Toronto Maple Leafs get: C Tomas Plekanec, RW Kyle Baun
Montreal Canadiens get: 2018 second-round pick, D Rinat Valiev, LW Kerby Rychel
Follow all the trade deadline action here.
Toronto Maple Leafs: B+
With Auston Matthews' shoulder injury and the necessity for Eastern Conference contenders to go deep down the middle, this is an excellent move for the Leafs.
When everyone's healthy, Matthews plus Nazem Kadri plus Tyler Bozak plus Plekanec is a formidable group. Plekanec, 35, has six goals and 18 assists in 60 games, winning 52.6 percent of his faceoffs. He was seventh among regular forwards on the Habs in possession (51.92 Corsi for percentage). Toss him on a fourth line with someone like Leo Komarov, and this can be an effective group.
He's a versatile veteran, with 87 career playoff games and 49 points in them. Don't underestimate the impact that kind of experience could have on a Leafs team that's still earning its stripes as a contender.
From an assets standpoint, the Leafs got the Canadiens to pick up 50 percent of Plekanec's salary, which leaves them about $3.4 million in deadline cap space to add a defenseman. And they didn't give up much of anything to rent him, shipping out two Marlies and nothing off the NHL roster.
Montreal Canadiens: C+
An underwhelming return for who might have been the second-best rental center on the market at the deadline, which speaks more to the lack of centers available than what Tomas Plekanec is in 2018.
Kerby Rychel was drafted in 2013 and has played 37 games in the NHL at age 23. He's an AHLer. Rinat Valiev has played 10 games in the NHL at 22, and has been buried in the AHL form the last two seasons.
For a 50 percent salary retention, and given the market, the Canadiens should have done better than a second-round pick and two minor leaguers that don't track to be NHL regulars.
That said, with all trades, we have to see how many dominoes are left to fall. The Canadiens now have four second-rounders: their own and those from the Leafs, Blackhawks and Capitals. So that's a nice bit of treasure they can move to improve this summer. Plus, there's a better than good chance that Plekanec will return to Montreal to finish his career, which has been his stated desire for months.
A C-plus for now, pending what Montreal does in the wake of this move.
By the way: We've now had a Rangers and Devils trade and a Leafs and Canadiens trade in the past week, which is nutty. The former two had never made a trade before; the latter hadn't done a deal since July 2008, when Mikael Grabovski was moved to Toronto.