A barroom idea turns into a major what-if: How the Canadiens could theoretically chase Nathan MacKinnon

One of the stranger offseason conversations in hockey started the way these things often do, with a few drinks and an exercise in imagination. In an article published Tuesday, Yahoo Sports described a barroom discussion that quickly evolved into a full-blown NHL trade hypothetical, centered on Nathan MacKinnon and the Montreal Canadiens. The core premise is straightforward, if wildly unlikely: what would it take, in theory, for the Canadiens to land Colorado’s franchise-caliber forward?

The piece frames the scenario as a “could it ever happen” exercise, not a report of negotiations. It argues that Montreal’s organizational resources, described as a “deep asset pool,” are the ingredient that makes the thought experiment plausible enough to debate. In that framing, the Canadiens are positioned less as a team seeking a single piece and more as a club with enough trade capital to design a package around a generational talent.

At the center of the hypothetical is MacKinnon, one of the NHL’s most dominant players and, in the article’s words, a would-be centerpiece capable of changing the map of a roster if moved. The Yahoo Sports discussion treats a trade involving him as something approaching the unthinkable, the kind of event that would not just reshape one team’s short-term outlook, but also rewrite assumptions about what the Colorado Avalanche would or could part with.

What makes the scenario interesting, even as speculation, is the way it highlights the Canadiens’ long-term identity under their current rebuild approach: accumulate and convert assets, with the idea that a well-timed transaction can push a club from “in progress” to “contender.” The article uses the imagined MacKinnon-to-Montreal path as a way to test that logic, asking whether Montreal’s pool could be sufficient to pry loose a player of that magnitude from a team built to win now.

Still, it is important to keep expectations grounded. Nothing in the Yahoo Sports piece, based on the available details, is presented as confirmation of contact, a willingness on Colorado’s side, or a real-world roadmap for a specific deal. Instead, the article is best read as a thought experiment about the mechanics of roster building, the price of elite talent, and how far one team might have to go to accelerate its ceiling.

For Canadiens fans, the allure of the idea is obvious. MacKinnon represents a level of offensive impact that would immediately redefine Montreal’s top line and, by extension, its overall offensive threat. For Avalanche fans, the tension is equally clear. Trading away that kind of centerpiece is rarely just a “swap,” it is a structural change, and it would force Colorado to reassemble a contender core under extreme constraints.