Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin hasn’t made dozens of enormous blockbuster trades at the helm of the Habs ship.
However, when he does make a big trade, it usually follows the same script.
The trade is one for one. It is initially hated by the entire fanbase. It looks much better when given time.
This was the case when P.K. Subban was traded for Shea Weber. It was (still is?) a heavily debated trade that started to look much better after a couple of years. The same could be said when Alex Galchenyuk was traded for Max Domi. Two years later Domi was dealt for Josh Anderson and once again a trade that was heavily hated quickly started to look much better.
After Max Domi sat out as a healthy scratch last night, the trade looks better than ever.
Domi played two seasons with the Canadiens and gave his all on the ice. He had a career year in his first season in Montreal, scoring 72 points. Last season, his totals were down but he still managed 17 goals and 44 points in 71 games.
The 2019-20 season wasn’t great for Domi, but it was much better than the year Josh Anderson had. In what would become his final season with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Anderson had just one goal and four points in 26 games. He played most of the season injured, but it still seemed risky for the Canadiens to give up on Domi to bring in Anderson.
It looked even riskier when Anderson signed a seven year contract extension with a $5.5 million cap hit.
However, it has been Anderson, and not Domi, that found chemistry with his new team. Anderson has played 39 games this season and scored 15 goals and 22 points. He is scoring at a 30 goal pace and brings speed, skill, physicality and size to the Canadiens forward group.
Domi had the speed, skill and physicality, but he lacked the size and more importantly lacked the knowledge of when to use his physicality and when to dial it down to stay out of the penalty box.
This, combined with just okay offensive production, seems to be what has led to Domi sitting out last night. The 26 year old has seven goals and 19 points in 46 games with the Blue Jackets this season. That’s not good enough for a player they hoped would be a top six centre.
He started to produce some offence, but couldn’t keep his temper under control last week. After putting an assist on the scoresheet, his seventh point in seven games, Domi tackled Connor Murphy of the Chicago Blackhawks and was assessed 14 minutes in penalties for the scrap.
Two games later, Domi once again earned 14 minutes in penalties against the Dallas Stars. Apparently this was enough for head coach John Tortorella who chose to just sit Domi last night. Well, that and the fact Domi had a plus minus of minus four in the loss to the Stars.
Anderson went through a big of a tough offensive stretch recently for the Canadiens. But with him playing well again, and Domi earning a trip to the press box last night, it was just another reminder that Habs fans should be grateful for the big trades that Bergevin has pulled off that worked out well for this team.