BROSSARD, Quebec — It would be easy to look at the flurry of trade activity across the NHL this week and think the Montreal Canadiens missed the boat, missed their opportunity to make the improvements they need to make to solidify their status as Stanley Cup contenders.It wouldn’t even necessarily be wrong.But when you take a closer look at those trades, it would be just as easy to see the Canadiens didn’t necessarily miss out on anything. Because making a trade for the sake of it is not the goal. It is making a trade for a specific type of player that fits what the Canadiens need, and doing so at a price that would make some degree of sense.“I don’t think it’s a great way to go about it and just be reactive; the other teams are doing some things so it’s our turn,” Canadiens president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton said. “We’re going to make calculated decisions on things we’re doing and hopefully you’ve seen that in the past since we’ve been here, and we’re going to continue doing that.“Would we like to improve our team? Yes. Are we active, calling everybody, talking, looking at different situations? Yes. But honestly, we don’t feel the pressure from anywhere else to do anything that doesn’t fit into what we want to do.”Gorton noted how there are more buyers than sellers, a reality that has existed ever since the Canadiens made the playoffs last year. When there are more buyers than sellers, prices increase. And when players with full no-movement clauses ask to be traded, such as Brady Tkachuk and Dylan Larkin, supply becomes limited to a team such as the Canadiens.Brady Tkachuk to the Florida PanthersSean McIndoe and Sean GentilleWould Tkachuk have made the Canadiens better? Undoubtedly. Were the Canadiens one of the teams Tkachuk would have accepted to be traded to? Absolutely not. And even if they were, did the Canadiens have a No. 9 overall pick to build a package around? No, they did not.Does Jordan Kyrou, a player the Canadiens had shown interest in previously, fill a need for them? As a legitimate top-six scoring winger, yes. As an average-sized winger with lots of skill who is not exactly hard to play against, however, Kyrou would not be the ideal person to address that need, and at the price the Washington Capitals paid to get him — the No. 16 overall pick in the draft Friday night, Connor McMichael and a pretty decent prospect in Milton Gastrin — even less so.The Canadiens’ widely reported interest in Toronto Maple Leafs winger Matthew Knies at the trade deadline is indicative of the type of player they are more interested in acquiring to round out their top six on the wing, a heavier type of scorer with some physicality. Someone such as, say, Alex Tuch, but is he, at age 30, worth the $10.5 million a year for eight years the Capitals gave him after acquiring his rights from the Buffalo Sabres for a third-round pick in 2027 and the rights to David Kämpf? No, he is not.