Former teammates have mixed feelings about trade
When Carey Price took to the podium at the Canadiens’ golf tournament Monday morning at Lavalsur-le-lac, he smiled and said with a smile to the reporters gathered in front of him: “Hey, what’s new?”
Like most Montrealers, the goalie woke up Monday morning to news the Canadiens had announced at 1:05 a.m. that captain Max Pacioretty had been traded to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for veteran winger Tomas Tatar, forward prospect Nick Suzuki and a second-round pick at the 2019 NHL Draft.
“It is what it is,” Price said about the trade. “It sounds like both sides are going to be happy. It’s unfortunate to see a player like Max go. I played with him for 10 years. I wish him all the best. I’m sure he’s probably excited about going to Las Vegas and we got a good player in return. We’ll see how it turns out.”
Andrew Shaw woke up Monday morning with his baby daughter, Andy, crying.
“My little girl’s crying and I look at my phone and see that Max has been traded and see we got Tomas and Nick, as well,” Shaw said. “So pretty exciting morning to wake up to something like that. But I wish Max the best. He’s going to do well there, I know he is. He’s going to enjoy it, and we look forward to having Tomas show up and become friends with him, and teammates, as well.
“It was an ongoing thing all summer, so for it to finally be done, it puts a close to that chapter,” added Shaw, who is recovering from knee surgery and might not be ready to start the NHL season. “Both players have a fresh start, so I’m sure they’re all looking forward to that as well.”
Shaw said he knows Tatar from playing against him, adding he’s dynamic, quick and works hard. The Golden Knights acquired Tatar from the Detroit Red Wings at last season’s NHL trade deadline, but the winger struggled in Las Vegas with 4-2-6 totals in 20 regular-season games and was a healthy scratch for all but eight playoff games as the expansion team advanced to the Stanley Cup final before losing to the Washington Capitals.
“He competes and he’s got some skill behind his game, too,” Shaw said about Tatar. “I think he’s got five seasons with 20 goals (it’s actually four, including last season when he had 16 with the Red Wings before the trade). So, I mean, he’s a good player. He can score goals and I think he’s going to be a great asset for us.”
Canadiens defenceman Shea Weber learned about the trade when he woke up Monday and saw a text from the team.
“It’s obviously difficult to see teammates go,” Weber said. “Especially a guy that’s had such a big impact on this organization for a lot of years. He’s done a lot of good things for the city of Montreal and the Canadiens and I want to wish him the best of luck in Vegas and I think he’ll do well there.”
When asked if getting the trade done before the start of training camp was good timing, Weber said: “It’s hard to say. It’s obviously not the best-case scenario. Best-case scenario this never even came up. But I think what we’re dealing with here, I think he’s probably looking forward to moving on to the next chapter and hopefully we can focus on everything here now and move forward and make sure that we’re ready to go and have a good start to the season.”
Weber isn’t expected to play until December after having knee surgery.
Price is heading into the first season of an eight-year, US$84million contract. When Marc Bergevin took over as GM of the Canadiens six years ago, Price, Pacioretty, P.K. Subban and Alex Galchenyuk were considered four pillars for the team’s future. Now all but Price are gone.
“It’s definitely not the way we wanted things to turn out, obviously,” Price said about Pacioretty getting traded. “But at some point a player, if he feels like he needs a change, then that’s his choice. It just wasn’t working out. Like I said earlier, I just wish him all the best and hopefully it works out for him.”
Coach Claude Julien noted that trades are part of business in the NHL.
“We lost our captain, we lost a good player,” Julien said.
“But we also gained some good potential there in Suzuki. You would like to see Tatar come in and score his 20, 25 goals like he normally does. And the second-round pick, there’s a lot of good secondround picks around in the league that have been good players. So it’s unfortunate, it’s part of the business, but at the same time, you take time to reflect on what the player’s done for the organization.
“Having been here just a year and a half, I probably didn’t see as much of it as most of you guys with Max,” the coach added.
“But he’s been a good player for us. He was proud to be a captain and was really taking his job seriously when it came to that. He’s been good for this organization. But again, the business side of things sometimes take over. You can ask Wayne Gretzky that same question.”