Montreal Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty and Pat Brisson have agreed to mutually part ways seeing the sniper move on to Octagon.
If you thought about changes occurring with Max Pacioretty, teams made more sense than agencies. The Montreal Canadiens sniper was originally aligned with Pat Brisson who is a good friend of Marc Bergevin‘s. It was originally believed that the two camps were in initial talks of reaching a contract extension with Pacioretty, but nothing came to be.
Now minutes after the trade rumours of the 28-year-old moving to San Jose were debunked, it was revealed that Allan Walsh would be his new representative with Octagon. Walsh has other NHL stars under his wing such as Vladimir Tarasenko, Mark Scheifele, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Pacioretty’s teammate Jonathan Drouin is also with Walsh being involved in the extension with the Habs after the trade that sees him make $5.5 million.
The question with the agency change is what this means for Pacioretty moving forward. It’s already known that trade talks around him are red-hot, but this could push that along even further. However, TSN’s Bob Mckenzie tweet out some clarity on that front.
Perhaps this is a move to ensure that Pacioretty remains and resigns in Montreal. Tarasenko got a big payday with the St. Louis Blues signing an eight-year $60 million contract.
Pacioretty has been on one of the more sweetheart deals in the NHL. His consistent status as a 30-goal scorer has him prime and ready for an increase in cap hit. Whatever that number is will be up to the captain and his new agency.
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It’ll be interesting to see how everything plays out. Although the draft is over and done with, it will never be a dull moment until the dog days of the NHL offseason. But hopefully, this turns out to be a decision that helps Pacioretty in his career.