Canucks & Canadiens Pull Off Trade Involving Tanner Pearson

The Vancouver Canucks and the Montreal Canadiens have executed a trade right before training camp with Tanner Pearson and a 2025 third round pick heading to Montreal and Casey DeSmith heading back to Vancouver.

#Canucks are sending a 3rd round pick along with Tanner Pearson to #Habs in exchange for Casey DeSmith.

The pick is to account for the difference in salary between DeSmith and Pearson.@DailyFaceoff
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 19, 2023

This news comes not long after Pearson was cleared to play and wouldn't start the season on the long-term injured reserve (LTIR). It forced the Canucks' hand as they would have been over the salary cap or would have had to roster 20-21 players.

The third round pick is to account for the difference in salaries of the two players in the trade. While the Canadiens did what they were trying to do and moved DeSmith before the season started, the Canucks made a nice trade here. They got themselves a strong backup goalie and freed up cap space, not even costing them a pick next year. While we were all expecting something to happen with Pearson, a trade came quickly, meaning the Canucks were ready and had options in front of them to deal with him coming off of LTIR to start the season.