The Montreal Canadiens have seemingly been spending months chasing Kirill Marchenko and unfortunately they weren't able to get a deal done before the season. To make matters worse, the Toronto Maple Leafs were able to land the big forward in a blockbuster trade on Monday.
It has been a frustrating chase for the Canadiens because Marchenko would have been a perfect fit on this team and would have addressed some of their top needs. The reality of the situation is they didn't seem to have the assets that Columbus truly wanted, and those were NHL-ready players.
Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs did have that in Matthew Knies and sent him to Columbus along with a few other players.
The Blue Jackets not only got Knies, who is essentially a younger Marchenko, after he had a career season with 66 points and 152 hits, but also created some much-needed cap space. They moved Miles Wood and goaltender Elvis Merzlikins in the deal that helped them, as they signed Adam Fantilli to a new contract with an AAV of $13.5 million and possibly extend Zach Werenski as early as next summer.
Unfortunately the Canadiens just didn't have the players that the Blue Jackets wanted, as they were not going to trade players like Ivan Demidov or Juraj Slafkovsky. There is also a group of players like Alex Newhook, Jayden Struble, or Kaiden Guhle who don't move the needle enough to get a deal done.
If the Blue Jackets wanted to go into a rebuild, this is a deal that probably could have gotten done much earlier. This is the strength that the Canadiens can draw on to help improve their NHL roster, as they still have all their first-round draft picks and prospects like David Reinbacher, Adam Engstrom, and Alexander Zharovsky.
Montreal Canadiens can get some revenge with a win in the regular season opener
While the Toronto Maple Leafs ultimately got the player that Montreal wanted, the Canadiens can get the Maple Leafs back with a win on Tuesday night. It is the first night of the regular season and excitement is going to be at an all-time high for Toronto.
At this point, it is unclear if Marchenko will be on the ice but the Maple Leafs will welcome back Auston Matthews along with players like Gavin McKenna, Darren Raddysh, and Sergei Bobrovsky making their debut with the team.
The Canadiens have a chance to play the villain by going on the road and stealing a win to begin the season. It will be a good statement for the Canadiens to make that, even with all the changes, they are still ahead of them in the division, and Toronto has some work to do to catch them.
This trade wasn't needed to make this a must-watch game but only adds to the rivalry between these two teams.
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