, they could trade him; otherwise, they’ll keep him.

Jake Evans, 28 years old, is a 6-foot, 190-pound forward who has 28 points in 60 games this season, including 12 goals, and earns $1.7 million annually until the end of the current campaign.

He has a positive plus-minus rating of +2 and is one of the best penalty-killers in the entire National Hockey League.