Montreal Canadiens: The Max Pacioretty trade saga takes another turn

There were concerns that the situation between the Montreal Canadiens and Max Pacioretty would be a distraction, and it’s starting to look that way.

Distractions are never a good thing for any organization, at least that’s what management groups like to say. It didn’t take a secret detective to expect Max Pacioretty to be a big topic heading into training camp this season. But learning of the reluctance from the Montreal Canadiens to extend him made it clear that a trade was on its way and sparked things further.

Now there are conflicting views about what did and didn’t happen at the 2018 NHL Draft. The story was that Pacioretty was millimetres away from becoming the newest member of the Los Angeles Kings, but things went off the rails when a contract couldn’t be decided on. What the return on the deal was is being speculated on, and ironically, that’s not the main source of the latest controversy. That honour goes to Pacioretty’s agent Allan Walsh.

He’s been pretty active on Twitter this offseason. Walsh has always been known to defend his players, and we saw that when he denied the rumours revolving around a possible injury to Jonathan Drouin. His latest display, whatever the intention was, has set up an interesting dynamic between himself and the Montreal Canadiens.

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I think the biggest thing to take from this is according to Walsh, the trade happened. Pacioretty was technically a King. And moving forward it ties into a question that I mentioned weeks ago. Have the Habs lost leverage in this move?

Wanting to trade a player and needing to trade a player push a general manager down different paths. It doesn’t look like Walsh is going to stop with his efforts to clear the air on social media, and in his right, there’s nothing really wrong with what he’s doing. He’s looking out for his client and at the same time is trying to force the Habs’ hand.

The rest of the league knows the situation is getting murky and that Marc Bergevin is probably leaning towards the trade side of things, even if there was a chance of optimism that the two sides can come together and get something done.

Thankfully, Pacioretty should have a bounce-back season and show the league why he’s still one of its top goal-scorers. Sure the Montreal Canadiens may appear desperate as Bergevin can’t afford to blunder this trade and Pacioretty is in the final year of his current deal, but patience is going to go a long way.

Teams will be more willing to pay that price at the deadline when everyone is looking to improve their rosters. Whether both sides can afford to wait that long is the next mystery.