Jonathan Drouin Gets Traded to the Habs; Lightning Acquire D-Man Mikhail Sergachev
Late Thursday afternoon the NHL world was shaken up as the first trade of the offseason was stuck by the GM of the Lighting Steve Yzerman where he sent Montreal’s own Jonathan Drouin to the Montreal Canadians for top prospect defensemen Mikhail Sergachev and for a 2018 conditional second round pick. Thing to note in this trade is if Sergachev makes the Lightning out of camp and plays 40 or more games the Lighting will have to send their sixth-round selection in the same draft to Montreal. Once Drouin was traded, he agreed to a 6yr/$33M dollar deal per year. From the start of the offseason Steve Yzerman was looking to find a young defensemen and what scouts have said about him is he has great potential to be a top defender in the league. This past season, Drouin finished with 51 points, (23 goals) and he ranked 3rd on the Lighting for goals. Time will tell to see who won this trade, but the Canadians just got a player where Claude Julian can plug him right into the first line.
My thoughts about this trade was mixed feelings. Drouin was my favorite Lighting and I thought he was going to be an important piece to the core for the Lighting for the years to come. At the same time, I had a feeling that he was possibly going to be traded because there were recent rumors that the Lighting were looking for defensemen and Drouins' name was being involved in the talks. What makes me excited about this trade is Sergachev is young and when he's ready it should be a deadly first line pairing with Hedman. If he pans out to be a great player the Lightning got a steal in this trade.
