Welp, after five seasons, 275 games, 146 points and a magical Stanley Cup Finals run, The Shea Weber era for the Montreal Canadiens has finally come to an expected and much anticipated end. After much speculation over the course of a dreadful 2021-22 season for the Habs, GM Kent Hughes has shipped Weber to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for forward Evgenii Dadonov.
Weber, 34, leaves the Canadiens after a turbulent, injury riddled, somewhat productive run stymied by a Canadiens team that just couldn’t consistently build around their massive 6’04, 230-pound Captain. A second-round pick of the Nashville Predators in the 2003 NHL Draft, Weber quickly established a reputation as one of the NHL’s most consistent two-way defenseman, being a regular 20-goal threat from the point, possessing possibly the leagues most lethal shot. While the Predators managed to put together a few postseason wins behind Weber’s leadership, they never got far into the playoffs and eventually decided change was needed.
After nearly losing Weber to the Philadelphia Flyers via offer sheet in the 2012 off-season (signing a front-loaded 14-year deal worth $110 million ($68 million as a signing bonus) Nashville was ultimately forced to match the offer after already losing Ryan Suter, allowing them to keep their franchise player and captain at unfortunately, a vastly overinflated price. In spite of continuing to produce in the years following, Preds GM David Poile ultimately decided change was needed, shipping Weber to the Canadiens in exchange for similar fan favorite and Norris Trophy candidate P.K Subban.
In the immediacy of the trade, the Habs largely came out on the losing end, with Subban’s Preds making a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Finals in his first season whilst the Habs bowed out in the first round and descended into mediocrity. Ultimately though, Subban was swapped to the New Jersey Devils for a mix of little but mid-round picks (partly to make room for Matt Duchene) whilst the Habs, as of Thursday, have landed a pretty talented and proven player in exchange for what is little more than cap relief for the Golden Knights. Ultimately, it’s difficult to decide who won this deal in the end, but for as turbulent as Weber’s tenure in Montreal was, Subban’s in New Jersey has been even worse (and that’s saying something).
Dadonov, 33, comes to Montreal after a rough past two seasons playing for the Golden Knights and Ottawa Senators. A third-round pick of the Florida Panthers in the 2007 Draft, Dadonov is a case of a once-top prospect who only put it all together in the NHL after returning from overseas. After an inconsistent run over his first three seasons, Dadonov jumped ship to the KHL where he became one of the league’s top players, eventually returning to Florida where he again, became one of the top players on the team, recording back-to-back 60-point seasons in 2017-18 and 2018-19. After signing a three-year deal with the Sens worth 15$ million last off-season, Dadonov now finds himself in Montreal.
Vegas’s disastrous cap and front office situation and Ottawa’s similarly disastrous front office situation left Dadonov up a creek without a paddle in many ways, and he still managed 43 points on a team who in all honesty didn’t want him on the team. After attempting to send Dadonov to the Anaheim Ducks at this year’s trade deadline, the trade was subsequently vetoed by the NHL after learning Anaheim was one of the team’s on Dadonov’s no movement clause. With one year left at $5 million flat, Dadonov has the potential to be another Tomas Tatar for the Canadiens.
Either way, the end result is that one of the Canadiens more defining players over the past number of seasons is no more, and with it, Hughes, Jeff Gorton and crew begin their slow rebuild and disassembling of the mess Marc Bergevin ultimately left them with. After five up and down campaigns, a Stanley Cup Finals run, and a howitzer of a slapshot to cap of his career in Game Six of the Conference Finals against Vegas, we can officially call the book closed on one of the more tumultuous eras, in Montreal Canadiens history.
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