Montreal, QC -- The Montreal Canadiens added some new faces to help bolster their lineup before last Friday's trade deadline. The team is making a run at the playoffs and knows it will face some tough competition. The Habs traded David Rittich, Dylan Demelo and their 2nd round pick in the upcoming 2019 draft to Vegas for Calvin De Haan, Louis Domingue and Vancouver's 3rd round pick in the upcoming draft.

 

"De Haan gives us more of a veteran approach to things on defense. He's more of a two-way defenseman than Dylan Demelo. We think he can be a big help going forward. As for Louis Domingue, the guy has resurrected his career in the NHL with the Tampa Bay Lightning. We have been scouting him quite closely and the numbers he has put up are staggering," stated GM Mike Cooley. 

 

The Habs also sent Cristoval Nieves to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for veteran Riley Nash. Nash is expected to help anchor the bottom two lines for the team. The final deal by the Canadiens at the deadline was probably their biggest as they sent Colin White, Marian Gaborik, injury plagued Robby Fabbri and Vancouver's 3rd round 2019 pick back to Vancouver. In exchange, the Canadiens nab the talented Russian Evgeni Dadonov and Vancouver's 4th round pick in the 2019 draft. Dadonov is slated for the top two lines helping make Montreal's offensive threat that much more potent.

 

"We knew it would take a multiplayer deal to land Dadonov. Fabbri has had a rough go his first few seasons in the NHL suffering back-to-back ACL injuries on the same knee. Nobody wants to see that and it's certainly never easy to overcome one, let alone two of those injuries. As for Colin White...he was rather low on our depth chart and will have the opportunity to work up through the ranks and get more playing time in Vancouver. We wish all the best to Fabbri, White and Gaborik in Vancouver," added GM Cooley.

 

With Rittich going to Vegas, the team promoted Ondrej Pavelec to backup Andrei Vasilevskiy the rest of the season. With the shakeup of the roster and new faces added, will it hurt or help the Canadiens? Only time will tell.