Mara Headed Back To Montreal

To Canadiens:
Paul Mara

To Ducks:
5th Round Draft Pick In 2012 (Montreal)






Review:
The Habs have been plagued with some awful luck this season in the injury department. Andrei Markov and Josh Gorges, two of the Canadiens top defensemen, both are done for the year and Hal Gill and Jaro Spacek are on the IR for the next few weeks. They needed to go out and try to bring in a serviceable defenseman to fill the void for a while. By acquiring Paul Mara for a small price, they get a player that already spent some time with the team last year and who is being paid a relatively small amount ($750,000). Mara following a solid 3 year stint in New York City, has struggled since. The 31 year old, who has only two points this season, is being given a great opportunity to resurrect his career and hopefully for him, earn an NHL contract for next season. The Ducks were happy to rid themselves of Mara and get something in return. After the Ducks acquired Francois Beauchemin from the Leafs, they had 9 NHL defensemen on their roster. They had no choice as they, one way or another, had to move one or two out. Instead of waiving one of their extra defensemen and possibly losing him for nothing, they were able to trade him for an asset (not necessarily a big asset but its better than nothing thats for sure). So one would have to applaud the asset management job of Bob Murray.


Winner Short-Term: Canadiens, they get a very cheap veteran defenseman for relatively nothing who is also comfortable with the team and system. They also are able to, for the mean time at least, fill some of the void left by all the injuries.


Winner Long-Term: Ducks for sure, I love what the Ducks did here because a lot of teams would just decide to not go through the trouble and just waive the extra player. The Ducks were able to get a pick for someone that they had absolutely no use for. Down the line the Ducks could use this pick to trade for something that they might need or they could just draft a prospect next season.