The Max Pacioretty situation is a tricky one for the Montreal Canadiens, as the contract negotiations and trade scenarios have now reached the public sphere. The captain is heading into the final season of his current contract, but apparently hasn’t received a single contract offer from the Canadiens to this point. There have also been reports about previous trade requests, and a confirmation that the team had a deal in place with the Los Angeles Kings that fell apart at the last minute. Pacioretty has been clear—through his agent Allan Walsh of Octagon Hockey at least—that he wants to sign a long-term extension in Montreal if possible. Today, a report has surfaced from Marc de Foy of Le Journal de Montreal that Pacioretty will not negotiate during the season, meaning there is just a few weeks left to work something out if possible.
It doesn’t even seem likely that extension talks are a possibility at this point, but de Foy lists October 3rd—the date of Montreal’s first game of the season against the Toronto Maple Leafs—as a sort of deadline. At that point, the Canadiens couldn’t change their mind and work something out with the 29-year old winger and would be forced to trade him. It is interesting though to see if this sort of deadline would apply to other teams, given that the Canadiens can obviously get more in trade if Pacioretty is willing to sign a long-term extension with an acquiring club. That’s what scuttled the trade with the Kings when Pacioretty turned down their offer, and could drastically reduce the interested market for Montreal GM Marc Bergevin.
It seems then that September is when this whole thing will be resolved one way or another, and Pacioretty will have some certainty on his future. He has already committed to showing up at training camp later this month, but as Eric Engels of Sportsnet wrote recently “the chances of Pacioretty returning to the team on a new contract beyond this season appear to be dead.”
I can’t understand Bergevin’s logic. He is losing leverage as each day passes. But then again, perhaps he has no logic to try to understand…
The village idiot strikes again. Yup…trade him….you have so many others to score goals?! Joke
The Kings’ president Luc Robitaille said about the negotiations with Montreal:” It didn’t go that far, We wanted Pacioretty a lot , but Bergevin knows he has a good player and he didn’t want to part with” Who are we to believe? Someone who was there or the ones that weren’t?
I think both sides are playing “chicken” and that could last until June 30th. Pacioretty is still under contract for next season. He probably wants more from Montreal because of his last contract, he forgets that at the time he signed. it was right after his Chara incident. Nobody new what the outcome would be. It was good for both sides. You can never get back what is lost. Bergevin knows that Max wants to stay in Montreal, so I think he will be patient to get a home town deal, Home town? Yes, Max made Montreal his home town.
Bergevin knows, like we all do, that Pacioretty had only 17 goals last season. Is that an indication that he’s starting to decline? I don’t think so, but Bergevin is likely going to use this argument. He, like all of us, also knows that Pacioretty didn’t finish the season due to a knee injury, is that knee going to bother Max, nobody knows. We and Bergevin know that Pacioretty’s value is too low to trade right now. Signing him for what he is worth when healthy and scoring 30+ goals is risky. What if his knee bothers him or had him slow down and doesn’t score more that 15 goals. That would be the worst contract of the league.
The best scenario is to play Pacioretty at least until the end of January, then offer him a contract that he deserves. Pacioretty would get more and Bergevin doesn’t risk less. It’s a win-win situation. Even if Pacioretty leaves he would still get a better contract elsewhere, if he doesn’t perform, he’ll get what he deserves. Saying they won’t negotiate during the season doesn’t mean they’ll turn a good offer down.
Walsh said there was no offer made, but that there were talking. What about, I wonder. They’re testing the water, no big deal, well except with the Montreal fans. He’s under contract, why rush. Look how patient Sakic was with Duchene, he ended up with a very good deal.