A middle-of-the-night trade splash woke up the hockey world over the weekend when the Montreal Canadiens announced at 1:06 a.m. eastern time on Monday that five-time 30-goal scorer Max Pacioretty had been shipped to Vegas.
This was inevitable.
It became apparent that Montreal and Pacioretty, who will be an unrestricted free agent next summer, were both ready for a change of scenery at the NHL Draft in June after the Canadiens were reportedly close to dealing their captain to Los Angeles. For whatever reason, the deal fell through, which led to Pacioretty changing agents from CAA’s Pat Brisson to Octagon Hockey’s Allan Walsh while the first round was going on.