Young player traded in the middle of a team building activity!

Just the wrong timing...

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Young player traded in the middle of a team building activity!
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It is now a thing: different companies are using team building exercises and activities to bond their employees and teach them how to work better together and better communicate in the workplace. A great concept that has been used by different teams across the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League. 

However, the purpose of a team building activity is sort of killed when one of the team members gets traded right in the middle of the exercise. On Wednesday, the Montreal Canadiens traded forward Will Bitten to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for defenseman Gustav Olofsson. According to a Montreal local sports webpage, Dans Les Coulisses, Bitten, who was with the Habs' farm club, the Laval Rocket in the AHL, was asked to follow head coach Joel Bouchard out of a team building exercise, where he learned he was being moved by the Canadiens. 

The 20-year-old kid then had to grab his coat from the dressing room, picked up his bag and entered the room where the rest of his teammates were still taking part in the team building activity to inform them he had been traded. What a way to try to convince your young players that team building activities are the way to go... 

Once again, according to Dans Les Coulisses, Rocket players had gathered to bake and cook some pizzas, as a team building exercise. Many of the players probably lost their appetite after this... 

The Canadiens landed 23-year-old Olofsson, who collected eight assists in 41 games with Minnesota last season. The newly acquired blue liner is expected to report to AHL Laval. He was drafted in the second round, 46th overall back in 2013.

Bitten was the Canadiens’ third-round pick in 2016, taken 70th overall, and had 20 goals and 64 points in 62 games last season with the OHL Hamilton Bulldogs.

The Canadiens clearly don't care about the timing of the latest moves... Last night ahead of the season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs, head coach Claude Julien not only decided to sit Tomas Plekanec, who is looking to play a total of a 1000 games with the Canadiens this season, he also put an end to one of his players' ironman streak by making him a healthy scratch.

Julien decided to sit out defenseman Karl Alzner, who has played 622 consecutive games in the NHL. He had the fourth best streak in the league, behind Pittsburgh Penguins' Phil Kessel, veteran Patrick Marleau of the Maple Leafs and blue liner Keith Yandle of the Florida Panthers.