Le Bleu, Blanc et Drouin.
Alec Avedissian breaks down all the recent moves made by the Montreal Canadiens this offseason.
With teams having submitted their protection lists to Vegas on
Saturday the 17th, and the NHL Expansion Draft days away, the NHL has instituted a trade freeze period. The freeze is to ensure team rosters — and by extension the protection lists they submitted — stay intact until the Expansion Draft is complete. The trade freeze period runs from Saturday June 17th at 3pm until Thursday June 23rd at 8am, which is two days after the Vegas Golden Knights will be announcing the results of the expansion draft at the 2017 NHL Award Ceremony. The exception to the trade freeze is on Sunday, June 18th. Vegas will be the only team able to negotiate trades with the rest of the NHL during that window.
The Montreal Canadians have been one of the busier teams in the offseason so far, swinging two trades in a three-day span. The first transaction involved sending Mikhail Sergachev and a conditional second round draft pick to the Tampa Bay lightning in exchange for Jonathan Drouin and a conditional sixth round draft pick. The condition is that both picks will only be transferred if Sergachev plays less than 40 games (combined regular season and playoff games) next year for the Lightning. With their second trade, they sent Nathan Beaulieu to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a third round draft pick.
Enigmatic Canadiens General Manager Marc Bergevin stated in February that Sergachev wasn’t available for trade. However, once it became clear that Tampa Bay was open to trading Drouin, due in large part to troubles in coming to an agreement on a new contract, as well as potential expansion draft complications, Bergevin saw a chance to make a mutually beneficial deal and had to strike while the iron was hot. Sergachev, with his impressive skill set, high end potential, and his much more affordable rookie contract, was very attractive to the Lightning.
In Drouin, Montreal acquired up-and-coming, super-talented 22 year-old pending restricted free agent winger. Drouin is a supremely gifted offensive player who is only starting to scratch his endless potential. The 3rd overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft had his ups and downs with the Lightning organization in the past, but he seems to have matured this year, and is coming off a career year putting up 21 goals and 53 points in 72 games. If there are any shortcomings in the Quebec native’s game, it would have to be his lack of physicality and lack of defensive presence. Despite the fact that many consider him a defensive liability, he still managed to put up a very good even strength Corsi number of just under 52% last year, which is something you’d expect from an established two-way player, not from a flashy one-dimensional offensive talent.
Drouin’s strongest attributes are without a doubt his elite vision, passing and hands. He understandably has many fans who have watched the Habs struggle to score goals over the years very excited, and rightfully so. Montreal wasted very little time in signing the new kid to a new contract worth $33 million over the next six years, coming up to a $5.5 million average per season, which will be a bargain contract within the next year or two if he continues at his current pace.
Acquiring such a hot young commodity, however, did come at a high price as Montreal had to part with their top prospect in Sergachev, one of the best defensemen not currently playing in the NHL. Sergachev plays for the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League, where he and his teammates just captured the Memorial Cup less than a month ago. Sergachev was drafted with the 9th overall pick in 2016 and combines great size (he’s 6’3” and weighs 215 lbs with more room to grow), an excellent shot and great skating ability. He’s a very aggressive defender who loves stepping up into a big hit. He reads the play very well and is very good under pressure in his own end. Mikhail has all the tools to become a future NHL All-Star and franchise cornerstone defenseman for the Lightning.
As for the second trade executed by the Canadiens, shipping off Beaulieu for a third round pick may at first seem like a head-scratcher. He was a promising 24 year old defenseman coming off a solid season for the team. The former first round pick for the Canadians in 2011 posted 24 points in 74 games, while also contributing a sliver over a positive 5v5 Corsi rating of 50.65%.
However, while these numbers are respectable, they don’t exactly blow you away. Beaulieu was fifth out of six defenders on the team as far as average time on ice (all situations). Montreal simply has too many other more valuable defenders they needed to protect and risked losing Beaulieu to the expansion draft for nothing, in which case a 3rd round pick, while not something to get overly excited about, is infinitely better than receiving a figurative blank check. The Buffalo Sabres have a lot of questions marks moving forward into next season, especially from a defensive perspective, so for them, acquiring a sturdy young player on the backend who is also entering the prime of his career for such a low risk asset is an easy deal to make.
Keep checking TheOcho.ca all week long for Expansion Draft and other offseason coverage.
Alec Avedissian is a hockey contributor for TheOcho.ca.
