Montreal Canadiens' Best Trade Of The Past Year

The Montreal Canadiens have been one of the busiest teams over the past year and a lot of good trades have come from it to help push the rebuild along. They may not be a bottom-of-the-barrel team like last season, but injuries have definitely torn their season apart. We'll first look at the top trades and determine the best one the Canadiens have made over the past year.

The first trades happened last offseason when the Canadiens dealt Alexander Romanov to the New York Islanders in exchange for a high first round pick. This wasn't one of their best trades, but it did set up a good trade. They then used the first round pick and a third rounder to acquire then 21-year-old Kirby Dach who is a former third overall pick from 2019. Without time to really develop and play due to his injuries for the Chicago Blackhawks, the Canadiens are already reaping the rewards of what looks to be a great top-six player for them for a while. They took a bit of a chance, but got ahead in their rebuild by a few years with this trade.

The second trade that the Canadiens made that turned out good for them was acquiring Sean Monahan along with a first round pick for nothing from the Calgary Flames. The Canadiens took on this cap dump and Monahan had a bounce-back season and played very well for them as the second line center. If he hadn't got injured, they would have been able to flip him and this trade would have been the clear cut winner. Despite that, due to the success Monahan had and how much Montreal liked him, they may opt to re-sign him and still come out as huge winners.

The final trade that was worth mentioning and is a long-shot is acquiring Denis Gurianov by trading Evgeni Dadonov at the trade deadline to the Dallas Stars. Dadonov had a very poor season in Montreal, but since the trade, both teams have greatly benefited. Gurianov is a former 12th overall pick in 2015 who hasn't lived up to expectations, but has five goals and eight points in 16 games for the Canadiens since his arrival. He's 25 years old, is an RFA at the end of the season, and has a current cap hit of $2.9 million. It is a good trade and potential to be even better if Gurianov can come back next season with similar production.

Though it is a very close call between the first two great trades for the Canadiens over the past year, Dach is locked in for four more years, just turned 22 years old, and is only going to get much better, acquired all for what might be. The trade to bring in Dach is the winner here.