Poor Len Canayen: P.K. has left the building

Poor Len Canayen here, waiting to read what Brendan Kelly, alleged sports jock with the Montreal Gazette, has to say about today's news that "transcendant defenceman" P.K. Subban has been traded by the Nashville Predators to the New Jersey Devils for a bag of pucks and other considerations.

OK, it was actually Dave Stubbs who coined the "transcendant defenceman" phrase, not long before leaving the Gazoo for parts unknown, but it was Kelly who called the Montréal Canadiens' Marc Bergevin crazy and several other nasty things for trading the Giant Skating Ego to Nashville just three seasons ago.

Ever since, Kelly has ranted and whined that the Habs got the worst of the deal, that Shea Weber was washed up (especially when Weber missed the first half of this past season) and that Subban is still the best D-man in the business. After all, Stubbs and Kelly both said, didn't P.K. win the Norris Trophy in 2012-13. Yeah, but that was a short, 42-game season because of a Bettman lockout (more to come?), in which Subban had 11 goals and 27 assists, with a plus-minus of +12. This year he played in 63 games this past season due to a back injury, posting career-low 9-22-31 totals with a +5. Nashville saw he's going downhill and gave him a little shove.

This makes the second time in three years, then, that the "transcendant defenceman" has been deemed surplus to requirements by two of the better teams in the NHL. Now he's with one of the worst. Here's what New Jersey gave up to get him: defencemen Steven Santini (split his season between the Preds and their AHL farm team), Jeremy Davies (played for Northeastern University), a second-round pick at this year's NHL Draft and another second-round pick next year. And NJ has to pick up the remaining three years of Subban's 8-year, $72-million contract. Nashville's not eating any of it.

Said Preds GM David Poile, "We appreciate P.K.'s contribution to the Predators and the Nashville community over the past three seasons, which have seen our organization have unprecedented success. We had to make a business decision. With an aim at strengthening our forward corps this off-season, and the continued strength of our defensive group, we felt it was necessary to clear up salary cap space this way." And don't let the dressing-room door hit you in the ass on your way out.

Further reading: "Poor Len Canayen explains Habs' Subban for Weber trade", WWW 29/6/16. Three years and week later, who was right? Messrs Stubbs and Kelly or moi? As Nelson Muntz would say, "HAha!"

Further viewing: If you think I'm the only one who's down on Subban (so to speak), check out yesterday's video from The Hockey Guy, starting at 3:55. THG is kind of soft-spoken, but he's making the same point. If you subscribe to THG's channel, which I recommend, tell him Poor Len Canayen sent ya!