Montreal Canadiens acquire goaltender Jake Allen from St. Louis Blues
By Jasmine Yen
The Montreal Canadiens have bolstered their goalie depth by trading for Jake Allen of the St. Louis Blues. Here is the trade breakdown.
The Montreal Canadiens and St. Louis Blues have completed a trade. The Canadiens receive goaltender Jake Allen and a 2022 seventh-round pick while the Blues receive a 2020 third-round pick and a 2020 seventh-round pick.
Jake Allen spent his whole career (7 seasons) as a member of the Blues and has the second-most wins (148) in franchise history. This season, he played 24 games with a 12-6-3 record and a .927 save percentage. At 30 years old, he still has one year left on his contract at 4.35 million dollars.
The Canadiens struggled to find a proper backup for Carey Price and adding Allen is huge for the team’s back-end. The NHL is seeing a growth in goalie tandems and it seems like the Canadiens are trying to build one of their own.
More from Puck Prose
- Detroit Red Wings 2023 Rookie Camp Has Plenty of Ups and Downs
- This Columbus Blue Jackets rookie doesn’t want to be forgotten
- 2 trades the Boston Bruins must make to secure the Stanley Cup
- 3 reasons the Avalanche won’t win the Stanley Cup in 2024
- This is a big year for Alex Turcotte and the Los Angeles Kings
At his end-of-the-season press conference, Marc Bergevin said that his team is “ahead of where we thought we were”. This move shows that he is ready to start building a championship team.
Fixing the goalie issue will go a long way for the Canadiens and even though spending 15 million dollars in between the pipes, the good thing about this move is that it is a one-year experiment.
If it doesn’t work out, Allen could be a trade piece at the trade deadline or the Canadiens can just let him walk when the season is over. Allen is coming off the best statistical season of his career so the Canadiens have a lot of flexibility with this move.
As for the Blues, this is a great move to free up 4.35 million dollars of cap space. They have made it clear that they want to re-sign their captain Alex Pietrangelo and now they have more room to work with.
Next. 3 teams that could trade for Patrik Laine. dark
This is a great trade for both sides as they have addressed their needs. The Canadiens have flexibility in their goalie situation and the Blues have freed up space to make some more offseason moves.