I think Monty definitely put Poitras next to Freddy to protect him during that two game road trip against the Wings and Star we had 2 weeks ago, cause without the benefit of last change he couldn't protect him by keeping him off the ice against certain guys.
But also in the 5 games since that road trip Freddy and Poitras haven't spent more then like 40 seconds on the ice together at 5v5. And that includes games against some heavy teams like Tampa and the Islanders. So it's clearly not something Monty is overly worried about.
But Poitras has been playing with fan favorite and noted tough guy Danton Heinen over those last 5 games, so maybe that's all the protection he needs.
I think Monty wanted to test out chemistry and decided to throw Frederic on Poitras line. To play into the media narrative and possibly also work the officials he threw out the message about the bodyguard role for Frederic. I can't imagine too many guys are worried about answering to Frederic so to me that's not really a deterrent.
The unfortunate byproduct of Monty doing that though is he's now riling up the fanbase into thinking poor lilttle Matty is being picked on by the rest of the league. I've already cleared that up in a recent GDT where the issue isn't Poitras being targeted, its that he's an easy target. Plenty of players in this league would go for a clean out hit if other NHL players would just stand still. Most of the time it is incredibly hard to line someone up for a solid hit. Players are too elusive. Poitras doesn't have the experience yet.
He needs to learn at the NHL pace how to not leave himself open for hits. Can't be puck watching at this level. Can't be doing a cut back on half your zone entries and not expect to have a backchecker clean you out.
If Marchand was as careless about his safety on the ice as Poitras is right now players would be lining him up too. Thing is Marchand is way too experienced to be making those rookie mistakes Poitras is doing thats putting him into positions to be lit up.
If its a dirty hit that's one thing. But I am not seeing that.