Habs shake things up with a pair of deals

[Goffie]

The Montreal Canadiens are on an awful slide, and if things do not turn around soon they will find themselves outside of the playoffs looking in. They made a pair of deals this morning, one focused on this season and the other on the future.

The first deal sees Pekka Rinne sent to Nashville in exchange for Ilya Kovalchuk and a 2022 2nd. This deal adds a veteran up front that can hopefully help solidify the top 6. I fully believe that Rinne will mimic what Fleury has done in St Loo and make me look bad.

The next deal was an unexcepted deal. In full disclosure Jonas Brodin was included in my trade block by accident. I had no intention to deal him as I love what he brings and his contract. However I received 5 offers within a matter of minutes so decided to keep him on the block. Brodin finds himself heading to Dallas in exchange for Anthony Bitetto and Eric Brannstrom. We view Brannstrom as having elite offensive upside and viewed the long term upside as worth parting ways with our best defensive dman.

It will be interesting to see if Kovalchuk can help right the ship or if we just made the central division better.

[TurdFerguson]

Dallas seems to be fighting injuries all season long so I've been working on acquiring depth. I've also been looking for another RFA Dman who is more of shutdown guy. Brodin is one of the best defensively rated players in the league and is on a decent deal for the next 2 season. Sucks to give up Brannstrom, who I'd agree, could be a strong offensive player from the back-end. I'm a little concerned with his 2-way game at the NHL level though - See how he does in his first NHL season.

Thanks Goffie for the easy deal.