from Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette,

The playoff-bound teams are already starting to load up. The lurching, stumbling Maple Leafs did it again Sunday, trading Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli — two of the five useful players on their roster — for Nashville’s bottom first-round pick, a mid-level prospect and the sour and superannuated Olli Jokkinen. How Toronto can sell that to their fan base as a move for the future defies understanding — but the Predators, already a contender, just got better.

There will be more moves. Lots of them. There will be enormous pressure on Bergevin to pick up an Antoine Vermette, a Jordan Eberle, some big name to give the Canadiens the firepower to go head-to-head with the beasts in the East and the bullies in the West.

This is perhaps the first time since 1994 (when the Canadiens were the defending Stanley Cup champions) when you can say they are genuine contenders for that elusive 25th Cup. They compete. They win one-goal games, they win in overtime and they win in shootouts. They have a hard-working, two-way scoring star in Max Pacioretty, canny veteran leaders in Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Markov — and Carey Price, the best goaltender in the league right now.

So is this the time? If you’re a poker player, do you go all in on this hand or bide your time, figuring that you’re going to be even stronger two or three years from now? Bergevin knows how hard it is to get here, to where the Canadiens are right now. They could be back here next season and the season after — or things could go wrong and this opportunity could slip away forever.

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