The Montreal Canadiens were going nowhere fast in the 2015-2016 season. After playing the best season of his career, Carey Price was seriously injured early in the new campaign, leaving four goaltenders trying to fill the void and failing miserably. Understandable, as you cannot replace a player of that importance with Mike Condon, Dustin Tokarsky, Ben Scrivens and Charlie Lindgren. Goaltending is about quality and not quantity.
To make matters worst, Montreal had been unable to sign any free agent of note in the off-season. So much so that Marc Bergevin decided to roll the dice on Alexander Semin, an association which lasted 15 games before putting him on waivers and terminating his contract when he refused to report to the Saint-John’s Ice Caps of the AHL.
Bergevin had also invited Tomas Fleischmann to camp on a professional try-out contract and had signed him after he provided a solid effort. It was nothing flashy but still in 57 games, he had managed to rack-up 20 points.
The Trade
As the trade deadline approached and with the Canadiens being sellers, the GM decided to package Fleischmann with Dale Weise, who had 26 points on the year in 56 games, and send the pair to the Chicago Blackhawks.
In return, the Canadiens received the Blackhawks first-round round pick at the 2011 draft Phillip Danault and a second round pick at the 2018 draft. After four productive years in the QMJHL, the center had failed to impress with the Rockford Ice Dogs in the AHL and after 30 games in a limited role with the Hawks, he only had five points to his name.
The Aftermath
After winning the Stanley Cup the year before, Chicago thought a couple of experienced vets would serve them better than a youngster struggling to make his mark. It wouldn’t work out for the Hawks though, they fell at the first hurdle being beaten by the St. Louis Blues in seven games. Fleischmann and Weise were only dressed for four of the seven games.
Weise’s contract was expiring so he walked away in free agency while Fleischmann never played in the NHL again.
Meanwhile, Danault was in the Canadiens’ lineup for six years, making his way up the ranks until he centered the team’s first line flanked by Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Tatar. Ultimately he left in free agency as Bergevin was not ready to meet his asking price, but still, those six seasons made Montreal the winner of the trade without question.
As for the second-round pick at the 2018 draft, the Canadiens used it to select promising defenseman Alexander Romanov. Although the Russian defenseman is no longer with the team, he played two solid seasons in town before being used in another trade to land a second line centre; Kirby Dach. Romanov was one of the best bargain chips Bergevin left Kent Hughes.
The Verdict
Who would have thought that offloading two veterans who weren’t key players by any means lead to that kind of return? Hindsight is always 20/20, but either Bergevin got really lucky or he saw some untapped potential in Danault and hit the lottery when he drafted Romanov.
In my mind, this is easily one of his top trades and letting Danault walk away in free agency cannot tarnish that win. As for Stan Bowman, he must have pinched himself a few times since the trade looking at the center Danault became.
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