
3. Tomas Plekanec
The Montreal Canadiens became sellers for the second time in Bergevin’s tenure in 2018. The Canadiens didn’t have a ton of obvious players to trade away as they knew they could be better the following season when Carey Price would presumably be healthy once again.
Still, Bergevin did what he could and moved out Torrey Mitchell, Joe Morrow and Al Montoya. The player that was going to get the best return was veteran center Tomas Plekanec. He was playing out the last year of his contract and would be a free agent on July 1st. It made sense to trade him to the highest bidder.
It was difficult to figure out what that highest bid would be leading up to the trade deadline. Though Plekanec had a nice resume as a defensively responsible center that could chip in offence, his best days were far behind him.
Plekanec was 35 years old at the time of his trade and had only six goals and 24 points in 60 games.He was mostly getting second line ice time with offensive wingers Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher so his lack of production was concerning.
Still, Bergevin was able to get a second round pick as well as Kerby Rachel and Rinat Valiev in exchange for Plekanec. The Maple Leafs already had Auston Matthews, Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak down the middle so they knew they were acquiring a fourth line center.
Plekanec would score zero goals and two assists in 17 games down the stretch, but the Leafs did make the playoffs and the veteran scored two goals and four points in seven games.
The Habs drafted Jacob Olofsson who is an intriguing prospect out of Sweden and also re-signed Plekanec that July. Getting a second round pick for renting a player out to be someone else’s fourth line center is great value.