In a shocking bit of news that there’s been absolutely no talk of, the Montreal Canadiens have made a trade with the Dallas Stars, with Marc Bergevin sending Travis Moen over in exchange for the aged Sergei Gonchar.
There doesn’t appear to be any other moving parts in the deal, no picks or prospects, with the 32 year old Moen being sent to Dallas straight up for the 40 year old offensive defenseman, Sergei Gonchar.
Gonchar, a left handed defenseman who has averaged just over 13 minutes per game for the Stars, used to be a very similar player to Andrei Markov, but his production has slowed considerably in recent years as he has aged.
The Stars will retain 8% of Gonchar’s salary this season, or $400K, who is an unrestricted free agent after this year. Travis Moen has one more year remaining on his contract at $1.85M.
Gonchar has been a slightly below even possession player the previous two seasons, while Moen has been absolutely in the tank this year, ranking 597th out of 601 players to play 50+ minutes at even strength,
While this clears up space for the Habs next year, what makes this a good or bad deal is whether or not Gonchar interferes with the development of Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi.
