Bergevin pulled a rabbit out of his hat last night as the Canadiens dealt veteran back up Al Montoya to the Edmonton Oilers for a Conditional 4th round pick on 2018.
The condition depends on if Montoya plays in 7 regular season games for the Oilers this season. If he doesn’t it is a 2018 5th.
Not too shabby for a guy who’s apparently still recovering from a concussion suffered against the Jets on November 4th, 2017.
Montoya played in four games this season posting a 2-1-0 record and 3.77 GAA and an .863 SP%.
Considering Montoya was probably in the “Niemi… range of value in pretty impressed Bergevin could flip him into an asset. Seems like everytime Montreal needs to ditch someone, Chiarelli is right there to help.
Look for Bergevin to flip Niemi at the deadline as well. The Laval Rocket are fighting to stay in the playoff race so it wouldn’t surprise me if they also kept Niemi to keep Lindgren in Laval. But if Laval is out of it by the deadline I fully hope Niemi is on the move. I’m not greedy, I would take another 5th rounder for him.
Montreal now has 8 picks next year, as per CapFriendly: 1st, 2nd, 2nd (CHI), 2nd (Wash), 3rd, 5th, 5th (Edm, can become the aforementioned 4th), 5th (LA, can become 4th if Kings make playoffs).
Best of luck to Big Al in Edmonton. He was never a distraction on the Habs and always appeared to be a good teammate. Hopefully he gets into 7 of the remaining games for the Oilers.