NHL Insider Mark Madden of 105.9 According to the X and TribLive, the Pittsburgh Penguins have discussed dealing Kris Letang to the Montreal Canadiens.
Letang is entering the third year of his $36.6 million agreement with the Penguins. The defenceman was a major member of the Penguins’ core, helping the team win three Stanley Cups in 2009, 2016, and 2017.
However, Pittsburgh failed to make the playoffs last season and does not appear to be a serious Cup contender this season. Madden claims that Pittsburgh held negotiations with Montreal about trading Letang to the Canadiens.
“I heard there were negotiations about bringing Letang to Montreal at his request, but nothing came of it. So I’m not sure where this is going,” Madden stated on the Madden Monday podcast on August 5.
Letang is from Montreal, therefore he might have ended his career playing for his local team. However, as Madden claims, the talks ended, despite Letang reportedly begging to be transferred to the Canadiens.
Letang has skated in 1,087 NHL games recording 166 goals and 576 assists for 742 points.
Letang Played Through Injury Last Season
Letang appeared in all 82 games last season, but the star defenseman sustained a devastating injury.
At the end of the season, Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan addressed the media and praised Letang for persevering through numerous injuries.
“What I will tell you is that (Letang) was dealing with a myriad of injuries for a long time,” stated Sullivan. “He’s a fighter — there’s no other way to phrase it — dealing with some of the issues he faced down the stretch and continuing to play to help us reach where we wanted to go. That was a major reason he wasn’t practicing, which I’ll offer you.”
Despite dealing with problems, Letang will not require off-season surgery and hopes to be fully healthy for the start of the 2024-25 NHL season.
Last season, Letang skated in 82 games with 10 goals and 41 assists for 51 points.
Canadiens Betting on Youth Movement
Montreal failed to make the playoffs last season, and the Canadiens are nearing the end of their rebuild.
This offseason, Montreal didn’t make any major additions, but instead, focused on re-signing their own key players. The Canadiens inked Kaiden Guhle, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Arber Xhekaj to multi-year deals who are all key young players of their core.
“I believe in this bunch, the men in the room. Obviously, management agrees. We’ve all been together. It’s amazing to see what we can accomplish. We’re clearly not anywhere near where we want to be. We believe, and I believe others do as well, that we are getting close. It’s encouraging to see that management believes in us, which gives us the opportunity to demonstrate that we believe in ourselves as well. Prove to them that we have a great group and have a chance to do it,” Guhle said on July 31.
Montreal will open the 2024-25 NHL season at home on Oct. 9 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
