Max Pacioretty, Montreal Canadiens
Harper Cotie
Well, it’s official. On Monday, after months of rumours and speculation, Marc Bergevin and the Montreal Canadians have dealt captain Max Pacioretty to the Vegas Golden-Knights, in exchange for forward Tomas Tatar, prospect Nick Suzuki and a 2019 second-round-pick.
It was only a matter of time for Pacioretty to be moved out of Montreal. Back on June 22nd at the NHL draft in Dallas, we came close to seeing a trade. Many reports say that a three-way deal between the Montreal Canadians, the New York Islanders and the Buffalo Sabres fell through. Apparently, the Canadians would’ve acquired Ryan O’Reilly from the Sabres, in exchange for their third overall pick, and the Islanders would’ve ended up with Pacioretty. I’ll go ahead and assume that one of their (Islanders) two, first-round picks would’ve been involved.
In addition to that trade falling through, TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie reported that a deal between the Canadians and the Los-Angeles Kings fell through at the draft also. Supposedly, the reason being is that the Kings and Pacioretty couldn’t get a contract extension done. So, here we are a month and a half later, and Pacioretty is now a member of the Vegas Golden-Knights. The Canadians got a pretty good return for their captain in my opinion, despite not receiving a first-round pick.
The Canadians got a solid winger in Tomas Tatar, who the Golden-Knights gave up a boat-load for to pry him away from the rebuilding Detroit Red-Wings. At the trade deadline back in February, the Golden-Knights acquired Tatar from the Red-Wings, in exchange for a first-round pick in this year’s draft, a second-round pick in 2019, and a third-round pick in 2021. With that first-round pick in this year’s draft, the Red Wings took QMJHL stand-out Joseph Veleno at 30th overall. Tatar is a proven threat in the National Hockey League, however, as a rental, Tatar didn’t end up doing much for the Golden-Knights, throughout their playoff run to the Stanley Cup finals. He was a healthy scratch at times, only playing eight games and picking up two points. It was a career-low regular season for him as well. After coming off 25 goals and 46 points the year before, Tatar only managed to find the back of the net 16 times and register only 28 points.
Hopefully Tatar can bounce back in 2018-19 with the Canadians. Nick Suzuki was the other player in this deal going to the Canadians. A talented prospect, who was drafted 13th overall by the Golden-Knights, in their inaugural draft in 2017. The 19-year-old centreman is coming off a fabulous year of 42 goals and 100 points in 64 games with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. George McPhee and the Golden-Knights certainly gave up one of their best prospects in this deal. The Canadians organization and their fans can look forward to seeing Suzuki play for Team Canada at the 2019 World Juniors in Victoria and Vancouver.
The Canadians now have an exciting future in the middle of the ice, lead by 2018 first-rounder Jesperi Kotkaniemi, 2017 first-rounder Ryan Poehling, and now Nick Suzuki. On the other side, The Golden-Knights are showing that they’re ready to contend once again in 2018-19, by acquiring a proven 30 goal-scorer in Pacioretty. As of right now, George McPhee and the Golden-Knights are working on a long-term extension with Pacioretty. Stay tuned.