The most controversial team just emerged as a possibility for Chris Kreider

Chris Kreider is bound for free agency, and the Anaheim Ducks are about to lose one of their most experienced forwards.

The 35 year old winger carried a $6,500,000 cap hit with the Ducks this year and still produced. 22 goals, 28 assists, 50 points in 75 games.

That kind of production doesn't happen by accident. Eight power play goals and nine power play assists tell you exactly where Anaheim leaned on him.

Now his name is floating around Montreal. Insider Jimmy Murphy raised the Canadiens as a logical fit on Wednesday, regardless of whatever market Kreider ultimately picks.

The Canadiens finished 106 points this season, sixth overall in the league, under head coach Martin St-Louis and GM Kent Hughes. That's a team that just spent the year knocking on the door.

And funny enough, Montreal already knows what Kreider can do to them. The Canadiens lost twice to Anaheim this season, a shootout defeat in March and a one-goal loss two weeks later.

Kreider's rookie season ties him to St-Louis long before Montreal called

Here's the wrinkle nobody's talking about enough. Kreider broke into the league with the Rangers during St-Louis's own playing days in New York.

Long before St-Louis ever coached a bench, he shared a locker room with the kid who'd grow into a power play weapon for over a decade.

Would that history actually move the needle in a July negotiation? Probably not much. Front offices don't sign 35 year olds because of old locker room ties.

But it doesn't hurt when a coach already knows exactly what a player brings before he laces up.

Anaheim also has to figure out what comes next. Losing a net-front presence who scored eight power play goals isn't something you replace off the waiver wire.

Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan watched Kreider's rookie season unfold from the same New York bench Sullivan now runs, though that's ancient history at this point.

For now, Kreider remains a name in motion. Nothing here is settled, and the next team to call him might not be the one anybody's predicting.