Phillip Danault’s path through Montreal has gone all the way around, and that makes the Canadiens’ original trade for him look even better in hindsight.
The story started on February 26, 2016, when Montreal sent Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann to the Blackhawks and got Danault plus a second-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. At the time, it was the kind of move that fit both teams’ needs: Chicago was loading up for another Stanley Cup push, while the Canadiens were turning two pending unrestricted free agents into future value.
Danault was still just 23 and had not yet locked down a full-time NHL role. Chicago had taken him in the first round in 2011, but he had only five points in 30 games with the Blackhawks before the deal. Montreal gave him a bigger stage, and he ran with it.
What Danault became in Montreal was far more than a useful depth forward. He grew into one of the team’s most trusted players because of his defensive work, his faceoff success and his ability to handle the toughest matchups every night.
The scoring followed too. His best offensive season came in 2018-19, when he put up 12 goals and 53 points in 81 games.
The next year, he added 47 points in 71 games.
His value showed up most clearly during the Canadiens’ run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. While other players handled more of the offense, Danault kept getting the hard assignments and spent night after night matching up against some of the league’s top scorers. That role mattered.
Montreal got more than Danault out of the deal. The second-round pick in 2018 turned into Alexander Romanov, whom the Canadiens selected 38th overall. Romanov became a legitimate NHL defenseman before Montreal used him in another major trade in 2022.
Chicago did not get much back that lasted. Weise managed one assist in 15 regular-season games and one goal in the playoffs before leaving as a free agent that summer. Fleischmann finished the 2015-16 season with the Blackhawks and never played another NHL game after that.
In practical terms, Montreal turned two rentals into multiple seasons of Danault and a pick that became another NHL player. That alone makes the original trade stand out.
Danault’s first run with the Canadiens ended in the 2021 offseason, when he left as an unrestricted free agent and signed a six-year deal with the Kings worth $5.5 million annually. But the story did not stop there.
In December 2025, Montreal brought him back in a trade with Los Angeles, sending a second-round pick the other way. The Kings later used that selection to draft Liam Lefebvre.
It is too early to judge that second trade, especially with Lefebvre just starting his development. But it does nothing to change how well the first one worked out for Montreal.
The Canadiens got five important seasons from Danault, a trip to the Stanley Cup Final, and a pick that became Romanov. Almost a decade later, that remains one of the clearest wins of the Bergevin era, and Danault is back where it all began.
In Other News...
Lane Hutson Faces One Big Hurdle In Chasing NHL Respect
Lane Hutsons climb in the NHL has already forced plenty of people to rethink what a defenseman is supposed to look like, and the latest discussion around him centered on whether that sort of evolution can ever translate into the leagues top individual hardware. The conversation came up Wednesday night on The Sick Podcast, where the question was not whether Hutson belongs among the Canadiens most important players, but whether his size will keep him from getting the kind of external recognition that often follows elite blue-liners.
The uncertainty around the Norris Trophy speaks to a broader challenge smaller players have long faced in hockey, where reputation and perception can lag behind actual impact. Hutson has kept working to push past those old biases, but within the Canadiens room the bigger prize still matters most, with the focus firmly on winning the Stanley Cup rather than collecting trophies for one player along the way. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Prospect Aatos Koivu Is Drawing Bigger NHL Buzz Than Expected
Aatos Koivu is starting to generate more attention than most Canadiens prospects at his stage usually do, which is a pretty notable turn for a player still working through his development in Finlands Liiga. The buzz has come from the sense that Koivu has more upside than the typical depth option, with his skills drawing comparisons that suggest there may be more here than a simple organizational piece.
Still, the excitement comes with the usual prospect caution attached. Koivu remains early in the process, and his long-term path is still far from settled, which is why the next step matters so much for Montreal. For now, the more immediate question is whether he can continue building toward being useful in the AHL picture, where the Laval Rocket could eventually have a role for him if his game keeps trending the right way. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Suddenly Face A Tough Samuel Montembeault Decision
Samuel Montembeault is still in Montreal after Kent Hughes spent the summer exploring trade possibilities, but the conversation around the Canadiens goaltending has hardly gone quiet. With training camps opening and teams still taking stock of their depth charts, Montembeault remains one of the more interesting names on the market for a club that has been willing to listen, even if nothing materialized before now.
The latest wrinkle comes from Edmonton, where a sudden goaltending need has put the Oilers back into the mix as a possible fit. Hughes would have to weigh whether the timing is right to revisit that path, especially with cap space tight enough that any deal would likely need more than a simple one-for-one structure. For Montreal, it is another reminder that Montembeaults status is still fluid, and the question is whether the Canadiens want to keep managing that uncertainty or finally turn it into a move. [Read more 🡒]