NHL analyst opines $65,000,000 Canadiens trade target's exit from St. Louis would be tough owing to no-trade clause - "That ship has sailed"

After plenty of rumors of St. Louis Blues forward Jordan Kyrou expected to join the Montreal Canadiens, the deal didn't come before the free agency hit. On 1st July, Kyrou's no-move clause kicked in part of his eight-year $65 million contract with the club.

The Habs, in need of a potent goal scorer, were linked to Kyrou. The winger scored 36 goals last season, the 16th best in the league. He was expected to be swapped in place of a middle-six forward from the Canadiens.

Kirby Dach and Mike Matheson were linked as potential targets by the Blues, but it is unclear if the deal fell through or wasn't materialized in the first place. As per NHL analyst Chris Johnston, while the offseason continues, it's unlikely that Kyrou waives his no-move clause to be traded away anymore.

"I can't say. It seems like that ship has sailed a little bit," Johnston said on The Chris Johnston Show. "Montreal was a team that was trying to make that happen.

"I think it's fair to assume the discussions they had around Kyrou got them to the point where they at least made that trade. I don't have any reason to believe the door's open on that. I don't even know for sure how real Kyrou's availability ever was.

"The way the Blues operate—we saw Doug Armstrong talk about Brayden Schenn with other teams at the deadline, then ultimately not trade him. It's a hard thing to know exactly. Certainly, there were conversations on Kyrou—that much I can say with certainty. But how real they were, or how close they were going to be to move him—that part, I don't know."

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Kyrou was expected to start as a top six forward for the Habs, sharing the majority of his ice time with the core group of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Ivan Demidov and Juraj Slafkovsky, as well as D-men Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle and Noah Dobson, who had just arrived from the New York Islanders.

Logan Mailloux trade shuts the door on Jordan Kyrou to Montreal

Both the Blues and the Canadiens did end up making a trade, but that didn't involve Jordan Kyrou or Kirby Dach and Mike Matheson. The Habs traded Logan Mailloux to the Blues in exchange for Zachary Bolduc. Both prospects, aged 22, have been swapped for the specific needs of both organizations.

Mallioux is a defenceman for the Habs. With Noah Dobson's arrival, it made it hard to fit Mallioux into the future plans of the team. Instead, Montreal added Bolduc, who scored 36 points in 72 games last season and can be a bottom-six forward, especially after the Habs didn't re-sign Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia. Thus, the door is officially shut for Kyrou.