Montreal Picks Up Sean Monahan From The Flames In Order To Help Calgary Clear Cap Space And The Habs Might Finally Be Doing Smart Business

What a wild day in August for the NHL. Moving and shaking and it looks like pretty good business for both sides of this one. 

Calgary looked like they were headed for a rebuild when they lost Johnny Hockey and Matthew Tkachuk then basically forced his way out. The Flames basically replaced everything they lost in Gaudreau with Huberdeau coming in and Kadri is definitely an upgrade over Monahan at this stage of things. Matthew Tkachuk leaves a GIANT void because of everything he does, but the Flames also improved their defense. 

I don't know exactly what Calgary's end game is here because there is no way that roster genuinely competes for the Stanley Cup and both the Huberdeau and Kadri deals will start to look BAD in 4 years or so, but for now they took a disasterous offseason and retooled their roster to once again look like a playoff team. 

I love the trade for Montreal. I've always liked Monahan's game, but injuries have taken their toll on him. Hips are tricky and there's a chance that he is never able to really come back. If that is the case then Montreal is on the hook for only one year and they picked up a 1st round pick (as of right now it's the Florida pick that CGY acquired for Tkachuk) for their trouble. If Monahan can get healthy and get those hips firing maybe he can find success in a reduced role where he is slotted somewhere in the middle 6 behind Suzuki. Maybe he shows enough that they can re-sign him at a reduced rate. With Dach in the mix with Monahan and Evans the Habs have some interesting options there in what looks like it should be another rebuilding year. We'll see how it shakes out for the Habs, but it seems like they've been caught middling for my entire life, and maybe they still are, but this feels like a better path than they've been on for a while.