Montreal Canadiens Trade Jaroslav Halak To St. Louis

Montreal Canadiens' general manager Pierre Gauthier announced this Thursday that he concluded a trade with the St-Louis Blues. Goaltender Jaroslav Halak has been traded to the Blues for young prospects Lars Eller and Ian Schultz.

With his late season and playoff performances, Halak's value has gone up. But it seems to me that Halak was worth more than the two players the Canadiens acquired. Many Canadiens fans agree with me and think that Gauthier did not get enough for his goaltender.

So, after saving the 2009-10 season for his team and after he brought them, against all odds, to the Eastern Conference Finals, Halak was shipped away for two prospects.

Goaltender Carey Price will now have to make the fans forget about Halak and his performances during the course of the next season. Canadiens fans will expect a lot from Price, and will not miss a chance to boo him should the goaltender experience some problems next season.

All the pressure will be on Price.

We all knew that the Halak trade was inevitable with the salary situation in Montreal. The contract negotiations with players like Tomas Plekanec and a couple of others forced Gauthier to free some space under his salary cap in order to be able to negotiate.

But was it the best that Gauthier could get?