Great asset management by the Habs with Monahan, took a big risk, and it paid off.
I'm really happy for Sean, he was my favourite Flames for his tenure with us, and I don't hate the Jets, so I'll be rooting for him.
The over the top hatred for Treliving because of the Monahan trade is rather unjust though.
At the time of the trade, Monahan was coming off 2 shortened seasons due to injury, had scored 10 goals in 50 games in 20/21 followed up by 8 goals in 65 games in 21/22.
His production was at an all time low, and there were still injury concerns. Flames were pivoting after losing Gaudreau and moving Tkachuk, but still pushing to be a contender. So moving an often injured player with a $6.375M price tag, who may or may not play more than a fraction of the season (he played 30% of the season and scored 6 goals), for the top Free Agent Centre on the market made sense at the time. Personally I'd say that was worth a 1st. Had Treliving not made the move, and the Flames floundered because we had little center depth with Monahan out 70% of the year, I think people would have been just as pissed that Treliving hadn't made a push to sign Kadri if it meant paying a 1st.
Did it work out? obviously not as well as we'd all hoped, but Kadri did come in, score 24 goals, add 32 assists, and sit 3rd in team scoring, this year he's second in team scoring thus far. If anything, Huberdeau's disappearance plays a much larger role in the Flames downfall, and why paying a first to move Monahan looks bad.
Monahan has had a resurgence this year, but he's being paid less than $2M, which is why he got a 1st today, he certainly wasn't getting that 2 years ago, or if he was still making $6+M.
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