VGK traded for a UFA
LAK only would trade if Pacioretty signed long term (leading to him firing longtime agent who is close friends with Marc Bergavin immediately after blocking the trade picking an Agent known to make GM's lives hard)

if VGK couldnt dump Tatar we wouldnt have got what we did .
VGK traded hoping to get a top 6 winger when they over paid at the Trade Deadline but he was on their team the 13th forward making 5.3m with term .

The LA deal would have been a better deal for Habs, in my opinion.

That LAK deal was contingent on Patches signing though..... Can't force Patches to sign somewhere he doesn't want to. Chances are if he would be a pure rental you'd have to remove Vilardi from the LAK deal. Pearson and Kupari or Tatar, Suzuki and a 2nd. I'll take the latter.

People forget Pearson in 26 years old. 1 year younger than Tatar and hasn't produced nearly as well as Tatar has.

I'm very pleased with the VGS deal. It should have been higher but with all the bad press and garbage PR talk, this was absolutely the best the Habs were going to get.

Hey man at least it wasn't as bad as the Shattenkirk ordeal. It went from Taylor Hall at the draft and then eight months later it's Zack Sanford and a first round pick. All because Shattenkirk was set on playing for the Rangers which ended up rebuilding as soon as they got him.

100%.
Suzuki is a legit prospect. like a solid B+ prospect with A- skill and speed

As was this VGK deal. Patches signing an extension within the coming days likely.

The complete rumour was that the Habs were asking for the 2018 1st, one of Pearson/Toffoli and an unnamed prospect (though many suspected this to be Vilardi).

I don't think it was contingent on Patch signing....... no one has mentioned this. I think if he signs now, he signs knowing his chance at resigning with the Habs is 100% no longer an option.

If the deal was contingent on Pacioretty signing the deal would be released as soon as the deal was made. They are still working on a deal because a deal was not signed prior to the trade.

Of course the LA one is better, but there is one issue... we will never know if that is true. That return is complete speculation and even though I'm a Habs fan, LA fans should be pissed if that''s what you could have potentially given up.

So can we let the Habs have their moment please? They got a good return for Max and Max finally has a chance to get away from the media in Montreal. It's a good move for all teams and all players!

Now, LET IT GO! pleaseeeeeeeeeee.

https://twitter.com/ericengels/status/1039137807225126914?s=21

Per Eric Engels it was, which I suppose we should take with a grain of salt now that I think about it ?

Bergevin was a dick trying to play a gameshow host by giving Pacioretty minutes to decide on a process that was years in the making. It's not like Pacioretty was the problem in Montreal either, so he was right in demanding more respect to volunteer to help clean up Bergevin's mess.

Nope your right, even Arpon Basu is saying it! I didn't see that till now.

Well then the only thing I can say is if it was guaranteed that the offer for Pacioretty from LAK at the draft was the above trade, I would then agree that it was a better offer. But it still doens't change the fact that Pacioretty didn't want to sign the contract.

LAK's offer was contingent on Pacioretty signing that specific deal. Which he obviously was not ready to do.

Lol No retort from me there.

can't stand MB and can't wait till he's gone.

I'll be honest, I thought Montreal had all the right pieces for a few years. I don't know exactly how or why it fell apart.

But even without behind the scenes drama, I don't see how MTL builds a strong team with Price and Weber being a big part of the cap for 9 more seasons. I'd love to see what trades could be made for them. They're good and not obviously overpaid, but GMs have learned to fear mistakes that hang around for 4+ years.