With the signing of Nazem Kadri, Calgary would need to make another deal to open the cap space necessary to make it work. That came in the form of the Flames trading centre Sean Monahan to the Montreal Canadiens, along with a conditional first-round pick in 2025, for futures:

The three-time 30-goal scorer had just 23 points in 65 games last season as he saw a smaller role on a Cup contender. We may as well just jump into it.

(Fantasy take on the Kadri signing here.)

What Montreal Gets

We can't discuss Monahan without discussing the obvious injury issues that have piled up. Though he's still just 27 years old (28 in October), he's already had several surgeries. It started with a wrist surgery in 2017, and then towards the end of the 2017-18 season, Monahan was put on the shelf for the rest of the campaign. He had surgeries on his wrist and groin, as well as a pair of hernia procedures. Last year was a hip surgery and this year was a surgery on the other hip. It has been a lot for a player that is still that young and is why we have to start the conversation here.

When he was himself a few years ago, he was a 30-goal threat every year. He was an 85^th percentile scorer at 5-on-5 from 2016-19 as he and Johnny Gaudreau formed a formidable scoring duo. Though we're looking just three years back for a 27-year-old, things have changed a lot. He has scored at a lower rate than guys like Milan Lucic and Darren Helm over his last three years and his play has suffered in all facets. Tracking data from Corey Sznajder shows that his controlled entries, which used to at least be average-to-good, are now awful. He doesn't play off the rush at all and scoring chance generation has plummeted. It has been a precipitous drop from a once-consistent fantasy option.

Monahan was traded in a cap dump but Montreal would still like to see if there's anything here. The most recent hip surgery was in April and how he performs after two of them is up in the air. The upside is he won't be thrust up the lineup whenever he does return from his hip procedure. Montreal has Nick Suzuki, Kirby Dach, Christian Dvorak, and Jake Evans as their four centres (once Dach's RFA contract is signed). If he can return anywhere near to form, he can help with secondary scoring and on the power play. It entirely depends how he rebounds from the injuries and resulting surgeries. The outlook isn't great, in all honesty.

If the Habs have all their centres healthy, perhaps we see Monahan move to the wing. He wouldn't have the burden of faceoffs and could (hopefully) add a bit of scoring further up the lineup. With everyone healthy, it's hard to see him having a prominent role. The Montreal power play may not be awful with Martin St. Louis as coach but Monahan will likely start with secondary minutes. Really, this looks to be a downgrade for Monahan's fantasy value.

As for the cap hit, Montreal was scraping the cap limit with Dach still to sign. The resulting move was that Carey Price will be put on LTIR as it doesn't seem he's responded well to treatments over the summer for his injuries:

That will give the Habs cap space but it really is awful for Price. To see a top-end player see their injuries completely derail their NHL career isn't fun and hopefully not a harbinger for Monahan.

Who this helps

Tyler Toffoli

Kevin Rooney

Who this hurts

Sean Monahan

Jake Evans