Nazem Kadri Montreal Canadiens trade rumour: Would it benefit the Habs?
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Metrics in this column are as of March 3, 2026.
The NHL trade deadline is on Friday March 6th and a flurry of activity is expected, with big names still on the trade block. One name of note is Nazem Kadri, one of the best centres on the market and obvious trade candidate.
Nazem Kadri is on a contract that with a $7M AAV until 2029 and with many contracts such as Patrik Laine’s $8.7M, Josh Anderson’s $5.5M, and Brendan Gallagher’s $6.5M coming off the books over the next two offseasons, the Montreal Canadiens could easily fit him into their salary cap structure
An effective NHL player, Kadri has averaged 71 points per 82 games played since the start of the 2021-22 season. On top of this, he is one of the best players in the NHL at drawing penalties. He has a +15 penalty differential (he's drawn 15 more penalties for his team than he's personally taken) is tied for fifth-best in the NHL, and since 2021 he's +83 in that area, fourth-best in the league. He is also a Stanley Cup champion, and importantly due to his no trade clause; he grew up a Habs fan.
Reportedly, Kadri is open to play for Montreal despite a modified trade clause. This, paired with the Canadiens strong play that has them six points clear of the playoff line, has brought up speculation as to whether they will trade for the 35-year-old centre. A playoff proven centre who would almost certainly be an upgrade to Montreal’s centre core seems like a good move on the surface.
However, more goes into trading for a player than simply whether they're good in this moment, of even if they'd be a good fit for the time being.
The Habs' timeline, or contention window
The Habs have the youngest roster in the league, and Kadri’s high end play likely won’t intersect with the primes of their upcoming talent. Kadri would instantly become their oldest player at 35, and the Canadiens' true contention window hasn’t started yet. Some of their future core pieces aren't even in the NHL yet!
Michael Hage and Alexander Zharovsky project as future top-six forwards, and still haven’t set foot on the Bell Centre ice. Fifth overall pick from the 2023 NHL Draft David Reinbacher, and arguably their future in goal Jacob Fowler, are developing in the AHL.
The Canadiens are also waiting on their current, young NHL talent in Lane Hutson, Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Oliver Kapanen (who are all under 23-years-old) to continue to develop before fully realizing contender status.
The youth of this team means that the Habs won’t hit their final form for at least another year or two. At that point Nazem Kadri will be 36-years-old or older, and have a $7M dollar contract that expires in 2029. Age comes for us all, and while Kadri’s 57-point pace, (down 10 from last year, down 18 from 2023-24) could be excused for how little there is to work with in Calgary, Kadri is likely to see a big decline in play while on his current contract. Kadri would likely have good value to the Canadiens this year, and maybe next year, but when factoring in his high cap hit, it’s just not worth it to bring in someone whose game will regress while the team itself improves.
Nazem Kadri at the tail end of his career is what you would call a “one piece away” move; a move that would solidify a team’s contender status, and potentially put them over the hump to make a deep playoff run. The Canadiens should not expect to win a Stanley Cup this year. They have too many young players that need to develop before they can call themselves true contenders.
Although Kadri would help this team, the Montreal Canadiens are more than just a Nazem Kadri away from being cup contenders.
Trading for him before the team is ready would also take away crucial developmental minutes from other players. Minutes that those players have earned by playing above expectations.
Development time, and earned minutes
With the in-season addition of Phillip Danault, the Montreal Canadiens have solidified their bottom-six centres. This means that Kadri’s only logical place in the lineup would be on the second line, in place of Oliver Kapanen. However, Kapanen’s strong play and potential for growth justifies keeping him in that slot.
On the surface, Kadri is having a more productive season and appears to be a big upgrade on Kapanen. When you dive a little deeper the gap between the two players is quite small. Let’s compare Kadri and Kapanen’s seasons thus far. Kadri is on an 82 game pace of 57 points and 16 goals while Kapanen is on pace for 43 points and 25 goals. A significant point gap that can be partially explained by their usage.
Kadri gets premium deployment for a Calgary Flames team that needs him to get the points because no one else will. Kadri averages over 19 minutes of ice time per game, over 3 minutes of powerplay time, and plays 32.1% of minutes available- top amongst Flames forwards. Meanwhile, Kapanen sits at 7th amongst Habs forwards, playing roughly 15 minutes per game, under 1 minute per game on the powerplay, and 24.6% of minutes available.
When you even out the ice time, both players have remarkably similar point outputs. Kapanen’s scoring 2.11 points per 60 minutes played and Kadri’s is slightly higher with 2.17. On top of this Kadri has 13 powerplay points to Kapanen’s one. This difference means that Kapanen has nearly the same number of points at 5-vs-5 (27) as Kadri (28).
Focusing on even strength is important because Kadri is unlikely to get top powerplay time in Montreal, there are simply too many mouths to feed. That means even if Kadri’s 5-vs-5 output may go up on a better team, his powerplay production will almost certainly fall off.
Kadri’s ice time would certainly drop were he to join the Canadiens, so where does that leave him? A 35-year-old centre who is probably a little bit better than Kapanen right now, making $7M until 2029, and the cost is not just the trade, but NHL development time.
Oliver Kapanen needs the reps and minutes to grow with linemates Juraj Slafkovsky and Ivan Demidov if he wants to become a true impact player on this team. With the amount of talent behind him in the organization, his job won't be secure when the Habs are competing for Stanley Cups. By the time Slafkovsky and Demidov hit their primes, Kadri will have aged out, Kapanen on the other hand, is developing alongside them.
Trade costs
On top of Nazem Kadri taking away minutes from Oliver Kapanen, the Habs would also have to give up assets that don’t make sense for the team to give away at this point in their rebuild.
Second line centres are hard to come by, even if they are on the older side. With multiple top teams looking for a centre like the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild, the price for Kadri is going to be significant. This premium price should scare Montreal away, just look at the price the Wild paid for defence-only centre/right wing Michael McCarron.
A trade for Kadri would be one thing if you didn’t have to give up a premium asset, but with price tag so high, should a rebuilding team risk long term losses for short term gains? With how young the team is, trading first round picks or good young assets for a 35-year-old should be the last thing on Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton’s minds.
Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton & co. have proven time and time again that they don’t think short sightedly, that they make good long-term decisions for this team. A trade for Kadri could help the Habs be more competitive for the next two seasons, but could stunt Oliver Kapanen’s growth while taking away young assets and cap space that the Montreal Canadiens may need once they become true Stanley Cup contenders.
You can find more from Jordan Hachey after most Habs games where he is a cohost of Game Over Montreal.