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The Habs made their second major trade of the Kent Hughes era earlier this week when Ben Chiarot was sent to Florida for the prospect of Ty Smilanic, a 2023 first-rounder, and a 2022 fourth. Our writers discuss the movement.
Terry Costaris: You have to be happy with Montreal’s haul here. This must be the most that the Canadians have possibly extracted for chiarot.
Smilanic is a big, very fast, gritty player with an offensive upside. He has the potential to be either a third or fourth line. Smilanic strikes me as a prototypical Vegas Golden Knights-like game. Maybe this is what Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes are trying to emulate after their last two acts.
Ty Smilanic is a 20 year old sophomore on a top-ranked team. There are five players ahead of him point-wise, all of them seniors. Somehow, Smilanic managed to crack some of their ice age.
Let us also consider his age relative to his colleagues. He plays against a lot of high quality 23- and 24-year-old players and looks pretty good against them.
Then there is the Intel aspect of this acquisition. Jeff Gorton, Kent Hughes and Martin St Louis’ children played against him. So, there is a story.
What would really make this deal sweet is when Chiarot pulls a Tomas Plekanec and re-signs it as a free agent this summer.
Chiarot loved to play in Montreal and publicly said that he felt very respected by Gorton and Hughes. He could return and be a valuable placeholder / mentor, while teens like Kaiden Guhle and company acclimatize to the NHL.
As for getting another one first, I love it. It could be used to pick another player or perhaps be part of a package to land a promising prospect to speed up the build-up.
Then there’s 4. There’s only one dart left to throw on the draft board. Montreal has beaten gold in the lower rounds in the past, so who knows. It could also be moved to a higher choice in 2023 or 2024. There is asset management and then there is draft pick management. Montreal has too many draft picks this summer. Some need to be moved.
Just out of curiosity, did any team get a 4th, did it trade for a 3rd for next year and then for a 2nd the following year? Asking mind wants to know.
Allan Katz: I read about twenty articles about this trade and eighteen and a half of them the Habs won the trade. Finally, this is the type of trade that needs to be valued at a slightly lower level than the one that won. For example, there is no way for Calgary to lose the Toffoli trade, but Montreal does not either. Calgary did really well for what they tried to do and so did the Habs. Same thing with the Chiarot trade; two teams, different priorities, both fulfilling their own goals.
That being said, I think this trade is a better coup for Montreal than the Toffoli trade. Chiarot is a location after all. Chiarot would almost certainly not return to Montreal next year. Toffoli would have been the sharpshooter and still is. Chiarot passes the eyeball and patch test and falls miserably on the basics. But during the st. Louis era he was really, really solid. The great lumbering almost man mountain is exactly who we think he is with his greatest crime the misspelling of his name; it’s supposed to be Chariot, just a cooler name.
The most fun with this trade is reading the reader’s comments. Habs fans are a weird lot. Maybe these are Leaf fans trying to dissect the Habs, but the comments are so out of the charts with obviously no knowledge of how craftsmen work or actually anything in the sport. One fan argued that the team did nothing to improve this year or next with both acts. The fact that this was how the trades were constructed to configure both teams’ talent pools on their timelines was totally lost on this commentator. Calgary and Florida are dealing with the present, Montreal is waiting for Suzuki, Caufield, Romanov to flourish into the All-Stars they are capable of becoming. They are waiting for an abundance of talent to flourish in two or three years.
The ultimate decision will be superb the development and talent development of the new management team. Strong Start.
Brian La Rose: It’s hard to not like this deal from Montreal’s perspective. I did not think the Chiarot would get a first-round pick, but instead a pair of second-round selections, so this is an improvement over that, even if the Florida 2023 first-round is likely not to be too high. The Smilanic is a perspective I’ve loved since its design year, when we drew it from Montreal in the second round of our mock draft. He’s set to take on a much bigger offensive role next year, so he’s one whose value could potentially rise quite a year from now.
Chiarot had a good run with the Habs and made anyone who thought his original contract was too much (myself included) look pretty bad. He should be a good fit in Florida, looking for a physical shutdown defender who can play in the top four and the Panthers seem ready to count on a long playoff run. Hughes did well here – he set his price, the teams waited until he got it, and only then pulled the trigger. That is doable in the days leading up to the trading deadline, but as Monday arrives, it will be interesting to see if he sticks around or adjusts closer to the last minute.
Peter Longo: Considering that Chiarot will be an unrestricted free agent and wants to play for a competitive team on possibly his last major contract, the Habs had no chance of signing him again. He played great for the Habs but a trade was inevitable. The return of a 1st, an earlier 3rd, and a 4th round is pretty much as good as it gets. Of course, I’m still unhappy that NHL GMs are actually exchanging first-round picks for rental players. But if anyone wants to give up more than this to expire on a contract, the Habs are happy to do business. Thanks, Florida!
Ken MacLeod: By sticking to their guns for the deal they believed to be from an all-in trading partner outside, the Montreal management team got a better-than-expected return for Chiarot from Florida.
Objectively speaking – the 2023 Entry Draft is expected to be stronger than the upside of the 2022 draft – the return for a left-handed defender who can play both sides was at least as good as what the Habs of the Flames for Got Tyler Toffoli, who still has two seasons after that on a contract with a very affordable $ 4.25M cap hit.
The selection of the first round is the main prize, but Smilanic, a 20-year-old forward who was ranked 74th overall in 2020 and in his second year in a top NCAA program with the ECAC’s Quinnipiac Bobcats, strengthens a already deep Habs perspective pool. A good offensive player with top-nine NHL upside, Smilanic will likely stay at school for at least another season before becoming a pro. But like all NCAA prospects, Canadians must sign him by the summer of 2024 or he will leave as a free agent.
Dave Woodward: The return for Chiarot was far beyond the fair value for a rental. To be sure, if the Panthers win the cup, it would be worth it for them. However, with parity in the league, the chances are still relatively small that the Panthers will win everything and even less that Chiarot is the player who puts them over the top.
For the Canadiens, a first-round pick in a deep 2023 draft, a solid prospect at Smilanic, and a 2022 fourth-round pick is a very nice return, even for a solid shutdown defender like Chiarot.
While the 2023 first-round is the primary asset going to Montreal, Smilanic was a 2020 third-round pick that dropped in this draft, as many had expected him to be selected in the second-round. He’s an excellent skater who plays with speed and therefore fits into the style of play that strives for the Habs’ new brain confidence. Based on scout reports, Smilanic needs his determination and awareness on ice work, but his college coach in Quinnipiac raves about his goal-scoring abilities and the steps he has taken in recent years to become a 200-foot player. Smilanic is a prospect who may need a few seasons at the AHL, but he has potential. Of course, the choice of the fourth round 2022 is an opportunity to land a different perspective. Most fourth-rounders will never play an NHL game, but one never knows.
This is a great piece of asset management by Hughes. He opted for a first-round pick and a perspective and, by retaining half of Chiarot’s pay, also got a fourth-round pick. Everyone in the Habs organization will miss Chiarot and his robust playing style, but this deal is a positive step in the efforts of the new regime to build the team.
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