Back in 2016, the Canadiens’ swap of P.K. Subban for Shea Weber landed like a thunderclap in Montreal.
Subban was the loud, magnetic face of the franchise - the kind of player who made every shift feel bigger. Weber, by contrast, was the steadier, more traditional presence.
On paper, it looked like Montreal was giving up the spark.
That was the gut reaction for a lot of people at the time, and it’s easy to see why. Subban had the sort of talent that made the league stop and watch. Weber felt different: less flash, more structure, more about control than chaos.
What changed the story was what Weber actually became in Montreal. He didn’t arrive as a simple stand-in for Subban.
He settled in as a real core piece for the Canadiens, the kind of player who gives a team its spine without needing to dominate the highlight reel. He brought a stabilizing presence in the locker room and on the blue line, exactly the sort of thing Marc Bergevin said the trade was about when he talked culture and leadership.
At the time, that explanation sounded like standard GM language. In hindsight, Weber’s play made it believable.
He spent several seasons with the Canadiens, produced solid numbers when healthy, and eventually wore the captain’s “C.” That mattered.
He wasn’t only filling minutes and handling his side of the ice - he was setting the tone for a team in what they called a “reset.”
That’s why the trade looks different years later. It no longer reads like Montreal simply moving out a star for a quieter name. For a significant stretch, Weber gave the Canadiens exactly what they needed.
Of course, it wasn’t a perfect ending. Injuries piled up for Weber, and Subban’s path after Nashville kept the “what if” conversation alive. Even so, the broader picture is hard to ignore: what once felt like a mistake ended up working out for Montreal in a way that made sense for where the team was headed.
In Other News...
Why P.K. Subban For Shea Weber Still Divides Canadiens Fans
Nearly a decade later, the P.K. Subban-for-Shea Weber trade still sits in that uneasy space between logic and emotion for Canadiens fans. Montreal sent out a franchise personality in 2016 and got back a different kind of anchor, one who fit the teams identity in a way that was easier to appreciate with time than it was in the moment.
What keeps the debate alive is that the deal was never just about hockey value, but about what kind of team the Canadiens wanted to be. In hindsight, Weber became a core piece and captain, which makes the trade easier to defend on paper, even if it still stirs up old feelings whenever the subject comes back around. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Still Have The One Camp Battle Fans Dreaded Most
Training camp in Montreal is about to answer one of the questions fans have been bracing for all summer: who gets the second-line center job? Oliver Kapanen, Kirby Dach and Jake Evans are the main names in the mix, and each brings a different case to the table. Kapanen showed he can score, Dach still carries the allure of a higher-ceiling fit in the middle, and Evans offers the steadier, more established two-way profile that coaches tend to trust when the games start to matter.
Martin St. Louis and his staff now have to sort through upside, health and reliability while trying to find the right partner for Ivan Demidov. It is the kind of camp battle that can shape more than one lineup card, because the choice at center will ripple through the rest of the forward group and influence how much pressure falls on the rest of the roster. The Canadiens know the spot is open, but the harder part is deciding which option best balances what they need now with what they hope to become later. [Read more 🡒]
Brett Kulak Trade Looks A Lot Different For Oilers Now
When Montreal sent Brett Kulak to Edmonton in March 2022, it looked like a straightforward depth trade, the kind of move that usually fades into the background. The Canadiens got William Lagesson, a second-round pick in 2022 and a seventh-rounder in 2024, while Kulak went on to spend three seasons with the Oilers before his path took him elsewhere.
For Edmonton, the deal once seemed like a useful short-term pickup with a manageable cost. For Montreal, it has become the kind of transaction that keeps aging well, especially as the pick they received turned into a player who has become a key young piece on the blue line. The Oilers got useful mileage out of Kulak, but the longer the story plays out, the more the trade looks like one that shifted in the Canadiens' favor. [Read more 🡒]