Montreal Canadiens right wing Brandon Prust is off to VancouverKim Klement
There aren't enough data points to constitute an official trend, but it seems clear Montreal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin wants his team to get younger.
Much will be made of newly-acquired winger Zack Kassian's size - he's six-foot-three and 215 pounds - but his appearance in the Habs' lineup means the oldest right-winger on the club's NHL roster will be Dale Weise, who is 26 - Brendan Gallagher and Devante Smith-Pelly, the other right-sided forwards, are both 23.
Kassian also fits the body type that Bergevin covets on the wing; like Smith-Pelly, acquired just before the trade deadline, he is a bulky presence with good straight-line speed who doesn't mind the heavy going (he also has better hands than Smith-Pelly, who made only a marginal offensive contribution last year).
Plus, he's youngish (24) and cheapish ($1.75 million against the salary cap this year, restricted free agency status next summer).
In essence, Bergevin is betting Kassian can return to the game that made him the 13th overall pick in the 2009 draft - and landed him on the Vancouver Canucks' top line for brief flashes.
It's not an expensive wager.
The Habs are parting with popular dressing room figure Brandon Prust, a gritty, but declining 31-year-old; as a bonus the Canucks threw in a fifth-round draft pick, which Habs' scouting director Trevor Timmins has a way of turning into viable NHLers.
Prust is also being paid $2.5 million in the final year of a four-year free agent contract he signed in Montreal, a princely sum for a penalty-killing specialist who bounced between the Habs' third and fourth lines; the London, Ont., native is a heart-and-soul player, men his size who play that style are not reputed for longevity.
Prust's exit follows that of 32-year-old winger Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau, who was bought out last week and will play for the Toronto Maple Leafs next year, and the earlier decision to not offer contracts to veteran thirtysomethings Manny Malhotra and Mike Weaver, among others.
Montreal isn't the first team to take a chance on Kassian's potential, the Canucks did precisely that at the 2012 trade deadline when they flipped fellow prospect Cody Hodgson to Buffalo in order to get him.
Hodgson was bought out this week and signed a bargain free agent deal with Nashville.
The lesson: sometimes promise goes unfulfilled.
At this price, Bergevin won't worry unduly if such is the case with Kassian.
The trade wasn't Bergevin's only piece of business. The Habs also made a pair of minor signings on Wednesday, signing rookie defenceman Greg Pateryn - a former fifth-round pick of the Leafs acquired in exchange for Mikhail Grabovski - to a two-year deal that will kick in for the 2016-17 season. They also signed unheralded minor-league defenceman Joel Hanley to a two-way deal.
That leaves Bergevin with about $7 million in cap space to sign his remaining restricted free agents, a group headlined by the dynamic winger Alex Galchenyuk.