It&#8217;s been a weird year in Calgary without some of their previous franchise staples like Sean Monahan. 
Drafted sixth overall in the 2013 draft, he hung around as a cornerstone of the team for nine years. That all changed this past offseason when the Flames needed to move out his salary, and now, Monahan has seen a resurgence with the Montreal Canadiens.
He&#8217;s drawn in for 25 games this year scoring six goals and 17 points and even though he&#8217;s been out of the lineup since early December working through a lower-body injury, he&#8217;s drawing some trade interest.
According to TSN&#8217;s Pierre LeBrun, one of those teams intrigued by the veteran is the Colorado Avalanche. Here&#8217;s what LeBrun reported on Thursday&#8217;s edition of Insider Trading: 
<blockquote>I think the Colorado Avalanche is a team to monitor when it comes to Sean Monahan. For starters, let’s look at the Avs’ salary cap situation.
Captain Gabriel Landeskog has not played a game this year and there are people around the league who are starting to wonder, “Do we have another Kucherov [situation] on our hands?” Where maybe he doesn’t come back until the playoffs and the Avs have way more cap room to play with than we realize.
The answer is no, as I found out today. The Avalanche expect Landeskog to be playing way before the end of the regular season, they hope by early March. So his $7 million cap hit will be on the books so they don’t have that much cap room to play with. So when it comes to Ryan O’Reilly or Bo Horvat, yes I think the Avs are going to keep tabs on those situations. However, they don’t have a lot of future assets, they’ve spent a lot over the past couple of years to get too serious with [those players]. That’s why I think a guy like Monahan makes sense and that’s why it’s a name I know the Avs have talked about.</blockquote>
Monahan is in the final year of his seven-year deal paying him $6.375-million and the caps are snugged right up to the cap operating in LTIR. There would likely need to be a third team involved to retain some salary, but it would be cool to see Monahan to chase a Stanley Cup this year.
<hr />
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at<a href="http://www.twitter.com/zjlaing"> @zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.
<hr />

It's been a weird year in Calgary without some of their previous franchise staples like Sean Monahan. 

Drafted sixth overall in the 2013 draft, he hung around as a cornerstone of the team for nine years. That all changed this past offseason when the Flames needed to move out his salary, and now, Monahan has seen a resurgence with the Montreal Canadiens.

He's drawn in for 25 games this year scoring six goals and 17 points and even though he's been out of the lineup since early December working through a lower-body injury, he's drawing some trade interest.

According to TSN's Pierre LeBrun, one of those teams intrigued by the veteran is the Colorado Avalanche. Here's what LeBrun reported on Thursday's edition of Insider Trading: 
<blockquote>I think the Colorado Avalanche is a team to monitor when it comes to Sean Monahan. For starters, let’s look at the Avs’ salary cap situation.

Captain Gabriel Landeskog has not played a game this year and there are people around the league who are starting to wonder, “Do we have another Kucherov [situation] on our hands?” Where maybe he doesn’t come back until the playoffs and the Avs have way more cap room to play with than we realize.

The answer is no, as I found out today. The Avalanche expect Landeskog to be playing way before the end of the regular season, they hope by early March. So his $7 million cap hit will be on the books so they don’t have that much cap room to play with. So when it comes to Ryan O’Reilly or Bo Horvat, yes I think the Avs are going to keep tabs on those situations. However, they don’t have a lot of future assets, they’ve spent a lot over the past couple of years to get too serious with [those players]. That’s why I think a guy like Monahan makes sense and that’s why it’s a name I know the Avs have talked about.</blockquote>
Monahan is in the final year of his seven-year deal paying him $6.375-million and the caps are snugged right up to the cap operating in LTIR. There would likely need to be a third team involved to retain some salary, but it would be cool to see Monahan to chase a Stanley Cup this year.

<hr />

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at<a href="http://www.twitter.com/zjlaing"> @zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.

<hr />

Recent articles from Zach Laing

Breaking News