On June 29, 2016, Marc Bergevin made his biggest trade as the Montreal Canadiens GM. 10 years on, one has to admit that the move didn't go as planned for either team involved.
June 29, 2016, will forever remain a big day in NHL history. On that day, two blockbuster trades took place, and one NHL star announced he would be remaining with the only team he ever played for. At 3:34 PM, the New Jersey Devils announced that they had acquired Taylor Hall from the Edmonton Oilers in return for Adam Larsson, and just 20 minutes later, the Montreal Canadiens announced that they had acquired blueliner Shea Weber from the Nashville Predators in exchange for P.K. Subban. Just three minutes later, news came that Steven Stamkos had signed a new contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In Montreal, the second announcement took the spotlight. While Subban will always remain a polarizing figure with Canadiens’ fans, there is no denying that when he played for the Habs, he was an extremely entertaining player. Not only because of his persona, but because of his playing style. He was one of the few players of the Carey Price era who were first and foremost about offense. When he took flight in his own zone and carried the puck to the other end of the ice, the Bell Centre would buzz with excitement. When Lane Hutson started his career with the Habs, he was the first defenseman since Subban to generate that kind of buzz with his exciting manoeuvres all over the ice.
When Marc Bergevin traded the blueliner to the Preds, Subban had spent seven seasons in Montreal, skating in 434 games, putting up 278 points, and winning the James Norris Trophy as the league's best defenseman after the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. In 42 games that season, he put up 38 points. In his final season in Montreal, the flashy rearguard put up 51 points in 68 games as his season ended early because of an injury suffered in what would turn out to be his final game as a Hab on March 10, 2016, against the Buffalo Sabres. He had spent 29:55 on the ice before being taken off the ice on a stretcher following a collision with Alexei Emelin. Needless to say, that wasn’t how he had pictured his time with the Canadiens ending.
Subban would play only six more seasons in the NHL, three with the Predators and three with the New Jersey Devils, before retiring. As for Shea Weber, he played just five seasons with the Canadiens before being forced to retire by injuries. In his five years in Montreal, Weber only skated in 275 games out of a possible 373 games and put up 146 points, including 58 goals.
Weber had a rugged style of play and could land some game-altering hits on opponents all over the ice, providing a much more physical presence than Subban ever did, a style better suited to the Bergevin brand of hockey. The big defenseman also had a booming shot from the blueline, which became the Canadiens’ default play on the power play. While Weber could never lead the Canadiens to their 25th Stanley Cup conquest, he did captain them to the Stanley Cup final in his final season, in 2020-21. Although no one knew back then, when the Lightning beat the Canadiens in five games, the curtain fell on Weber’s career. He played with a torn meniscus, a broken ankle, torn thumb tendons, and a torn groin. It was when Weber was left unprotected for the expansion draft that doubts about his future surfaced, before the GM announced in October 2021 that he would sit out the season and may never play again. Which unfortunately turned out to be true.
In the end, the trade that promised to alter both franchises for years to come saw both players retire earlier than anyone thought, but both athletes will forever hold a special place in Canadiens’ fans hearts; one for being a rare offensive bright spot and giving so much to the city and the other for getting the Habs nearer to the Cup than they had been since 1993, when they won their 24th.
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