If you're freaking out about the trade between the Arizona Coyotes and Montreal Canadiens, don't.

Yes, it looks awful. The Canadiens acquired the guy who is (or was) voted in as the All-Star game captain and whose claim to fame is being a fighter. The main piece they traded was a former first round pick. That part is hard to swallow.

But you can't look at it like that. This is a minor league trade, and one that likely won't affect the future of the Montreal Canadiens this season or in the future.

The only thing that made Jarred Tinordi an NHL player right now is the waiver system. If it wasn't for that, he would be in the American Hockey League. Heck, he could have been put on waivers and saved all of us a lot of heartache. But he was ninth on the Habs depth chart.

Tinordi may very well end up to be a serviceable NHL defenceman, but he wasn't making this team and it wasn't fair to him to keep him in the NHL all season to play in three games.

With Mark Barberio passing Tinordi on the depth chart, his days in Montreal were numbered. Say what you want about Tinordi, but when your ninth on the D depth chart on an NHL roster, the team likely doesn't think highly of you.

Now, John Scott is only a story because it's John Scott. He's already been sent to the American Hockey League so you don't need to worry about that. Victor Bartley is a serviceable fringe defenceman who doesn't have the luster of Tinordi, but had more NHL games and points than him.

If you want this to be a referendum on Tinordi or how the organization handled him, fine. But that's a discussion for another day. Much like Louis Leblanc before him, Bergevin had his mind made up on Tinordi and the organization's depth - and relative health - forced his hand.

I will say this, they should have traded him much, much earlier. Obviously you weren't sure how the season would go. That Greg Pateryn, and especially Mark Barberio would pass Tinordi. Bergevin was being conservative keeping 8 defencemen and he got burned. You can't discount that. The whole situation was handled in a very strange manner to say the least.

Add to the fact that the team traded a second round pick to swap first round picks in 2010 to grab Tinordi and it is awful, or at best questionable, asset management. But Bergevin didn't make that trade or that pick.

Tinordi could have been put on waivers and lost for nothing, but Bergevin obviously wanted to land a defenceman for St. John's.

In the end, this is a weird trade. Probably even a bad one. But it won't affect the Canadiens in 2015-16 and probably won't affect them going forward no matter what Tinordi becomes.



