The Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning have completed a trade Thursday evening, which will see defenseman Nikita Nesterov head to Montreal in return for Jonathan Racine and a 6th round pick.
The 23-year old Nesterov signed a one-year deal with the Lightning this summer as a restricted free agent after playing in 57 games with the team last season. In 35 games this year he’s put up 12 points in 35 games playing on the team’s bottom pairing. After playing for Russia at the World Cup, he hasn’t quite been able to show that he’s deserved of big minutes at this point in his career.
Montreal has been looking for someone to add some depth to the back end of their defense corps for a while, which Nesterov will now do admirably. Racine had been one of the players they hoped could make the leap this year after acquiring him for Tim Bozon from the Florida Panthers this summer. He hasn’t made much of an impact at the AHL level and is slowly falling away from prospect status. The former third-round pick will turn 24 in May and has played in just one NHL game, back in 2013-14.
For Tampa, they had a tough summer ahead of them with no less than 20 RFAs to sign (though the minor league veterans aren’t really a problem). Nesterov likely would have needed a slight upgrade from the $725,000 he is earning this season, money which the Lightning simply won’t have.
As we wrote the other day, the team has some issues in front of them going into the expansion draft, so consider this the first move of a possible series before next month’s trade deadline. With some forwards at risk of selection, the team might still be open to moving a player off their top few lines.
Not bad
I like it. Nesterov’s been a solid, if unspectacular, NHL defender for 3 years now while Racine has seen just a single game of NHL action so far and doesn’t project to be much bette than he currently is. If anything, this puts pressure on Barberio to perform better or be demoted.
Is Racine any good
I held out hope in him as a stay at home defender in the mold of Alexei Emelin but he’s too slow of a skater. He’s very tough but is prone to dumb penalties. I was a fan of his when he played in the QMJHL and was excited when Montreal got him but he’s disappointed in the AHL this year.
I’ve read Las Vegas is scouting for Killorn.
Can’t wait to see what Yzerman does this deadline
He has to be a seller at the deadline