Skeptics who doubted that Sean Monahan could be worth a first-round pick to the Canadiens were confounded. Late this morning, the Habs announced that they had traded the 29-year-old forward to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for a first-round pick in the next draft.
Watch Kent Hughes’ press briefing live in the video above.
In this pact, Kent Hughes also managed to get his hands on a conditional third-round pick for the 2027 auction. For this condition to be made official, the Jets will have to win the Stanley Cup next June.
Acquired from the Calgary Flames on August 18, 2022, Monahan amassed 52 points (19 goals, 33 assists) in 74 games with the Montreal team.
This season, his first in full health in a while, the Ontarian blackened the scoresheet on 35 occasions in 49 games. Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki were the only most productive players in the Canadian camp.
“We know we are a better team with Sean, but we don’t have enough clarity in our future to offer him a reasonable contract. It was better to trade him and give him the chance to play for a very good team,” Hughes said at a press conference.
Due to the loss of Mark Scheifele, the addition of Monahan became an interesting alternative for Winnipeg. Dealing with a lower-body injury, the veteran has missed the Jets’ last six games. However, he should be able to return to the lineup when he returns from the All-Star break.
The arrival of Monahan will allow the Manitoba team to rely on a center line including Scheifele, Monahan, Vladislav Namestnikov, young Rasmus Kupari, a 23-year-old former first-round pick and veteran Adam Lowry.
Monahan brought in big
The return for Monahan is similar to what the Flames obtained for the services of Elias Lindholm.
On Wednesday night, the Flames received a first-round pick from the Canucks, a conditional pick 4e In turn, striker Andrei Kuzmenko and young prospects Hunter Brzustewicz and Joni Jurmo.
“Teams that were in the running for Lindholm then turned their attention to Sean,” Hughes revealed. It sped things up.”
We can therefore conclude that Hughes will have skillfully played his cards in the case of his center player. We will recall that the general manager of the Canadiens had agreed to relieve his Flames counterpart of the thorn that Monahan had become due to his injuries, on the condition that a first round pick followed him in this transaction. Brad Treliving had therefore agreed to send a (conditional) first round choice in 2025 with the one who then received $6.375 million per season.
This personnel movement means that Monahan will have brought the Habs two first-round picks as well as a conditional third-round pick.
– With the collaboration of the QMI Agency