Pacioretty trade beginning to look like a stroke of genius from the Habs.

The 2016 - 2016 National Hockey League regular season was one of the worst in recent memory for the Montreal Canadiens. Not only did the team fail to deliver a quality product on the ice for their fans but the season was wrought with controversies off the ice as rumors swirled regarding a deteriorated relationship between then team captain Max Pacioretty and Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin.

The trade rumors hounded Pacioretty for the better part of the regular season and I must admit that a large part of me suspected that the Canadiens would eventually capitulate and sign their captain to a long term deal rather than ship him off to another team. To my surprise however it appears that the Canadiens general manager was dead set on orchestrating a trade that sent Pacioretty out of town and, although it did take quite some time to materialize, Bergevin eventually worked out a deal with Las Vegas Golden Knights general manager George McPhee.

Pacioretty was traded to Vegas and in return the Canadiens got veteran forward Tomas Tatar, prospect Nick Suzuki and a 2nd round pick the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Initially there were many who believed that the return for Bergevin and the Canadiens had been relatively weak, although to be fair we won't know the full extent of that until Suzuki and the eventual 2nd round pick develop. That being said we've gotten a look at two of the other core components of this deal to start the regular season and if I'm being honest here this deal is already starting to look very bad for Las Vegas.

The nightmare that was the 2017 - 2018 season for Pacioretty does not appear to have dissipated with a fresh start in Las Vegas and his production has continued on the trend that is was on in his final season with the Habs. It's a small sample size but through his first 6 games as a member of the Golden Knights Pacioretty has recorded just a single goal, no assists and boasts a plus minus rating of -3 on the season. Of course Pacioretty has plenty of time to turn things around but as things currently stand he is on pace to produce just 13 points this season, a staggeringly low number when you consider that the Golden Knights signed him to an extension that pays him an average annual value of $7 million per season immediately following the trade.

Did the Canadiens know something about Pacioretty's decline last season that the rest of the hockey world was not aware of? If so this may end up looking like a terribly one sided trade. You see the other established NHL player in this deal, the aforementioned Tomas Tatar, has joined the Montreal Canadiens and unlike Pacioretty he has been on fire since joining his new organization.

Tatar, who has only appeared in 4 games thus far this season for the Habs, already has 2 goals and 2 assists and he boasts an plus minus rating of 0 on the season this far. That is to say that in spite of playing 2 fewer games than Pacioretty thus far this season Tatar has quadrupled his point production thus far. Add to that the fact that the Habs received two additional pieces in this trade and an early analysis makes this look like Bergevin may have fleeced the Golden Knights. 

It's still way too early to make a definitive judgement, but the Golden Knights had better hope and pray that Pacioretty can turn things around as soon as possible.