At one in the morning eastern time most Canadiens fans weren't even awake to immediately hear the news that their long time captain Max Pacioretty had been traded to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for two players and a draft pick.
This didn't come as much of a surprise to many. Trade talks were heavily surrounding Pacioretty as he still hadn't signed any kind of a contract extension with Montreal. It came to the point where either he was going to sign long term with the Habs or move on to another team. As time went on, a trade seemed more imminent.
It was stated in an interview with Montreal Canadiens co-owner Geoff Molson that Pacioretty had requested a trade from the Canadiens. At that point it was pretty much a done deal that Pacioretty was leaving Montreal and that it was up to Bergevin to get the best deal he could.
Now that the trade is done and the dust has settled, let's take a deeper look into how this trade actually panned out for both teams and who won the trade.
Back in February, the Vegas Golden Knights sent a first, second, and third round pick to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for Tomas Tatar. It was a risky trade as some weren't sure if Tatar was going to end up being worth three draft picks including a first rounder.
Tomas Tatar ended up scoring 20 goals and accumulating 34 points last season. In Vegas' improbable run to the Final, Tatar only played eight games as he was a healthy scratch for the other 12. Not exactly the way things should be going for a player who was traded for three valuable draft picks.
Fast forward to Sunday night and Tatar was dealt to the Canadiens along with very promising prospect Nick Suzuki and a second round pick in exchange for Max Pacioretty.
If you combine the Tatar deal involving the Golden Knights acquiring Tatar from the Red Wings with the Pacioretty deal involving Tatar being traded away, the ultimate result looks pretty bleak for the Golden Knights.
Essentially, the Vegas Golden Knights got Max Pacioretty but lost Tomas Tatar, Nick Suzuki, a first, third, and two second round draft picks. In this case, Bergevin actually did a terrific job at getting the best return he could for a scoring talent in Pacioretty. Bergevin took a tough situation and made the best out of it which is opposite from what we've seen from him in past dealings.
Max Pacioretty only had one year remaining on his current contract at the time of the trade. Since then, he has been given a four year contract extension with an average annual value of $7 million. He is currently in the final year of a six year deal that has him making $4.5 million per year.
It seems like both sides got good items in the end but in taking a step back, the Golden Knights ultimately paid a lot to have Pacioretty in Vegas. The question of whether it was worth it or not will be answered once we are well into the season but for now, Montreal got a very good return for the guy that's been their captain since 2015 and Vegas paid big time but maybe the defending Western Conference Champions can afford it.