Weeks after advertising Pronger and St. Louis as trade possibilities, GM Tomayko has found himself with a new squad heading into the Free Agency period. First, it was Pronger. Now, St. Louis has been dealt to the first team that could offer enough for him, Detroit. "We've dealt with Detroit in the past, and we made a random offer to them. Side parts of the deal were discussed, but the trade ended up being the exact deal I had offered from the beginning." Coming to Montreal in return for St. Louis is Dustin Byfuglien and Ruslan Fedotenko. "Byfuglien will be great for the future of this squad. We seem him as a player similar to Fedotenko that we also received in the deal. We understand Fedotenko is a UFA after this season, but he will fit well on one of our top two lines. We dealt away our top players this year, but we feel we bettered the whole squad instead of just 2 positions."
Coming to Montreal this offseason: Chet Pickard Cedric Lalonde-McNicoll Claude Lemieux Jonas Hiller Ryan Carter Mathieu Roy Ruslan Fedotenko Dustin Byfuglien 2 PHI Year 5
Leaving Montreal this offseason: Martin St. Louis Chris Pronger 3 MTL Year 5 4 MTL Year 5 5 MTL Year 5