What the Canadiens are getting in Alexandre Carrier

The Montreal Canadiens and Nashville Predators did some restructuring on the blueline on Wednesday night, as the Habs acquired defenseman Alexandre Carrier from the Preds for fellow D-man Justin Barron.

The deal is a slight cap dump for Nashville, as Carrier just began his three-year contract, which has an AAV of $3.75 million, with Barron’s deal carrying a $1.15 million AAV through the 2025-26 season.

Carrier might have missed the last few games due to an upper-body injury, which has led to him being placed on injured reserve, but he can provide some experience on the back end for a Canadiens team hoping to turn the corner.

Through 28 games with Nashville this year, the 28-year-old has scored a goal and six assists for seven points. In 245 NHL appearances, all with the Preds, Carrier has scored 11 goals and 58 assists for 69 points.

On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed what Carrier can bring to the table in Montreal.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Not a lot of miles on [Carrier] for being 28, he’s under 300 games played…and he’s got two more years at $3.75 million AAV. Why did a rebuilding team in Montreal get older and more expensive?

Frank Seravalli: The thought process is they need more support defensively…they want to do that without having to bring up players from Laval in order to make that happen. So, they want to keep those guys, the younger guys, getting as much seasoning as possible, and they also wanted to strengthen their team, and they bring in Carrier, who I think can check a lot of those boxes.

First off, you mentioned in the posh-blue that this was his childhood dream [being from Quebec City], so that’s exciting.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…