Free washer | Tyler Toffoli’s trade a year later

Tyler Toffoli had three more points Tuesday in the Flames’ 5-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks. It was for the former winger of the Canadian of a ninth point in his last four games.

Toffoli is one of the few positives in Calgary this winter. He is having the best season of his career with 65 points, including 29 goals, in 72 games, a production of 74 points and 33 goals over a full season of 82 games.

The 2022 late first-round pick for Toffoli allowed Filip Mesar to be drafted 26^e rank. Montreal also got winger Emil Heineman, 21, and a fifth-round pick in 2023. Heineman has just joined the Laval Rocket for the final stretch of the season after the elimination of his Swedish first division team.

Mesar, a 5-foot-10 right-handed center whose career on the wing is now being considered, had an interesting training camp with the Canadiens, but we would have expected a higher production in the junior ranks given his professional experience in Slovakia in the previous two seasons.

He had 49 points in 50 games in Kitchener, an average performance for a 19-year-old first-round pick. Mesar nonetheless did well at the World Junior Championship.

Heineman, meanwhile, offered an offensive performance similar to that of the previous season at Leksands, that is to say 15 points, including 8 goals, in 35 games. The fast and dynamic 6-foot, 194-pound left winger was relegated to the fourth line in the Swedish playoffs.

In an optimistic scenario, we see him as a possible third-line winger. He joined Laval and not the Canadiens, an indication of his status in the organizational chart of the organization, at least for now.

At first glance, therefore, Kent Hughes and the Canadiens gave the Calgary Flames a scorer of 30 or more goals for two hopefuls whose future in the NHL is not yet determined. Will they have lost the transaction if Mesar and Heineman do not break through?

We must look at this exchange from another angle. Hughes reminded colleague Pierre Lebrun this week that we would have to wait two or three more years before seeing the Canadian aspire to the playoffs on a regular basis.

Toffoli was an interesting forward when he was sent to Calgary, but he was approaching his thirties (he will turn 31 next month) and will be granted full free agency at the end of the following season, in July 2024.

Whether he scored 30, 40 or 50 goals this year in Montreal would not have changed anything, since the Canadian chose to suffer for a few years to rebuild better. Montreal will be better served in the long term by a choice in the top five, and a preponderant place offered to its young people in the formation, than by a (vain) attempt to approach a place in the playoffs.

He wouldn’t have been offered a long-term deal at 32 with such a young core heading into the 2024-25 season.

Perhaps Mesar and Heineman will be a disappointment, but it is obviously still too early to decide, especially in the case of Mesar.

In a context of reconstruction, a manager must nevertheless amass the maximum amount of assets with a long-term perspective, even if some of these do not give satisfaction. In short, collect as many darts as possible knowing that some will not hit the target.

Drafted at 33^e rank, the first of the second round, with his own choice, the Canadian got his hands on Owen Beck, a hopeful more promising in appearance than Mesar for the moment.

Beck plays center, he’s bigger and he eclipsed all the rookies in training camp. He had 41 points in 30 games in Mississauga before being traded to Peterborough, where his performance declined significantly nonetheless.

The young man nevertheless did well at the end of the World Junior Championship where he was called in to replace an injured man (at only 18 years old) and he even had the right to a match in the NHL with the Canadian during a recall. emergency.

The link between Beck, Mesar and Toffoli is not trivial. If the CH does not obtain this end of first round choice from the Flames, Beck might not be in the Montreal organization today.

Mesar might indeed still have been available at 33^e rank and made up the Canadiens pick with this second-round pick; Beck probably wouldn’t have been available with CH’s next pick, at 62^e rank.

Thanks to the additional choice of Calgary, Montreal was able to acquire two darts instead of two, Mesar, Beck and a certain Lane Hutson at the end of the second round. Time will tell which ones will be assets when Montreal becomes competitive, somewhere in 2024 or 2025.

Revenge of Jonathan Quick

Jonathan Quick was dropped in a somewhat cavalier fashion at 37 by the Los Angeles Kings on the eve of the trade deadline, after fifteen years of service and two Stanley Cups.

He went from a Cup-aspiring club to one of the worst in the NHL, the Columbus Blue Jackets, with a 2023 first-round pick for defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and a younger, more successful goaltender, Joonas Korpisalo. .

But Quick was lucky in his misfortune as he was picked up the next day by one of the Kings’ main rivals, the Vegas Golden Knights, for a modest seventh-round pick.

Quick won its fifth win in six games on Wednesday to become second in career wins for an American goaltender (375), ahead of John Vanbiesbrouck. He could beat Ryan Miller (391) if he plays another season.

The Golden Knights’ new goaltender doesn’t have great stats, with his 2.98 GAA and .906 save percentage, but he does provide Vegas with experience and stability.

The Kings, they do not regret the exchange, even if it was not very chic on a human level. Korpisalo, 28, is 3-0-1 since joining with a 1.96 GAA and .921 save percentage. Los Angeles is 7-2 since the arrival of Korpisalo and Gavrikov, two rental players.

Quick would no doubt dream of facing the Kings in the first round of the playoffs, but he will have to wait for this project to come true. Los Angeles or Vegas will finish first in the Pacific Division and face a fourth ace club, Seattle or Winnipeg. Second round maybe?