NHL Moves: Subban from Montreal to Nashville for Weber

P.K. Subban is a special and very talented player.

Weber, 31 before the start of the new season, is four years Subban’s senior and boasts 443 points over his 763 games. He is heading into the third season of his eight-year, $72-million contract.

His no-movement clause that wouldve allowed him to block any trade would have kicked in on Friday.

“Aside from them being outstanding defensemen and great defensemen, I’d have to say now with an acquisition of myself, and before they were pretty good looking with Shea Weber, but I think they got a whole lot better looking now”, Subban laughed. “Obviously it’s a little bit surreal but it happened”. Subban was not always the favorite of coach Michel Therrien and others in the organization despite his playmaking ability, but Bergevin said friction with teammates and the staff had nothing to do with the deal.

So while this was a trade of styles – Weber a more stable and physical presence; Subban a flashier performer – it also represented a Montreal purge of an athlete who’d become a lightning rod in the city, if not the organization, as well.

In a team statement released not long after, Bergiven said, “We completed today an important transaction which I am convinced will make the Canadiens a better team”. He was passed over in voting for a nominee for a community service award despite his much-publicized pledge last fall of $10 million to the Montreal Children’s Hospital, where the entrance was renamed the P.K. Subban Atrium.

“P.K. Subban is an elite offensive defenceman with tremendous skill and contagious energy that makes the Nashville Predators a better team now and into the future”, said Predators general manager David Poile.

But if we’re talking about a fantasy ceiling and the unknown factor, Subban joining a far better team with a track record of unmatched category coverage in recent seasons makes him the most intriguing option of any defenseman on the board. Hall scored 26 goals last season and finished the year with 65 points in 82 games. He was coming off a five-year, $37.5-million deal he signed as a restricted free agent back in 2011.

Weber had 20 goals and 31 assists in 78 regular-season games this past season.

Weber is under contract for 10 more seasons. He is a complete rearguard with impressive size and a powerful shot.

Add in what Subban meant to Habs fans off the ice and it’s no wonder that to them, the trade feels like a knife to the heart.

“I just feel good knowing that a team has moved someone to bring me in because they want me”, Subban said on a conference call. I don’t think one player can fix all of Edmonton’s defensive problems. Just look at their statistical comparison between the two. “I felt I did everything I could there so it’s pretty hard not to feel slighted”. He made a decision to thank the Montreal Canadiens and their fans for his time in Montreal as personally as he could after he was traded from the Canadiens to the Predators for Shea Weber.

Yes, Shea Weber is a great defenseman, but he is also 30 years old.

Not all Canadiens fans love P.K. Subban, but it might be safe to assume that the majority of the fan base is not overly happy with this trade.

Some of that has to do with how the Predators have historically used him as a match-up defender – but he’s not seen as a speed player in the way today’s game has evolved.