Things have gone from bad to worse for the Montreal Canadiens, as one of their premier trade chips, hulking defender Ben Chiarot, has been placed on Injured Reserve on Sunday after suffering an injury in Saturday's game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Chiarot appeared to injure his foot or ankle after being clipped and briefly left the game. Ultimately, he did return and finish the contest, but his placement on IR today is a bit concerning.
While the injury is believed to be minor, rumours have already begun to circulate that this may force teams to begin to act on their instincts early in terms of trading for certain players well ahead of the trade deadline to reduce the risk of those players getting hurt between now and then. Friedman touched on that during his most recent 32 Thoughts.
"There was something that happened in that game that made me wonder if we're going to see some traction pick up. Ben Chiarot temporarily left the game, he did come back. Any time you have a player with as much interest as he has, you always worry about something like this. And I think we're all curious to see, does this mean the action is going to pick up on Chiarot?" Friedman said during Hockey Night in Canada.
Chiarot has drawn the interest of multiple teams and there is expected to be a bit of a bidding war for his services. Chiarot's game is tailor-made for the postseason and his versatility to be able to play both the left and the right side is a huge asset to teams who are looking for that type of positional flexibility.
