Canadiens Trade Talk
Canadiens Wisely Avoided Upping Ante In Dubois Trade Talks
The Pierre-Luc Dubois saga has mercifully come to an end, at least from a Montreal Canadiens perspective.
According to multiple reports, the Winnipeg Jets are ready to trade Dubois to the LA Kings in return for a, well, king’s ransom.
The trade package is expected to include Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, and Rasmus Kupari.
I'm hearing Los Angeles and Winnipeg are closing in on thr Pierre-Luc Dubois deal. Looks imminent, with Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, and Rasmus Kupari as key pieces from LA. Still a couple of details to sort.
— Murat Ates (@WPGMurat) June 27, 2023
And while some Canadiens fans may be disappointed by the outcome of trade negotiations, or are simply sick of hearing about them, it’s clear that the trade the Jets were intent on making did not make sense for a team like the Canadiens.
The Canadiens have barely started their rebuild in earnest. Pressing fast forward on the entire process is tempting, but it rarely leads to positive results in the NHL.
Truth be told, Kent Hughes’ team is far from being ready to compete. Adding Dubois to the roster would certainly sell tickets, and there’s no doubt he’s a very talented player, but he doesn’t possess the type of game-breaking ability that it would take to justify pulling the trigger on the type of deal the Kings offered.
Dubois can push a roster into the realm of elite if surrounded by talented linemates, however, it’s doubtful he’d be able to make that type of impact with the current Canadiens roster.
There’s also the matter of his contract negotiations. Dubois is expected to sign an 8-year contract with the Jets that will carry a $8.5 million annual average value. Once the contract is signed, Dubois will be traded to the Jets.
We can sit here and debate about how much value Dubois will actually bring to the table for $8.5 million per season, but if the Canadiens hope to address the many roster deficiencies in the next few years they’ll need as much salary cap flexibility as possible.
There’s a time and place for this type of trade, and for the Montreal Canadiens, it was neither.
Hearing the eight-year extension for Pierre-Luc Dubois will carry an $8.5M AAV in the sign-and-trade with Los Angeles. @NorthStarBet @TSN_Sports
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) June 27, 2023
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In the end, PLD had all the say. If he REALLY wanted to be a Hab, he would have not signed an extension with LA. Then what the Habs were offering (whatever it was) would have looked very appealing. At this point, it would have been the most the Habs would have given Winny, and the most Winny would have gotten for PLD…so of course, Winny would have made that trade. Duh!
So, in the end, he either changed his mind and took the LA deal (possibly because he knew the Habs would give him “only” like $7M+ for like 7 yrs.), or he was just blowing smoke to get a better deal somewhere else.
I will say 2 more things on this:
First, he better produce bigtime NOW, because he has now pissed off three different teams in just four seasons. He f’s up in LA, and whoa baby!
Second, I do applaud Hughes for doing what he did. He made an offer to get PLD, to improve the team starting now. This makes me think that Hughes thinks the Habs are not that far away from truly competing. Or at least its not the 4-5 years I previously dreaded. There’s no reason why this “rebuild” can’t be done faster than expected…just ask the Devils.
Cheveldayoff did some very good work here, making lemonade out of a lemon of a situation. I assumed, of the other players he probably has to move this summer, he would end up with the worst return on Dubois.
This does put LA in a bit of a cap bind heading into 23-24. It will be interesting to see how Blake negotiates how to fill out his lineup with very little cap space.
No sense for Dubois to play in Montreal especially after signing Monahan and now with Newhook, so hopefully he pays off like Dach did last year.Also Monahan when healthy is an excellent player especially since he plays for less than 1/4 the salary of Dubois.
iI you look what kings paid to get him.unfortunately we don’t have those type of players to give to get a player like him we still in the early stages in the rebuilding phase No way I give Kirby Dach for him.
Dubois on his own isn’t going to win us a Cup, but he’s certainly a way better player than Newhook is, so we would be closer to building the team we want moving forward with PLD than we are with Newhook. I think we gave up too much for a player we already have in abundance. We don’t need 12 2nd and 3rd line forwards. We need to add elite pieces to the core we already have. This seemed more like a trade that was made to deflect attention from losing out on Dubois than it was for truly making us able to compete in the Atlantic division and grind through 4 rounds of playoffs in the Eastern conference. Adding yet another player that’s “easy to knock of the puck” vs a big bodied, soon to be perennial 30 goal, 70+ points forward built for the playoffs, is not a step forward towards the ultimate goal imo. I guess we need to start looking at who else Hughes had for clients at his agency to see who we might be adding to the roster.
I kind of agree. We don’t need another 2nd or 3rd line center. Those picks for Newhook could have been used to package to move up into the mid or better 1st rd. If this guy never goes higher than the 3rd line, then this trade was a waste and we lost.
However, and this is a big if…if the Habs plan on converting this guy to LW, then I can see him being on that 2nd line with Dach as center. I can see that working out well. Frankly, as of now, we have no legit 2nd line LW…as guy who can def put up, say, 50-something pts in a season and play decent defense. At this point, Newhook looks to be in first place to claim that spot. I don’t see any LW (other than CC) clearly ahead of him at this point.
Slafkovsky?
He played RW most of last season. He does shoot left, though. IDK. Honestly, in THIS draft tonight, Slaf would have been picked at around 15-20 or so, I think.
I don’t know who is better right now, but I can go back to my initial point in that he is not clearly better than Newhook right now.
Agreed. But he was drafted to be the best player from that draft when everyone’s careers are over, not the best player at the time the draft occurred. We’re going to have to wait a long time to find out, but statistically speaking, the odds are not in his favour to be the best player in the 2022 draft. If we can turn him into a Rantanen, I’ll be happy.
I wholeheartedly disagree with you, the Jets made out well, the Habs lost.
Canadiens dodged a bullet, thanks LA. PLD is the second coming of Drouin. Losing out on PLD is a blessing.
Anyone else see the irony in Danault leaving Montreal because he didn’t want to be stuck as the 3C? Kopitar, Dubois, Danault… oops.
Danault was our #2 center. He firmly had that spot. He would have kept it, until maybe now. Maybe. He isn’t any better now that he’s on LA…same max pt production as his best season with the Habs. You can’t compare.
He left because the writing was on the wall he would be used as a 3C and he felt he could do more. His 1st year in LA proved that. His 27 goals more than doubled his career best. I can’t imagine he’s thrilled with the Dubois signing which relegates him back to 3C again (at least until Kopitar’s contract expires this year). I’d be very surprised if LA moves on from Kopitar after this season though which means Danault is stuck at 3C for the foreseeable future.
OK, so there you go. He got screwed either way? You never know what is going to happen in the NHL. EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is movable and replaceable. Unless you are McJesus, or the like.
Suzuki is replaceable, if we landed the #1 pick in this draft.
CC is replacable if we traded him straight up for Braden Point or Mitch Marner.
It would have been really stupid of him to dis MTL because he was convinced he would wind up on the 3rd line, and instead go to LA where they would “guarantee” he stays on the 2nd line. So now he is exactly where he would be if he were on the Habs now – that’s ironic.
Which is exactly what I said in my original post.