The Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks helped each other in a late offseason trade. It saw Tanner Pearson and a 2025 third-round pick come over to the Canadiens while Casey DeSmith headed to Vancouver. Overall, this helps both teams right before training camp as Pearson is now healthy to play, the Canadiens get a decent asset for taking on $1.4 million average annual value (AAV) extra cap space, and the Canucks get a capable backup goalie.
With any trade involving roster players, there are always more implications than what appears on the surface. What we’re going to look at today is three players on the Canadiens most impacted by the trade.
Emil Heineman
We’ll kick things off with Emil Heineman because a forward is the most obvious player to be immediately and directly impacted by Pearson coming into the lineup. Even though the Canadiens are trying to get some younger blood into their lineup and develop this season, their entire lineup can’t be comprised of them. The team already projects to have full-time roles for Juraj Slafkovsky, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, and Alex Newhook in the top-nine on the wing, so a spot on the roster was already limited for Heineman to start.
Some might have had Heineman making the team, while others had him missing the cut. Whichever group you are in, there’s no denying that it got much more difficult for him to make the team now. Since he is able to be sent down without waivers, this was already an obstacle for him to even make the team to begin with. The Canadiens can choose to send him down with no repercussions right now and develop him further in the American Hockey League (AHL) with Pearson and others ahead of him. Heineman will be 22 years old in November and produced in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) and AHL last season. While I think he will be one of the first call-ups if he doesn’t make the opening night roster, even with a strong training camp, there has been a roadblock set in his path.
Cayden Primeau
The other player moved in the trade was DeSmith, so while Spencer Martin and Arturs Silovs are pushed back in the depth chart and won’t get a crack in the NHL to start the season for the Canucks, Cayden Primeau moves up in Montreal. I didn’t say the impact of the Pearson trade had to be bad. The Canadiens are definitely a bit worried about their situation in net going into the season. It was somewhat believed that DeSmith being added was to soften the blow if Primeau were to be cut and picked up off of waivers. It would have been unlikely two goalies would have been taken from them, especially with so many teams so close to the salary cap.
Primeau goes from a likely training camp cut due to inexperience to a potential surprise to make the Canadiens’ roster. If the team runs with three goalies to start, which is entirely possible, it cuts the opportunities down for forwards and defensemen, but Montreal is at risk of losing Primeau before he’s been given a good look. The 24-year-old has put up fairly good numbers in the AHL, but only has 21 games of NHL experience over four stints thus far. It wouldn’t be the end of the world for the Canadiens if he is sent through waivers and gets picked up, but then the team would be at risk of having no capable third-string goalie as a result (from “Does goaltender Cayden Primeau have a future with the Canadiens?”, Montreal Gazette, Apr. 27, 2023). At the very least, this trade gives Primeau a shot where he previously didn’t have much of one.
Gustav Lindstrom
The Canadiens have a fair bit of defensemen that could push for spots on the roster this season and many more talented young defenders coming soon enough. In terms of making the opening night roster or getting time in 2023-24, I had nine names pegged in. Six of them seem safe (Michael Matheson, David Savard, Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj, Johnathan Kovacevic, and Jordan Harris) while the other three (Justin Barron, Chris Wideman, and Gustav Lindstrom) are now fighting for one spot. Lindstrom was likely already in a tough spot to make the team before a second defensive spot was very likely wiped from the plans of the Canadiens with the addition of Pearson.
Lindstrom has served as the seventh defenseman for two consecutive seasons on the Detroit Red Wings before being acquired in a trade by the Canadiens earlier this offseason. My initial thought was that he could potentially get into 30-40 games with the Canadiens in a similar role, but it makes less sense now. Montreal is going to be giving their younger players some key roles in the lineup, so it makes sense for Wideman to be the extra as he is much more experienced. Lindstrom would have had to come in and take Wideman’s role that he has held onto for the past two seasons; the seventh defenseman in Montreal. Now it is becoming clear that Lindstrom won’t get that much time in the NHL this season, whereas he might have before the trade.
Related: Where Canadiens’ Gustav Lindstrom Fits With the Organization
I think that the Canadiens are better off after the trade regardless of the roadblocks set in front of a few players. Primeau should be a piece of the very near future, Heineman will get his shot eventually, and it isn’t all that important if Lindstrom gets in any NHL games this season or not. The trickle-down effect will surely impact more players negatively and positively, but these three should be the most impacted this season by the trade.
