NHL Rumors: How Sean Monahan Got Traded to Winnipeg

Action Picked Up on Sean Monahan Once Elias Lindholm Got Traded

Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston of TSN Breakdown how the Winnipeg Jets acquired Sean Monahan from the Montreal Canadiens.

** NHLRumors.com Transcription

NHL Trade: Sean Monahan Traded to the Winnipeg Jets

Mark Masters: Pierre, I don’t want to say you call them, but you kind of called it. How did this Sean Monahan trade play out?

Pierre LeBrun: “Kent Hughes’s phone pretty much exploded the moment Elias Lindholm became a Vancouver Canuck on Wednesday night for obvious reasons.

Some of the same teams that try on Elias Lindholm were also having Sean Monahan as their plan B, as we figured it might go because of how thin the market is at center. The Winnipeg Jets reached out again to the Montreal Canadiens yesterday morning, but what really got it going was when the Jets called later in the day and said, What if we threw in our first-round pick?

NHL Rumors: Could Sean Monahan Fetch the Canadiens a First Round Pick?

That’s where talks really escalated; escalated with the Montreal Canadiens, and I think the Habs plan all along and telling other teams was if you’re willing to throw in your first-round pick now, we’re talking otherwise, we’ll be patient and play the market out especially after Lindholm got dealt once theJets did that this deal came together and listen for the Montreal Canadiens this is a player that stayed healthy for them this year, and they get maximum asset value in trading.”

Chris Johnston: “Absolutely. And that’s a key part of dealing him now, you don’t have that risk of that potential injury between now and March 8. And for the Canadiens, they get two first-round picks for Sean Monahan, the one that got from Calgary to take his contract a couple of years ago and obviously this one from Winnipeg, in addition to that conditional third-round pick, and so Kent Hughes, the last number of deadlines has really been stockpiling the cupboard there, and that’s a nice piece of asset management for them.”