Confirmed Trade: [BUF/MTL] Nathan Beaulieu for 2017 3rd round pick

[Sam of Montreal]

The return for Beaulieu might have been a little underwhelming, but to me it is addition by subtraction anyway.

He lacks smarts and it shows everywhere on the ice. He is a defensive liability and even though he has offensive skills, he can rarely be trusted to make the right play at the right time, so I wasn't even confident having him on the 2nd PP wave.

There is some potential left to develop, but not that much. As many others, I think he will have a long NHL career, but will be underwhelming forever, never quite putting it together. He has more skills than success so far. And his hockey iq appears too low for it to change.

We will see and best of luck to Buffalo, but for one I am happy he won't be in Montreal next year. There are few players I despised more in Montreal in past years. Nesterov was the only worse one for me.

 

[Jakomyte]

The return for Beaulieu might have been a little underwhelming, but to me it is addition by subtraction anyway.

He lacks smarts and it shows everywhere on the ice. He is a defensive liability and even though he has offensive skills, he can rarely be trusted to make the right play at the right time, so I wasn't even confident having him on the 2nd PP wave.

There is some potential left to develop, but not that much. As many others, I think he will have a long NHL career, but will be underwhelming forever, never quite putting it together. He has more skills than success so far. And his hockey iq appears too low for it to change.

We will see and best of luck to Buffalo, but for one I am happy he won't be in Montreal next year. There are few players I despised more in Montreal in past years. Nesterov was the only worse one for me.

I agree the Beaulieu is far from a perfect defenseman, but I still think he contributed more to the Habs than he's given credit for, and should still have some room to improve. The kid had what, almost 30 points last year, and more primary assists on the PP than Markov, despite playing far less.

A lot of people claim that he has glaring defensive deficiencies, by I find that watching him play can be a bit misleading. He does have some glaring defensive blunders that just make you shake your head, but when you look at his underlying numbers, he clearly creates more than he gives up.

My only explanation is that he might be one of those players that, even though he's not giving the puck away every shift, when he does make a defensive lapse, its either very noticeable or at a really bad time. Maybe that can be added up to hockey IQ, but I did always find it funny how guys like Beaulieu (and formerly Subban) would get destroyed for a single mistake that had unfortunate consequences, while guys like Emelin would turn the puck over and miss assignments all night and the coaches would give them more ice time.

I think Buffalo will be happy since he's a serviceable, #4-#5 D-man and they desperately need more guys that can legit play in the NHL.