montreal
Go Habs Go
I mean despite a bad season, learning a new position, on a **** team in a new environment, Drouin was still 3rd on the team in scoring last year, 8 points away from 1st. Sergachev was on the best team in the East and the best offensive team in the league. It was way too reactionary to say the trade was a loss.
Now Drouin has settled in, playing his natural position. Sergachev is struggling, I expect him to turn it around at some point. But to say it’s a loss for the Habs is wrong.
But Drouin who was older and coming off a 53 pts season where he had a .73 ppg and was on pace for 60 pts to a season where he dropped to 47 pts and a .6 ppg which means he was on pace for 49 pts. Then on top of that was how he played, he looked like a soft lazy cream puff. So after getting a 33M contract, you can see why fans would be pissed at his play vs Sergachev who had one of the best seasons a 19 year old blueline has ever had.
Yes we sucked, yes Drouin was playing center again, a position he had played before but clearly isn't a fit there. Yes Sergachev played on a powerhouse team. But when you are talking about a 19 year old on a 892K cap hit vs a 22 year old on a 5.5M cap hit and the 19 year old almost has as many points as the center that's very troubling. Add to that fans were just pissed off in general after just going through the 2nd worst season the Habs have had in the modern era, and a GM that clearly got us there with his numerous mistakes.
I would be willing to bet that if you asked non Hab fans at the end of last season who did that trade favor it would be a landslide in TB's favor and that's with us getting lucky not having to give up that 2nd round pick. Now it's looking much better, at the end of the year we'll see by how much. It should be in our favor, we traded a 9th OA 19 year old for a 3rd OA 22 year old, we should have been ahead in this trade for a few years until the blueliner started to find his way.
Granted maybe Sergachev has peaked already, maybe Drouin goes on to be a very good NHLer, we won't know so we'll just have to see how each year goes.