The Montreal Canadiens are gearing up for training camp, but apparently were not quite done with their roster tinkering before hitting the ice for the first time in the 2023-24 season.
The team will be on the ice Thursday, but one of their newest members was just traded to the western conference.
Casey DeSmith, who was acquired in August as part of the Jeff Petry-Erik Karlsson three way deal between the Habs, San Jose Sharks and Pittsburgh Penguins, is packing his bags yet again. DeSmith will head to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Tanner Pearson and a third round draft pick in 2025.
DeSmith did not really have a fit in the Canadiens organization as he is clearly good enough to be in the NHL, but the Habs already have Sam Montembeault and Jake Allen under contract for the upcoming season. They had been looking to flip him, like they did with Jeff Petry, pretty much since they acquired him.
They finally found a home for him in Vancouver. The Canucks have Thatcher Demko firmly entrenched as the team’s number one goaltender. Without acquiring anyone, they would have been leaning on Spencer Martin to be the team’s backup. Martin played 29 games for them last season and had a 3.99 GAA with an .871 SV%.
So it makes sense they would want an upgrade in goal. DeSmith will give them that.
The 32 year old veteran had a 3.17 GAA and a .905 SV% last season, but was much better the previous two seasons when he had a 2.79 GAA with a .914 SV% in 2021-22 and a 2.54 GAA and a .912 SV% the year before that.
Pearson brings a veteran winger to the Canadiens, which they probably weren’t in need of, but injuries will occur and having one too many wingers is better than having too many goaltenders.
He played just 14 games last season before being shut down with a wrist injury. It was complicated at times by questionable medical advice, as the injury dragged on and on all year before he needed additional surgeries to correct the first one.
He had his best season in 2019-20 when he scored 21 goals and 45 points in 69 games and averaged half of a point per game in 2021-22 when he scored 14 goals and 34 points in 68 contests. Pearson arrives with a $3.25 million cap hit but has just one year left on his contract.
It is possible he gives the Habs some decent two-way production from the middle six and turns into a great trade piece at the deadline. That all depends on how he recovers from his multiple surgeries from last year. If he isn’t back to a productive player, he can serve as a depth forward who is sometimes scratched and sometimes steps into the lineup when injuries occur.
The third round pick gives the Habs two picks in each of the first four rounds in 2025.
The Canadiens really did not need DeSmith and turned him into a veteran winger, albeit an overpaid one who was injured most of last season, and a third round pick. That’s not a bad piece of business.
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