A win on Saturday hasn’t curbed the Montreal Canadiens’ free fall down the standings. So, it’s not surprising that the team is listening to offers on Tomas Fleischmann, Dale Weise and defenseman Tom Gilbert, according to the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch.
With all three underperforming over the last two months and on expiring contracts, there’s no doubt that general manager Marc Bergevin is at least interested in hearing what he can get for them.
Weise may draw some interest, being a little younger than Fleischmann and having gone on a tremendous scoring spree early in the year that inevitably came to a crashing halt. He’s already sitting at a career-high 12 goals this season, but has only put up two goals and four points in the last 17 games.
Fleischmann has similarly seen a decrease in numbers over the years and has the extra baggage of having been a bad trade deadline acquisition for the Anaheim Ducks last season. His possession numbers in a small sample were ok, but the team decided that he was performing poorly enough that he was made a healthy scratch to start the postseason and remained that way for the majority of their run.
Gilbert has struggled as well. He’s touted as a puck mover who can contribute to the game at both ends, but since his 25-assist season with Florida in 2013-14, he’s been unable to rekindle that touch. He has just one goal and one assist through 39 games this season. He’s still capable, but may require power play time and an insulated role to succeed on the offensive end.
While all come with some baggage, the indication from Garrioch that the Habs are “listening” to offers rather than shopping these players means that there are at least a couple GMs in the league who are making a call with interest.
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