Brendan Gallagher's contract responsible for Phillip Danault's departure?
Tuesday's game against the Los Angeles Kings marked the return of Phillip Danault to the Bell Centre. The Quebec center left the Tricolore this summer to join the Kings, who offered him a lucrative $33 million contract for the next six seasons.
With the CH's current woes, many are seeing Danault's departure as one of the reasons for Dominique Ducharme's team's underperformance. But why did Marc Bergevin let Phillip Danault go like that?
Mario Langlois and Maxim Lapierre have their own opinions on the subject. Langlois said that Danault wanted to leave Montreal because he didn't feel appreciated.
On the other hand, Maxim Lapierre's hypothesis is very interesting. According to him, it is Brendan Gallagher's contract that drove Danault out of Montreal. Remember that Marc Bergevin gave a contract of 39 million over six years to Brendan Gallagher last fall, which corresponds to $6.5 million per season.
Lapierre believes that this was a sentimental decision by Bergevin based on what Gallagher has brought to the CH in the past and it was in no way based on what he can bring to the team in the future. So, by spending so much money on Gallagher's contract, it took away Bergevin's leeway to negotiate with the Danault clan.
Only time will tell which organization made the better signing.
