Trade Nearly Completed Between the Montreal Canadiens and the Vegas Golden Knights: the Organization Was Committed to Re-Acquiring Alexei Emelin

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Aaron
September 5, 2023 (8:31 PM)

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Over the past few hours, journalist Marc Dumont, who is also a former employee of the Montreal Canadiens, dropped some very interesting information.

To provide some context, Nathan Graviteh of SDPN gave a quick recap of the Vegas Golden Knights' expansion draft.

"It's hilarious to look back at the NHL's 2017 expansion draft.

Florida traded Reilly Smith and a 4th round pick to Vegas, to TAKE Jonathan Marchessault, to protect Nick Bjugstad.

Columbus protected Scott Hartnell (who didn't play another season with them) over William Karlsson, who went to the Golden Knights.

The Capitals protected Matt Niskanen instead of Nate Schmidt.

The Sabres paid a 6th round pick to Vegas to TAKE William Carrier, they protected Tyler Ennis and Johan Larsson instead.

The Wild traded Alex Tuch to Vegas so they'd pick Erik Haula.

Pittsburgh TRADED a 2nd round pick to Vegas to make sure they'd select Marc-André Fleury.

Last but not least, Anaheim traded Shea Theodore so Vegas would pick Clayton Stoner.

NHL general managers didn't know how to handle an expansion draft. Wow."

To this post, Marc Dumont replied:

"Bergevin even tried to negotiate a trade to bring back Emelin after he was (fortunately) chosen by Vegas.

Great physical player, but also one of the worst defenders in the league."

Interesting! So, Dumont revealed that at the time, shortly after the Vegas Golden Knights' expansion draft, the Montreal Canadiens tried to finalize a trade to retrieve Alexei Emelin.

Ten days after being selected by Vegas in the expansion draft, Emelin was traded by the Golden Knights to the Nashville Predators for a 3rd round pick in 2019.

Emelin eventually played 86 games with the Preds (9 points and 40 penalty minutes) before leaving for the KHL.

He has been playing in the KHL since 2018.