POLL: The Drouin Trade

By Phil Wunderlich

It’s official the moment that we knew could be upon us actually did happen… Jonathan Drouin has been traded to the Montreal Canadiens for Mikhail Sergachev. The deal also includes some picks in the deal, as well as, the Bolts get a conditional second rounder in next years draft and the Habs get a conditional sixth next year. Montreal signed Drouin to a six-year $33 million deal.

On the bright side, the Bolts do get a great prospect in Sergachev. Mikhail is an 18-year-old, fairly large (6’3” 205 lb) Russian left handed defenseman. You can also tell by his stats last season in Windsor (10G, 33A in 50 games) that he is very offensive-minded. Sergachev is also a large reason why the Spitfires won the Memorial Cup last season and he will be a great addition to the roster. He was also considered one of the greatest defensemen in the 2016 draft and was drafted 9th overall that season. Yzerman said this when asked about Sergachev, “We watched him in juniors… He’s got good size, he’s very strong, he skates very well, he’s got an excellent shot.”

The Bolts also do get another spot where they can protect another forward, someone like Vladislav Namestnikov, in the upcoming expansion draft since Sergachev is exempt. This also means it should be easier to re-sign free agents Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson with the $18 million in cap space that they currently have.

On the downside, the Habs do get Jonathan Drouin, a fan favorite and a great young stud. The deal is also within the division so the fact that the Bolts will play the Habs four times in the upcoming season is at the very least unfortunate. In our last article, we discussed a couple of trade targets that Drouin could be traded for…Sergachev was not on that list.

What do you think Tampa Bay fans?

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June 17th, 2017