A day after the Capitals acquired Tyler Graovac for expansion draft flexibility, a major trade went down between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Canadiens acquired talented scoring forward Jonathan Drouin and conditional 2018 second and sixth-round picks in exchange for prospect defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and a conditional 2018 second-round pick.
Sergachev, an 18-year-old, 6-foot-3, 215-pound defenseman, skated in four games for the Canadiens during the 2016-2017 season, spending the majority of the season with the Memorial Cup-winning OHL Windsor Spitfires. Sergachev led all Spitfire defensemen in points, tallying 43 in 50 games (10 goals, 33 assists). Sergachev was originally the ninth overall pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
The 22-year old Drouin played in 73 games for the Lightning in 2016-2017, posting 53 points (21 goals, 32 assists). Drouin, listed at 5’11” and 188-pounds, has tallied 95 points (29 goals, 66 assists) in three seasons with the Lightning. Drouin was the third overall pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.
Per TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, the conditional picks will be exchanged only if Sergachev plays in less than 40 games for Tampa next season.
The trade appears to have been made because the Lightning were stuck between a rock and a hard place with their expansion draft protect list. Bringing in Sergachev, who does not qualify to be drafted by the Vegas Golden Knights, allows the Lightning to retain another one of their talented forwards and gain an asset for the future.
For their seven forwards, the Lightning were likely to protect Steven Stamkos, Ryan Callahan (no motion clause), Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn, and Druin. With Druin gone, the Lightning can now protect another important forward like 24-year-old Vladislav Namestnikov.
The Athletic’s James Mirtle further explained the Lightning’s rationale and how this ultimately will end up hurting Vegas’s roster.
Drouin had to be protected in expansion or lost. Sergachev does not. Lightning were facing losing a good player for nothing; now they don't.
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) June 15, 2017
This kind of dealing is what's really going to hurt Vegas; teams are going to get assets for players while they can and leave VGK scraps.
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) June 15, 2017
Every team I've talked to the last few weeks is working on some variation of: "How do we give Vegas almost nothing?" Tampa pulls that off.
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) June 15, 2017
Shortly after the trade was announced, Drouin signed a six-year, $33 million contract with the Canadiens with an AAV of $5.5M.
Year by year breakdown of Drouin contract:
6.5M (1M SB), 5.5M, 5.5M, 4.5M (2M SB), 5.5M and 5.5M.— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 16, 2017
Drouin will near number 72 with the Habs.
Marc Bergevin says to get a young player of Drouin's caliber, it was something the organization couldn't pass on – moving Sergachev. #Habs
— Christopher (@CHatzitoliosMTL) June 15, 2017
Photo:Terry Wilson/OHL Images and Scott Audette/Getty Images
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