Brandon Davidson, everyone’s favourite young defenceman not named Darnell, has been traded to the Montreal Canadiens for C David Desharnais.
In his last year of a deal, Desharnais’ cap hit is $2.8m for the season, and he is a UFA as of July 1st. The important consideration here is that Desharnais doesn’t need to be protected in the expansion draft, as he will not be under contract after this season. Davidson, on the other hand, has long been a favourite target of armchair GMs for being picked up in that draft unless he was protected, and this move enables the Oilers to protect (or possibly lose) someone else.
David Desharnais wasn’t drafted and worked his way through the Montreal Canadiens system, finally breaking into the NHL for good in 2010. While not the most productive player offensively, he’s had some solid seasons for the Habs. His production has dropped off considerably in the last couple seasons, scoring only 0.32ppg this season.
What Desharnais brings to the Oilers is a measure of stability down the middle. He might not be the long-term solution, but having an extra centreman rather than another LHD will be helpful in this stretch run.
Desharnais is a proven NHL player, while Drake Caggiula is still finding his way, and having someone with that experience is invaluable, both for showing the oung guys how its done, but also in having some confidence down the middle. Desharnais is a decent skater, and he’s shown that he can be reasonably effective at 5v5 scoring (1.35 points/60 compared to Caggiula’s 0.74 P/60).
Because Brian Boyle and Martin Hanzal were traded earlier this week, there were precious few centres available; Desharnais might not be the best 3C in the league, but he was certainly the best available. Montreal is retaining 20% of his salary on the deal, which will help to offset the increase in cap hit resulting from the acquisition, but in the long term that means little due to his UFA status in July.
At first glance, it’s easy to assume that the Habs win the trade – Davidson is better at what he does (this year especially) than Desharnais is at what he does, but the trade does help each team out at a time when warm bodies are at a premium.
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