Ducks Trade Brandon Montour to Sabres
The Anaheim Ducks have traded defenseman Brandon Montour to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a conditional first-round pick in 2019 and prospect defenseman Brendan Guhle.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: TSN’s Frank Seravalli reports the Ducks will either receive the San Jose Sharks’ pick (acquired by the Sabres during last year’s Evander Kane trade) or the option of taking the St. Louis Blues’ first-round pick (obtained by the Sabres in the Ryan O’Reilly deal) if that pick ends up between 20 – 31 in the draft order.
With Marco Scandella listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury, the Sabres had to bolster their blueline depth to keep their playoff hopes alive. While Montour is considered by some observers to be an average defender, the 24-year-old tallied 32 points in each of his last two seasons and currently has 25 points in 62 games. His poor defensive play this season could also be attributed to the Ducks’ overall lousy performance. He’s signed through 2019-20 with an annual average value of over $3.387 million.
Rumors dogged the Ducks for months suggesting they might move one of their top-four defensemen, perhaps for a scoring forward. Instead, general manager Bob Murray opts to build for the future with a promising blueliner and a first-round pick. Guhle, 21, is a puck-moving defenseman who spent most of this season with the Sabres’ AHL affiliate in Rochester. It remains to be seen if he’ll be part of the Ducks lineup for the remainder of this season or report directly to their farm team in San Diego.
Good trade, Guhle was getting stale and buffalo picks up a right shot scoring d man
Crappy move. A good prospect and a first. Cmon Buffalo wake up.
Huh? It seems like a pretty fair trade to me. Guhle’s development has stalled, and montour is pretty solid. Both teams benefit.
It is weird that it seems for the most part the more fringe teams are the ones leading up for the run. Wonder if any of the contenders are going to make a deal tomorrow.
Buffalo did not make this trade because of needed depth.
Buffalo had before this trade
LD Dahlin, McCabe, scandella, Beaulieu, Pilut
RD ristolainen, Bogosian, Nelson, Hunwick
Nelson is on a rehab assignment after a long injury
Hunwick missed the first few months.
Buffalo likely trades 1-2 of Scandella, Beaulieu, Bogosian, and Nelson.
If Hunwick is traded the 4th given up in the Hunwick/Sheary trade becomes a 3rd. The return would need to be a 3rd.
This trade might open up the Rumor mill on Ristolainen being traded to shake things up.
Montour still has 1+ yr left and is an RFA after.
This was not a typical deadline deal of UFAs or players with 1+ yrs left till UFA.
Good morning
Great trade by Buffalo for a proven player
Montour is a minute eating RIGHT SHOT D man who before Carlyle got fired was playing almost 25 minutes a game !
Montour is def a top 3 D man I think Buffalo got him for a pretty good deal and exactly what the going rate is and they def upgraded there back end.
Bogosian Nelson and Hunwick are all on the way out
IMO ,,,its a little to late for this year ..but he can be an excellent asset on the team and if you ever want to move him again…..Right Shot D men are very coveted you will get that return back again as well ….and how desperate a team need is for a right shot .
Quality deal for Buffalo ..
Ducks were to top heavy on cap on the
back end ….they needed to chop salary there ….
Cam Fowler D 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000 6,500,000
Hampus Lindholm D 5,205,556 5,205,556 5,205,556 5,205,556 UFA
Josh Manson D 4,100,000 4,100,000 4,100,000 4,100,000 UFA
MONTOUR was…. $3,387,500
They had almost $20 million in 4 D men
Wait till he gets a load of the winter wind in Buffalo over the next 2 days …LMAO …Yikes …lol…
Cheers
I guess there isn’t any snow in Brantford, On