The NHL Expansion Draft was the biggest cause for concern among many teams. General managers were wheeling and dealing to ensure that either their star players were protected or that deals were made to get value for the ones they couldn’t The Montreal Canadiens were in on that front when they chose to trade Nathan Beaulieu to the Buffalo Sabres.
But it didn’t stop there. Marc Bergevin‘s first trade of that month didn’t have any expansion avoidances behind it. This was a deal to improve his hockey club. The same one that saw their offence get nullified in their playoff series against the New York Rangers.