Analyzing the PK Subban trade

Credit: Montreal Gazette

There have been plenty of moves around the league since Friday to keep us chattering for the next few weeks, but the real craziness occurred on Wednesday with trades after trade. It started with Seth Jones signing an extension, then the Hall-Larsson trade, then the PK Subban – Shea Weber trade, finalized with the Steven Stamkos extension.

While any of these transactions could be the topic of a blog post, let’s focus on the state of Montreal here. The trade was shocking; after hearing that he’s on the market at the draft, it was assumed that Canadiens’ GM Marc Bergevin was simply making waves. We’ve discussed here how a GM’s role is to hear out all possibilities coming from anywhere, for anyone. So for Bergevin to say it is one thing, but to act on it was shocking.

The transaction itself showed Montreal to be a loser in the deal: Subban is younger, has a higher ceiling, and has a shorter contract. Weber, though extremely talented, is 30 years old (turning 31 in August) and still has a staggering ten years left on his contract. However, none of these were cited as the reason for trading Subban.

Bergevin specifically cited Weber’s leadership qualities, powerplay goals and the heft of his shot. While these are all legitimate qualities to look for in a player, this implies that Subban either lacked or struggled with these same qualities.

~fancy stats~

We can all look at this chart and see that Subban is a better player statistically, but let’s not even fight Bergevin on this. He can fake the production portion of this argument, because the leadership area is the most offensive of the press release sent out to the media and, subsequently, the public.

The leadership argument is what really grinds my gears. To act like playing against Subban can’t be frustrating would be a lie; I couldn’t stand him, and I never pretended that I did. But what he gave his team — the intangibles, if you will — and to the community are unmatchable. He acted as a spark for the team, a trait that won’t individually create an untradeable piece, but something that, when added to an already creative, talented player, makes them extraordinary.

Off the ice, what he provided for the city of Montreal was incredible. Montreal is notoriously hard on their sports figures. Subban became a favorite, and not only for what he did on the ice. He donated $10M to the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation, and was notorious for surprising the children at the hospital with spot visits to brighten their days. That kind of charity is something that enamors you to the person and makes it hard for anybody to speak ill of character.

Bergevin was also noted as stating that Subban is “different,” about which I’ll allow you to draw your own conclusions. I was unaware that differences matter while playing hockey, but again, there is quite literally nothing that anybody can take from that statement that is valid in relation to.. well anything, really, but why you’d trade a franchise player.

We can only hope that Subban shows up his former team, which is something that shouldn’t be too difficult for such a special player.