Florida Panthers Acquire Ben Chiarot from the Montreal Canadiens for Two Draft Picks and a Prospect:
FULL TRADE DETAILS:
- Montreal Receives: FLA’s 1st round pick in 2023 (unprotected), FLA’s 4th round pick in 2022, and prospect C/W Ty Smilanic
- Florida Receives: D Ben Chiarot, at 50% salary retained by Montreal
Ben Chiarot has 7 goals and 11 assists for 18 total points in 54 games this season for the last-place Canadiens. He’s currently sitting at -18, which for a defenseman isn’t great. However, playing for Montreal this season means that a player’s +/- should be taken with a massive grain of salt considering the entire team has been in complete disarray. Florida was likely part of a bidding war for Chiarot’s services, and the fact that Montreal retained 50% of his salary cap for the remainder of this season means it’s likely that Florida isn’t done making deals. Ben Chiarot is going to become a UFA upon the completion of this league’s calendar year.
Montreal gets the first round pick that they coveted in potential dealings of Chiarot, a pick that is likely to be late in the first round provided Florida has another season next year similar to their season this year. The 4th round pick and Smilanic are likely added to the deal to help facilitate Montreal retaining 50% of Chiarot’s salary, which will hit Florida’s cap space for about $1.75 million for the remainder of the season. Smilanic was the 74th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Entry draft, and currently he has 13 goals and 9 assists for 22 points in 38 games for Quinnipiac University.
We will have to see what further deals Florida makes prior to Monday’s trade deadline, as it is expected they are still in the running for the services of Philly’s long-time captain Claude Giroux. As far as this deal goes, it remains to be seen how worth this trade ends up being for Florida. For the time being, it looks like a good trade from Montreal’s perspective.
