I strongly believe there was a deal in place to deal Lucic, not necessarily to Boston though. And I think he blocked it.
On the conditions, to me they reinforce that the Habs' starting point was probably that they get "the highest of the two conditions" and it went from there. All the conditions were designed to mitigate it being a disaster for the Flames (e.g. they trade a top 10 pick).
The bottom line is the Flames needed the deal to be done (at least they thought they did) more than the Habs, which put all the leverage in the hands of Montreal. At that point, it seems like the Flames had exhausted trying to move another player (Lucic) and there were few landing spots for Monahan.
Doesn't mean it was a good deal. It wasn't. But those dynamics created the situation that resulted in the deal being what it was.
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