The Nashville Predators have acquired F Michael McCarron from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for F Laurent Dauphin.
McCarron was the Canadiens\’ first round pick in 2013, but he could never stick in the NHL. He has not played since 2017-18, and was struggling in the AHL. The Predators, who also introduced a new head coach today in John Hynes, might see something in McCarron, who is still fairly young at 24. He is definitely a better option than Dauphin, who also has not played in the NHL regularly in a while and is having a bad AHL season.
McCarron, 24, last played in the NHL in 2017-18, when he had one point, an assist, in 18 games. In his NHL career, McCarron has scored two goals with six assists for eight points in 69 games. For the AHL\’s Laval Rocket this year, McCarron has scored five goals with nine assists for 14 points in 29 games.
The Canadiens added forward help recently in Ilya Kovalchuk, and seeing that McCarron hasn\’t played in the NHL in two seasons, he wasn\’t going to get called up. But neither is Dauphin, who is arguably having a worse AHL season that McCarron, and as a second round pick, doesn\’t have the same upside McCarron does at the same age. This trade might just be an AHL move, but it still doesn\’t make sense for Montreal.
Dauphin, 24, last played in the NHL in 2018-19, when he did not score in one game for the Arizona Coyotes. In his NHL career, all for the Coyotes, Dauphin has three goals with an assist for four points in 33 games. For the AHL\’s Milwaukee Admirals, Dauphin has scored seven goals with nine assists for 16 points in 33 games.
CarterHud 