Habs Acquire Hunter Shepard and Jake Chiasson

While the NHL trade deadline passed last week, the AHL trade deadline is Friday.  The Habs made a move before the buzzer this time, sending Riley Kidney to Ottawa for goaltender Hunter Shepard and winger Jake Chiasson.

For the sake of noting it, all three players in this trade are immediately ineligible to play in the NHL for the remainder of the season.  They can only play in the AHL (all three) or ECHL (Kidney and Chiasson).  That’s the difference between making a move before the NHL trade deadline and after it.

Shepard is the headliner of sorts in the swap.  The 30-year-old won the Baz Bastien Memorial Award in 2023-24 as the AHL’s top goaltender (with a 1.76 GAA and a .929 SV% in 34 games) although things haven’t gone quite as well since.  He posted a 2.80 GAA with a .891 SV% in 39 games with AHL Hershey last season, then signed a one-year, two-way contract with Ottawa in free agency.

Shepard has spent most of the season in the minors aside from some brief time serving as the backup in Ottawa.  The numbers have continued to slide as he has posted a 3.65 GAA and a .885 SV% in 15 appearances with Belleville while allowing two goals on a dozen shots in mop-up duty in one game with Ottawa.

His inclusion in the trade suggests that the Habs intend to keep Jacob Fowler up with the big club the rest of the way.  That will leave Shepard as the backup to Kaapo Kahkonen down the stretch and in the playoffs, though Fowler could still return in the postseason after the Canadiens’ run comes to an end.  Shepard is a pending unrestricted free agent and a good showing with them could earn him a deal to stick around beyond this season.

As for Chiasson, he was a fourth-round pick by Edmonton back in 2021, going 116th overall.  He was moved to Ottawa in the 2024 offseason following the first year of his entry-level deal but his fortunes haven’t changed much since as he has split time between the AHL and ECHL.  The 22-year-old has one assist in 20 games with Belleville along with two goals and six helpers in 14 contests with ECHL Allen.  Chiasson is a pending restricted free agent and isn’t likely to receive a qualifying offer in June.

The same fate was likely happening to Kidney had he stayed.  The 2021 second-round pick hasn’t had anywhere near the level of offensive success he did in junior.  After his production in Laval dropped from 20 points to 16 last season, he has spent the majority of this season with Trois-Rivieres, posting 11 goals and 22 assists in 46 games, along with one assist in six Laval contests.  Now, he’ll likely get a chance to play in Belleville and try to earn a qualifying offer.

The Habs are adding one extra contract to their books for this season, bringing their total to 46.  But in doing so, they get some extra goaltending depth to help replace Fowler down the stretch, one who has had some strong runs in the AHL in the past.

In a swap not officially tied to the deal but technically was, Laval and Belleville also made a move.  Defenceman Ryan O’Rourke was sent to the Baby Sens for future considerations (which doesn’t amount to anything).  O’Rourke played sparingly with Laval this season and at one point a few months ago, was looking to jump overseas.  The Rocket recalled him from the ECHL at that point and kept him up ever since but barely needed to use him.