Tomas Tatar and Jeff Petry are pending UFAs next season, and if the Montreal Canadiens find themselves in a certain position, they must be traded.
It’s clear Marc Bergevin wants the Montreal Canadiens to compete for a playoff spot next season. His decisions ahead of this year’s Trade Deadline speak to that belief. The Habs held on to the hope of playoff contention for as long as they could until they were too far gone to justify holding onto the likes of Ilya Kovalchuk and Marco Scandella. And despite endless conversations on the possibility of Tomas Tatar and Jeff Petry being moved as well, Bergevin chose to keep them.
Again, it ties down to the hope of Canadiens’ management. If the team contend for a playoff spot next season, both Tatar and Petry will be key pieces in that effort.
Tatar led the Montreal Canadiens in scoring with 22 goals and 39 assists for 61 points in 68 games. Petry had another 40-point season on the backend with the Habs putting up 11 goals and 29 assists as well as taking the increase in minutes when Shea Weber was out of the lineup.
There could’ve been temptation from Bergevin to move both of them this season based on the prices that were being paid for deadline additions.
Jason Zucker got the Minnesota Wild a conditional first-round pick and valuable defensive prospect, Calen Addison. Blake Coleman and Tyler Toffoli earned some good assets for the New Jersey Devils and Vancouver Canucks, respectively. Those three players, in particular, had similar numbers to Tatar, which triggered the imagination as to what the Montreal Canadiens could’ve received in a deal.
Defencemen were fetching alright packages as well, but not as good as the forwards. Andy Greene joined the New York Islanders for David Quenneville and a 2021 second while Brendan Dillon left the San Jose Sharks with the Washington Capitals giving up a 2020 second and a conditional 2021 third to do it.