Canadiens: Jonathan Drouin, Vladimir Tarasenko Trade Makes Sense

The Montreal Canadiens are coming off a surprising run to the Stanley Cup Final. General Manager Marc Bergevin built a team that he believed would peak in the postseason and they certainly did.

After being written off against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and Vegas Golden Knights, the Canadiens were able to pull off upsets in each of the first three rounds before falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

It was a great run, but no team should stand pat after a season and the Canadiens are not likely to do that.

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Bergevin has been prone to make a big trade or two every offseason. Last year he traded Max Domi for Josh Anderson, he dealt picks for Jake Allen and he acquired Joel Edmundson weeks before he was scheduled to become a free agent. In the past five years, he has also made offseason deals involving Max Pacioretty, Nick Suzuki, Tomas Tatar, Shea Weber, P.K. Subban, Alex Galchenyuk, Mikhail Sergachev and Jonathan Drouin.

So, don’t be surprised if you see more big names in trades involving the Canadiens this summer.

There are plenty of big names available, and I would fully expect Bergevin to go all-in on next season. Veterans Carey Price and Shea Weber proved this year they still have enough in the tank to go another long playoff run. Also, Bergevin is entering the final year of his contract and all he had to say about that was he “will honour the contract.”

So, is he stepping aside after the 2021-22 season? Is he retiring? That’ll be his 10th year at the helm of the Habs which is a tremendously difficult job to have in a city like Montreal. I mean, how many of us have called for him to be fired at one point or another? Everybody?

I think Bergevin will try to add to this team and I think he will try to find the best goal scoring winger he can attract. He likes his centres with Nick Suzuki, Phillip Danault (needs to be re-signed but likely will), Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jake Evans. He loves his defence, led by the big four of Weber, Jeff Petry, Ben Chiarot and Edmundson as well as Alexander Romanov and Brett Kulak.

Goaltending tandem is stronger than ever with Price and Allen.

The wingers are good, and better now that Cole Caufield has arrived, but with the departure of Tomas Tatar and likely Joel Armia this offseason, I could see Bergevin looking for a sniper on the wing.

Along with Tatar and Armia, it seems like Jonathan Drouin has probably played his last game with the Canadiens. He stepped away from the team late in the regular season citing personal reasons.

Whatever those reasons were are not for me to guess, but they were serious enough to keep Drouin from participating in the Stanley Cup Final, against his former team no less, so they are serious. If he wasn’t able to return to play for the Stanley Cup, will he ever return to play for Montreal?

It doesn’t seem likely. With two years left on his contract at $5.5 million, finding a trade partner may be difficult. Drouin is a skilled left winger who is 26 years old and set a career high with 53 points just two years ago. This year was a struggle for him, but he was leading the team in assists for most of the season before taking his leave of absence.

There is a lot of skill, and possibly a lot of great years left in Drouin. If the reason for his absence has anything to do with the pressure and anxiety of playing in Montreal, other teams would be getting a much better version of Drouin than the one we saw this season.

Teams would be getting something much closer to the player that started last season with 15 points in 17 games before suffering injuries. So, there would still be plenty of value on the trade market.

Enough value for a player like Vladimir Tarasenko? Maybe, but you have to consider the Russian wingers own injury history as well.

Apparently, the 2019 Stanley Cup winner has demanded a trade out of St. Louis. He has had to go through three shoulder surgeries, and blames the team doctors for not properly fixing the issue the first two times. He has had enough and wants to be dealt.

The injuries have limited him to just 34 games in the past two seasons, where he has scored seven goals and 24 points. Before that, the 28 year old was a regular 30 goal scorer, maxing out at 40. He scored 11 goals in 24 postseason games in 2019, helping lead the Blues to their only Stanley Cup.

He was a teammate of Joel Edmundson and Jake Allen who are currently on the Canadiens and would have nothing but great things to say about the team after their long run this spring/summer. That would be important because Tarasenko has some no-trade protection so he has some say in where he will end up.

Of course, his cap hit of $7.5 million for the next two seasons and the fact his actual salary will be $9.5 million next season is going to severely limit the number of potential suitors. There was a time not so long ago that a Tarasenko trade would require a team to give up a first round pick, a top level prospect and a good, young roster player just to get the ball rolling.

I mean, Nick Foligno is worth a first round pick to some GMs, so a guy who can actually score would be worth way more.

The question is, how much will Tarasenko be able to score after a third shoulder surgery? There is plenty of risk. Will he show up and play like Sergei Samsonov did in Montreal and have to be bought out or would he be motivated like Alex Radulov and leave fans wishing he was here much longer?

It’s hard to say, but if he is finally healthy after two years of dealing with shoulder issues, he would be a lot closer to his 30 goal pace, than his four goals in 24 games from last season.

Next. Bergevin could be entering final year with Habs. dark

Bergevin gambled on Josh Anderson being fully healthy last offseason and should strongly consider doing the same with Tarasenko this year.

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