Insider: Canadiens Had Discussions to Acquire 3-Time Stanley Cup Champion

NHL insider Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLive say the Pittsburgh Penguins had discussions about trading Kris Letang to the Montreal Canadiens.

Letang is entering the third year of his $36.6 million deal with the Penguins. The defenseman has been a key part of the Penguins’ core, as he helped the team win three Stanley Cups in 2009, 2016, and 2017.

However, Pittsburgh didn’t make the playoffs last season and doesn’t appear to be a legit Cup contender this season. With that, Madden reports that Pittsburgh had discussions with Montreal to trade Letang to the Canadiens.

“I heard there were discussions about trying to get Letang to Montreal at Letang’s request, but nothing came of that. So I don’t know where this is headed,” Madden said on the Madden Monday podcast on August 5.

Letang is from Montreal so he would have had the opportunity to end his career playing for his hometown deal. But, as Madden says, the talks ended, despite Letang reportedly requesting to be dealt to the Canadiens.

Letang has skated in 1,087 NHL games recording 166 goals and 576 assists for 742 points.

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Letang Played Through Injury Last Season

Letang played in all 82 games last season, but the star defenseman dealt with a serious injury.

At the end of the season, Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan spoke to the media and heaped praise on Letang for playing through a myriad of injuries.

“What I will tell you is that (Letang) was dealing with a myriad of injuries for a long time,” Sullivan said. “He’s a warrior — there’s no other way to put it — with some of the things he was dealing with down the stretch and continuing to play through to try to help us get to where we wanted to go. That was a big reason why he wasn’t practicing, that I will offer you.”

Although Letang dealt with injuries, he won’t need off-season surgery and expects to be 100% healthy for the beginning of the 2024-25 NHL season.

Last season, Letang skated in 82 games recording 10 goals and 41 assists for 51 points.

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Canadiens Betting on Youth Movement

Montreal failed to make the playoffs last season as the Canadiens are nearing the end of their rebuild.

This offseason, Montreal didn’t make any major additions, but instead, focused on re-signing their own key players. The Canadiens inked Kaiden Guhle, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Arber Xhekaj to multi-year deals who are all key young players of their core.

“I believe in this group, the guys in the room. Obviously, management does, too. We’ve all been together. It’s exciting to get to see what we can do. We’re obviously not anywhere close to where we want to be. We believe, and I think some other people believe, that we’re getting there, getting close. It’s cool to see that management believes in us, giving us a chance to show them we believe in ourselves, too. Prove to them that we have a great group and have a chance to do it,” Guhle said on July 31.

Montreal will open the 2024-25 NHL season at home on Oct. 9 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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