After Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes completed a trade on Feb. 14, 2022 that sent Tyler Toffoli to the Calgary Flames he made a point of quickly calling the veteran forward to let him know.

My focus is communicating with the players and making sure that Tyler had been called and thanked,” Hughes said after the trade. “I didn’t want him to learn about (the trade) from anybody other than me and then I wanted to speak to Tyler Pitlick and I wanted to speak to Emil Heineman (two players acquired in the deal) and make sure they understood that we were excited to have them be part of the team.”

In exchange for Toffoli, the Canadiens received a first-round pick at the 2022 NHL Draft that was used to select forward Filip Mesar, a fifth-round pick in 2023 that was used to select Russian goalie Yevgeni Volokhin, Pitlick and Heineman.

Pitlick would play 14 games with the Canadiens after the trade, posting 1-2-3 totals, and was then signed by the St. Louis Blues as a free agent at the start of the next season. This season, the 33-year-old Pitlick has 5-6-11 totals in 15 games with the AHL’s Providence Bruins.

At the time of the Toffoli trade it looked like Heineman was a throw-in. Florida selected Heineman in the second round (43rd overall) of the 2020 NHL Draft and a year later traded him to the Flames as part of a deal that brought Sam Bennett to the Panthers. The next year Heineman was traded for a second time to the Canadiens before ever playing a game in the NHL.

After making the Toffoli trade, Hughes wanted to make it clear to Heineman in his phone call that he was not a throw-in.

“Given he’s a second-round pick who hasn’t signed a pro contract yet, he’s been traded twice, I wanted him to understand that certainly in our case that was a reflection of us insisting he be part of the trade as opposed to him just being somebody that’s tossed in, in trade after trade,” Hughes said.

This season Heineman has been one of the few bright spots for the Canadiens.

Heading into Tuesday’s game against the New York Islanders at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS), the 6-foot-2, 198-pound Swedish left-winger had 6-2-8 totals in 23 games. His six goals ranked fourth on the team behind Cole Caufield (16), Nick Suzuki (9) and Brendan Gallagher (8) despite ranking 13th among Canadiens forwards in average ice time at 10:50 per game in mostly a fourth-line role. Heineman ranked second on the Canadiens in hits with 59 — two less than Josh Anderson.

Heineman’s six goals ranked fourth among NHL rookies, trailing only Philadelphia’s Matvei Michkov (9), San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini (8) and Carolina’s Jackson Blake (7). Michkov, selected seventh overall by the Flyers at the 2023 NHL Draft after the Canadiens took defenceman David Reinbacher with the fifth pick, is averaging 17:17 of ice time per game. Celebrini, selected by the Sharks with the No. 1 overall pick at the 2024 NHL Draft, is averaging 19:48 of ice time.

Heineman, 23, is gaining confidence with each game — and it shows.

“Every day it’s a battle and you really kind of develop as a player and help the team as much as you can,” he said after a recent practice. “For sure, you’re learning how to adapt more and gaining more confidence, for sure.”

Heineman laughed when I mentioned to him that he was throwing his weight around the way Michael Pezzetta does when he’s in the lineup.

“We’ve been talking about that a little bit, actually,” Heineman said. “So it’s fun.”

This season hasn’t been much fun for Pezzetta, who has only played three games and was made a healthy scratch for the 16th consecutive game against the Islanders. Pezzetta led the Canadiens in hits last season with 242 despite being a healthy scratch for 21 games. Anderson ranked second in hits last season with 169.

One of the many problems with the Canadiens this season is that they don’t shoot the puck enough. Heading into Tuesday’s game they ranked 31st in the overall NHL standings with an 8-13-3 record — one point ahead of the last-place Chicago Blackhawks (8-15-2) — and were dead-last in shots with an average of 24 per game.

It’s hard to score if you don’t shoot and one of the many things I like about Heineman’s game — along with his physicality, skating and compete level — is that he doesn’t hesitate to shoot when he gets a scoring chance. He also has a great shot.

“I think it’s been a progression,” head coach Martin St. Louis said recently when asked about Heineman’s play this season. “From this year to last year he looks more comfortable in a North American style. I think the biggest thing for me is he knows who he is and he brings a lot of speed and some heaviness to the game. Does he have good touches and a good shot? Yes. But I think it all starts with his pace, speed and his physicality.”

St. Louis should maybe think about giving Heineman more ice time.

[email protected]

x.com/StuCowan1