Mason McTavish is drawing serious trade interest this offseason, with the Canadiens and the Wild emerging as the two most likely destinations for the 23-year-old Ducks center.
Insider Frank Seravalli flagged McTavish as a name to watch this week, noting that two teams asking about center help stood out to him when looking at the Ducks' situation.
Seravalli sees Montreal and Minnesota as the most probable fits, with Kirby Dach floated as a potential trade base from the Canadiens' side.
The Ducks are coming off a second-round exit after beating Edmonton in six games before falling to Vegas in six. The run gave Anaheim's front office a clearer read on the roster, and apparently McTavish's $7 million cap hit is part of a conversation.
Over 75 regular-season games this season, McTavish posted 17 goals, 24 assists, and 41 points, going -15. That's not a number you build a trade pitch around.
In his last five games of the regular season, he was held scoreless with three assists.
Kirby Dach as trade bait changes the calculus for Anaheim
Dach is on a $3.36 million cap hit with Montreal and put up 15 points in 37 regular-season games. He added 4 goals in 19 playoff games this spring as the Canadiens pushed to the Eastern Conference Final. That's a useful piece, not a centerpiece.
But here's the uncomfortable question: if the Canadiens send Dach to Anaheim for McTavish, are they actually upgrading their center depth, or just shuffling expensive cap commitments around?
Kent Hughes and Martin St-Louis want a top-six center who can score at a consistent rate. Montreal finished 48-24-10 this year with 106 points and went deep before losing to Carolina.
Minnesota is on a similar timeline. The Wild finished 46-24-12, good for 104 points and a solid Central Division standing, and GM Bill Guerin has never been shy about going after impact forwards.
Seravalli's reporting put the Wild on Larkin first, with McTavish as Plan B. That ranking matters. Plan B gets a different negotiating room than Plan A.
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A -15 rating over 75 games with 17 goals is the kind of number that quietly reshapes a team's leverage at the draft table. Pat Verbeek knows the production has to improve, and a change of scenery might be the only way to find out if it ever will.
The real question for Anaheim isn't whether to move McTavish. It's what they can actually get back for a player whose ceiling still looks blurrier than it did two years ago.
Should the Canadiens trade Kirby Dach to Anaheim to acquire Mason McTavish?
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