Kirby Dach's name is attached to the Edmonton Oilers this morning, and the reason behind it is brutally simple.
Elliotte Friedman laid it out on Opening Day: Edmonton has no right-shot centres. That's why Dach keeps coming up, along with his history with Oilers GM Stan Bowman.
The Montreal pivot shoots right, stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 221 pounds. If Friedman's read is accurate, that's precisely the profile missing from the Oilers' middle.
And the timing is loud. The Oilers open the regular season tonight at home against the Vancouver Canucks after a perfect 4-0-0 preseason.
The Canadiens drop the puck on their own season tonight in Toronto. So the chatter lands just as Martin St-Louis sends his group out against the Maple Leafs.
Dach isn't some cheap depth piece. He carries a $3,600,000 cap hit this season, and his deal ends with him headed for unrestricted free agency next summer.
Stan Bowman link gives Montreal a real decision to make
The connection runs back to Chicago. The Blackhawks drafted him third overall in 2019, and he spent his first three NHL seasons there.
Those years were rough. He posted 26 points in 70 games in 2021-22 and went minus-18 doing it.
Montreal got a better version right away. His 38 points in 58 games in 2022-23 still stand as his best season.
Then the bottom fell out. A -29 rating across 57 games in 2024-25 is the kind of number that follows a player into every trade conversation.
Last season steadied things, sort of. Dach managed 15 points in 37 regular-season games, then added four goals in 19 playoff games.
That spring scoring matters. A big right-shot centre who can win a battle at the top of the crease in May is worth more than his regular-season line suggests.
Career-wise, he sits at 136 points in 306 NHL games. Useful. Not dominant.
Chasing a right-shot centre on Opening Day is like shopping for winter tires after the first snowfall. Everybody knows what you need, and every seller knows it too.
Here's the problem. Paying real assets for a player with one season above 30 points is a bad bet, and Kent Hughes has zero reason to hand him over cheap.
Montreal have their own reasons to listen, though. A pending UFA centre with an uneven track record is exactly the chip a GM moves before the price drops.
Would Bowman really build his fix around a player he already knows so well? Familiarity is comforting. It isn't always smart.
Edmonton's cap sheet doesn't make this easy either. Leon Draisaitl alone carries a $14,000,000 hit, and every dollar added down the middle has to fit around that.
Mike Babcock sends his lineup out tonight against Vancouver. If his centre depth wobbles on the first road trip, the Dach noise won't stay noise for long.
The two clubs meet December 14 in Montreal. Which sweater he's wearing by then is a question neither front office has answered yet.
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Should the Canadiens trade Kirby Dach to Stan Bowman's Oilers?
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