When the Canadiens sent Max Pacioretty to Vegas on September 10, 2018, it looked like the kind of move that signaled a reset. Nearly eight years later, it reads much differently. That trade didn’t just reshape Montreal’s roster for a moment - it delivered Nick Suzuki, the player who has become the face of the team.
Marc Bergevin’s time as Canadiens general manager included plenty of bold swings, and not all of them landed. But the Pacioretty deal has aged into the one that altered the organization most. Montreal got Tomas Tatar, a 2019 second-round pick and Suzuki in return, and while the pick never turned into anything for the Canadiens, Suzuki turned the whole package into something much bigger.
At the time, Pacioretty’s exit had been building all offseason. Montreal was coming off a rough 2017-18 season, and with its captain entering the final year of his contract, the club decided to move on.
The Canadiens landed an NHL-ready forward in Tatar, a promising young center in Suzuki and a future draft asset. Suzuki, chosen 13th overall by Vegas in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, was still in junior hockey when the trade happened, which made the upside obvious even if the full payoff was impossible to see.
Tatar did his part right away. He became a meaningful piece of the Canadiens’ lineup and thrived next to Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher. In 198 regular-season games with Montreal, he produced 149 points before leaving as a free agent and signing with the New Jersey Devils in 2021.
But Suzuki is the reason this deal stands apart. He grew into a central figure in Montreal, helped drive the Canadiens’ run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, and in 2022 was named the 31st captain in franchise history and the youngest player ever to get the honor.
He has since settled in as Montreal’s unquestioned first-line centre, and his game kept climbing. Suzuki won the Selke Trophy in 2025-26 and, at 27, is still in the middle of his prime.
Pacioretty gave Vegas offense, too. He put up 194 points in 224 regular-season games for the Golden Knights, but injuries kept interrupting his time in the lineup. Vegas eventually moved him and Dylan Coghlan to the Carolina Hurricanes in the summer of 2022 for future considerations, a move aimed largely at creating salary-cap flexibility.
The Golden Knights’ decision made sense in the moment. They had just reached the Stanley Cup Final in their first season and were built to chase a title immediately.
With a pile of draft picks and prospects from the expansion process, they had the flexibility to go after proven help. Pacioretty fit that mission.
The real question is whether they gave up the wrong young player. In the 2017 NHL Draft, Vegas took Cody Glass sixth overall, Suzuki 13th and Erik Brannstrom 15th.
The Golden Knights had a strong collection of young assets, but all three were eventually moved. Suzuki was the first to leave, and he became the best NHL player of the group by a wide margin.
Vegas still reached its goal in the end by winning the Stanley Cup in 2023, so the franchise’s aggressive approach hardly backfired. Even so, it’s hard not to wonder what Suzuki might have become in a Golden Knights sweater.
For Montreal, the answer is far clearer. Bergevin turned an aging captain nearing the end of his deal into three useful seasons from Tatar and, more importantly, the player who would become the Canadiens’ next captain and franchise centre. Of all Bergevin’s trades, this one left the deepest mark.
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For Montreal, the appeal is obvious because centers who can drive a team are the hardest pieces to find, and the temptation to accelerate the rebuild only grows when one comes into view. But a move like that would not come cheap, and any serious pursuit would test the clubs balance between protecting its assets and knowing when to spend them. The real issue is not just whether the Canadiens want to get better, but whether they are ready to shift from building toward competing. [Read more 🡒]
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Canadiens Fans May Not Like Where This Montembeault Rumor Leads
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Still, the Montembeault chatter appears to be running into the same wall it usually does in a salary-cap league. Marco DAmico has said a trade for Samuel Montembeault is unlikely because Edmonton would not have the room to absorb his $3.15 million cap hit while carrying those injured contracts, which makes the rumor harder to sustain even with a clear need at the position. For Canadiens fans, it is a reminder that interest around a goalie can move quickly, but cap reality can shut the door just as fast. [Read more 🡒]