Photo Credit: Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports
The Vancouver Canucks have traded Zack Kassian to the Montreal Canadiens, according to CSNNE’s Joe Haggerty and confirmed by TSN’s Bob McKenzie. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting that Brandon Prust will be coming back the other way in the deal, while the Canucks will send a 2016 fifth-round pick to Montreal in order to balance the deal (which seems odd…).
Based on an unrelenting torrent of reports over the past few months, a Kassian deal has, apparently, been in the works for months and months. Though Kassian’s underlying performance has improved in recent seasons and he’s been known to pot goals at a high rate (largely thanks to a high shooting percentage), his defensive game remained suspect and he’s been injured plagued in recent seasons.
Prust, 31, has a significantly better defensive game than Kassian does, but he’s got much less upside and scores goals at a considerably lower rate (though he’s a pretty decent passer).
Oddly enough I chatted with Benning about Prust’s contract when writing about Derek Dorsett’s extension for Sportsnet in April. Based on his comments, it seemed as if Benning values Prust’s ability to fight and contribute in a bottom-of-the-lineup type role and on special teams.
Prust and Kassian are both signed for one more season at roughly the same rate, so money-wise this deal doesn’t tip the scales on way or the other.
In sum, the Canucks trade an inconsistent younger player with more upside who can be effective in a third-line role, for a somewhat more reliable, but older fourth-line winger. And even Kassian recognized that his level of consistency wasn’t up to snuff during his time with the Canucks.
“Deep down I think I could’ve gave more, and I think they knew that,” Kassian said of his time in Vancouver on TSN following the trade.
Prust is a decent player, but this a move on the “short-term thinking” side of Vancouver’s hybrid-type rebuild, and you can definitely make the argument that Prust is an inferior (and older) player than Kassian. He’s definitely better defensively, but even so, this is certainly a head scratcher.
