Pacioretty drama continues for Habs
A source close to Max Pacioretty has thrown ice water on a RadioCanada report that the Canadiens’ captain asked to be traded many times in the recent past.
The story flies in the face of Pacioretty’s insistence that he wants to stay in Montreal, where he and his family have made their fulltime home for several years.
It is also curious because Pacioretty rejected a deal that would have sent him to the Los Angeles Kings before the NHL Entry Draft in June.
“Thedealwasdone,”saidasource familiar of the negotiations. “Max got a call from (general manager Marc Bergevin) telling him that he had been traded to the Kings. But the trade was conditional on Max signing a long-term deal with L.A.”
The trade evaporated after Pacioretty said he wasn’t willing to sign an extension. There was a time element involved because Los Angeles’s first-round pick (20th overall) was part of the return to Montreal.
This week, Pacioretty was the host for the Captain’s Tournament, a charity golf event at Richelieu Valley, and he repeated his desire to remain in Montreal.
He refused to talk about the failed trade in June, noting he was on a beach in Florida when the news reached him.
At the same time, Pacioretty and the usually close-mouthed Bergevin both confirmed the team has not offered Pacioretty an extension.
He has one year remaining on his contract. Pacioretty is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent next July and speculation has already begun that the team will renew its attempts to move him at the trading deadline. The strained relationship between the team and the player hung over the golf tournament. There were unfounded rumours this summer that Canadiens management was either boycotting the event or not being invited to participate in it. That would have been odd because the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation is one of the beneficiaries of the Captain’s Tournament.
Bergevin’s obsession with moving Pacioretty seems strange because the Canadiens need scoring and there’s a continuing refrain that it’s difficult to find player who wants to play in Montreal.
While Pacioretty is coming off a disappointing 17-goal, 37-point season, he has been a consistent 30-goal scorer and is among the top 10 goal-scorers in the NHL since the last lockout ended in 2013.