“Trade that helps both teams” – Evgenii Dadonov traded to Montreal Canadiens by Vegas Golden Knights for Shea Weber

“Trade that helps both teams” – Evgenii Dadonov traded to Montreal Canadiens by Vegas Golden Knights for Shea Weber

Evgenii Dadonov and Shea Weber

Russian ice hockey player Evgenii Dadonov was traded to the Montreal Canadiens by the Vegas Golden Knights for top defenceman Shea Weber on Thursday. The 33-year-old Dadonov, who had a reasonably well this season with the Golden Knights, had 43 points (20 goals, 23 assists) in 78 games

The forward was earlier traded by Vegas to the Anaheim Ducks on March 21 for John Moore, Ryan Kesler and a conditional second-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft or 2024 NHL Draft, before the League voided the trade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6WpxorzXsk

“It’s a trade that helps both teams,” Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes said, as quoted by NHL.com. “It gives Vegas the flexibility they needed. I think that everybody knows that they needed some flexibility under the salary cap this year. For us, it gives us flexibility in the future, if needed. Also, we bring a player that can help us offensively. I expect us to need to find more flexibility under the salary cap in the next years, so we’ll see what happens, but I think that he can help us next season.”

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“Shea’s injuries will make it impossible for him to return to play”

Shea Weber
Shea Weber

Dadonov, who signed a three-year, $15 million contract with the Ottawa Senators on October 15, 2020, which included a limited no-trade clause, was traded to the Golden Knights by the Senators for defenseman Nick Holden. He can now become an unrestricted free agent after next season.

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On the other hand, the Sicamous native Weber, who had been the Canadiens skipper since October 2018, did not play this season because of a foot/ankle injury. He has five seasons remaining on a 14-year contract he signed with the Nashville Predators. 

“Everything that we’ve heard from our doctors is that physically he’s in really tough shape,” Hughes said. ” … If I thought he was coming back anytime soon, we wouldn’t be trading his contract. … We’ve always worked off the assumption here that Shea’s injuries are debilitating and will make it impossible for him to return to play.” 

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