Chris Kreider is a Canadien now, and Pierre LeBrun spent Saturday morning asking Montreal to keep the expectations reasonable.
LeBrun went on TSN 690 and called the addition a good move. Then he brought the room straight back down.
His question hangs there. Why were the Ducks more than happy to end that contract by mutual agreement?
The 35-year-old isn't the player New York built around. That observation isn't cruel, it's arithmetic.
He still put up 50 points across 75 games last season. Nobody should pretend that's nothing.
Eight of those goals came with the man advantage, and he added 7 points over 12 postseason games.
The cap hit sits at $6,500,000. Nobody in this league calls that a flyer.
Cutter Gauthier is the real reason Anaheim moved on
The Ducks needed room to sign Cutter Gauthier, and ending Kreider's deal got them there. Clean business, nothing personal.
Gauthier scored 41 goals across 76 games last season. That's a winger you clear space for without thinking twice.
He did it on a $950,000 cap hit. Every general manager in the league wants that particular problem.
LeBrun's follow-up is the part worth chewing on. A player still at his peak doesn't get waved through that fast by Pat Verbeek.
Anaheim finished 43-33-6 for 92 points. Not a club scrambling for cap space out of desperation.
There's a dressing room piece to this as well. Brendan Gallagher is gone, and Montreal lost a voice it leaned on.
The Canadiens finished 48-24-10 last season and landed sixth overall. The bar in that market moved with it.
They scored 283 goals and allowed 256. Nobody is asking the new guy to carry any of that.
Kaiden Guhle is expected out until at least October 23 with a groin issue, so camp already has a hole to patch.
Martin St-Louis has run that bench since February 2022. He now gets a big veteran winger to drop beside his young forwards.
So which version turns up in October? Signing a scorer at that age works like buying a used car with one owner. The mileage tells you more than the badge does.
Kent Hughes made his bet. LeBrun just reminded everybody that Anaheim made one too, and theirs was to walk away from it.
Will Chris Kreider score more than 20 goals for the Canadiens this season?
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