Bolts Shock Drouin to Montreal

			2017 Season			2017	July 1st Status
To Montreal	Pos	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Cap	Years	Cap
Jonathan Drouin	F	22	73	21	53	$894k	0	RFA
Conditional 2018 6th Round Draft Pick
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To Tampa Bay	Pos	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Cap	Years	Cap
Mikhail Sergachev	D	18	4	0	0	$925k	3	$894k
Conditional 2018 2nd Round Draft Pick

A whopper of a deal dropped on Thursday afternoon, as the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning swapped a couple of young players, both with all kinds of upside to them.  The Canadiens acquired forward Jonathan Drouin and a pick for the much-celebrated prospect defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and a pick.  The picks will swap, if Sergachev plays 40 games for the Lightning in the 2018 season, if not, the picks stay put.

It may have taken a little while, but Drouin finally came around to being a full-time NHL player and he was a 20-goal scorer in the 2017 season.  Drouin finished 99th in pool scoring last season, 74th among all forwards and certainly has the upside to keep climbing those rankings and there's a pretty good chance he'll find some good ice-time in Montreal, possibly alongside somewhat like Alex Galchenyuk, assuming both players get their restricted free agent contracts signed.

Sergachev, on the other hand, was thought to be somewhat of a lock for the Canadiens' blueline for the 2018 season, but the 2016 1st round pick is now headed to Tampa Bay, where there are certainly some holes to fill along the blueline and for a very reasonable price in an entry-level deal.

Moving Drouin was certainly a plus for the Lightning, as they will have a bit more flexibility in this weekend's expansion draft process and then they will have a bit more money to pass around to their other free agents, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson.