The Canadiens and Predators have swapped blueliners before Thursday’s roster freeze. Montreal has acquired Alexandre Carrier from Nashville in exchange for defenseman Justin Barron. Both teams have announced the deal.
Carrier is in his seventh NHL season, all of which came with Nashville after they drafted him in the fourth round back in 2015. He has gone from a depth defender to one counted on inside their top four.
However, the 28-year-old hasn’t been able to duplicate his 2021-22 performance that saw him land a spot on the All-Rookie Team. That year, Carrier had 30 points and 124 blocks in 77 games while logging nearly 21 minutes a night of ice time. He only managed 29 points in the following two seasons and has seven in 28 outings this season while averaging just over 20 minutes per game. Carrier is currently dealing with an upper-body injury but is believed to be ready to return to the lineup, relays TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link).
Carrier had a chance to test unrestricted free agency for the first time this past summer but instead elected to remain in Nashville, inking a three-year, $11.25MM deal that runs through the 2026-27 campaign. With David Savard being a pending unrestricted free agent and a speculative trade candidate as a result, it stands to reason that Carrier will eventually take his role as the veteran option on the right side of Montreal’s back end, ensuring they’ll have one experienced player on that side beyond this season.
As for Barron, the 23-year-old was a first-round pick by Colorado back in 2020, going 25th overall. It’s the second time in his career that he’s been on the move after he was the centerpiece of the package that the Canadiens acquired in exchange for winger Artturi Lehkonen back at the 2022 trade deadline.
At the time, Montreal was hoping that he’d become a key cog on their back end for years to come. However, while Barron has shown flashes of being a capable NHL player, he has struggled with consistency. Last season, despite a stint with AHL Laval, he collected seven goals and six assists in 48 games while averaging 18:38 per game and it appeared as if he’d turned a corner in his development. That earned him a two-year, $2.3MM bridge deal this past summer.
Unfortunately for Barron and the Canadiens, that hasn’t been the case this season. He has been a frequent healthy scratch over the first two-plus months of the year, only getting into 17 of 31 games. In those outings, he has been limited to just one goal (without recording any assists) while his playing time has dropped to just 14:43 per game.
This move gives Nashville a younger player to try to turn into a full-time piece while saving the team $2.6MM on the salary cap. Barron will also still have two years of team control when his deal expires while Carrier will be an unrestricted free agent when his contract is up. With the Preds struggling much more than many expected this season, it will be interesting to see if GM Barry Trotz has any plans to quickly utilize those cap savings with the roster freeze approaching or if he’ll wait until the new year to try to add another piece to their roster.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Nashville is just spinning in the mud right now. I would have rather hold on for a couple months and get some picks for Carrier at the deadline, when teams are throwing around a lot more assets for depth and injury replacements.
Okay, I’m back to having no idea what Trotz is doing or what direction he’s heading in. It all appears to be incoherant.
@Gbear — He’s downright mystifying right now, isn’t he? All coaches and GMs will say, and rightfully so, that they want to be hard to play against. Why so many of them can’t identify the right players to acquire for their teams to achieve that is a bit mind-boggling.
@Mac – I guess if a GM throws enough darts at the board, a fan (me in this instance) will like where a few of them land (this summer), but it really is starting to look like he’s just throwing darts blindfolded. :/
@Gbear — Just like Inspector Clouseau. :)
@Gbear – Today’s head-scratcher link —
link to nhl.com
Is he doing this to us, on purpose?
@Mac – Trotz not realizing that Brunette is at the heart of the problem is his biggest error. Swapping players out isn’t going to help.
Great move for both teams if they are looking to cement lottery status
Carrier has the right last name, This should work. Trotz has to wise up and realize that Brunette was a bad decision.
everyone is making fun of the predators and rightfully so, but the habs are really just fighting it right now
28 year old for a 23 year old
Just saying….when you’re both struggling and playoffs are 2-3 years away (Montreal) then you totally want the 30/31 year old on the final year of their contract
EYEROLL
Justin Baron had every chance to show he could become a capable NHL RD. He failed, primarily because the game appears too fast for him and bad decisions continue to happen. But he’s young, still considered a prospect by some, and Hughes pulled the trigger knowing Carrier will solidify the RD for the next few years while Reinbacher and Mailloux mature. It’s a safe trade for the Habs and another questionable move by Trotz.