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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
For the second time in three days, a pair of Canadian NHL teams made a trade with a center going to the Stanley Cup contender, and a first-round pick (and more) going to a team looking to build for the future.
This trade saw veteran center Sean Monahan dealt to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for a 2024 first-round draft pick and a 2027 conditional third-round pick going back to the Montreal Canadiens.
Which front office did better in this swap? We grade both GMs here.
This is going to go down as one of the greatest examples of asset management in the salary cap era.
In August 2022, the Canadiens and Calgary Flames made a trade. Montreal acquired Monahan in the final year of his contract, which carried a $6.375 million cap hit. Monahan’s star had dimmed after being one of the top centers in the league for the Flames from 2017-19. He’s had two hip surgeries, a groin surgery and wrist surgery in the last few seasons.
The Flames wanted his salary off their roster, so they traded a conditional 2025 first-round pick to the Canadiens, who had plenty of cap room for Monahan.
He played only 25 games in his first season in Montreal, which were enough to inspire some hope that he was on the road back to effectiveness; the Habs signed him to a one-year, $1.985 million deal heading into 2023-24. Thanks to his point production, his minuscule cap hit and his expiring contract, Monahan became one of the most coveted centers ahead of the trade deadline.
So the Canadiens traded Monahan to the Jets for another first-round pick.
It’s possible that even at the peak of his NHL production that Monahan would not have garnered two first-round picks in a trade. That he basically did through the Canadiens’ two trades — for a 29-year-old reclamation project with an expiring contract and a specious health history — is one of the best uses of salary cap space and value inflation in recent memory.
Kudos to GM Kent Hughes for a master class in asset management, aided by a trade market that was friendly to Monahan.
It’s difficult to talk about Monahan without talking about what might have been.
An NHL source confirms that the Jets were in pursuit of center Elias Lindholm before the Vancouver Canucks‘ aggressive courtship landed the Flames forward on Wednesday for a first-rounder, a conditional pick, a roster player and two prospects.
Lindholm is the better, more complete player, even if it could be argued that Monahan is having the better season. In an odd way, these two trades are mirror images of each other: Vancouver going big to get Lindholm based on everything he did before this season and Winnipeg trading a first-rounder based on everything Monahan did this season.
Monahan is a playmaking center and a power-play asset, although goal-scoring in either situation isn’t anywhere near his early-career efficiency. Coach Rick Bowness told me on Friday that said he expects Monahan to start on a line with Cole Perfetti and Nikolaj Ehlers, two players that can find the back of the net for the Jets.
He should also provide a boost to their power play, which ranks 24th in the NHL (15.7%) this season.
Last month, I predicted the Jets would go all-in for a center. They’ve been a pleasant surprise this season — especially with their team defense — but still had a significant hole in their lineup behind Mark Scheifele, thanks to last summer’s trade of Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings.
They had Vladislav Namestnikov and Adam Lowry in the middle, with Perfetti and Gabriel Vilardi also available in the pivot. But Monahan gives them a legit No. 2 center, and one that Bowness believes also passes important character tests for the Jets off the ice.
I was thinking B-minus overall here, but bumped it to a B because of Monahan’s incredible cap value, a point of demarcation with Lindholm ($4.85 million). Overall, a solid pickup for a surprising contender, snagging one the trade board’s top remaining centers on an expiring contract.