Montreal’s Trade Disavowed David, Brings Experience

As in many press briefings by the Montreal Victoire general manager Danièle Sauvageau, it is not in what was said that we should look, but in what was not said. In a Zoom press conference Friday afternoon to discuss the only trade in the PWHL at the trade deadline, the one that sent D Anna Kjellbin to Toronto in return of forward Kaitlin Willoughby, Sauvageau mentioned that there were no particular reasons related to Kjellbin's departure. It was just a matter of numbers: she had a surplus of defenders and was somewhat lacking an attacker. She attributes that surplus on the blue line to the return of defence player Dominika Laskova and even mentioned that the games Anna Kjellbin missed, even though she was healthy, were due to Laskova's return. However, the truth is quite different.

Kjellbin missed her first game on January 30. She was cut from the lineup to make room for Laura Stacey, who was returning from an injury. The team didn't want to cut a forward from in order to limit Stacey's ice time (she ended up playing more than 20 minutes) and it was Kjellbin who took the hit. The Swede then missed a second game on February 15 in favour of Kelly-Ann Nadeau, who had signed a standard contract the day before following Catherine Dubois' injury.It wasn't until March that Laskova fully took Kjellbin’s place in the line-up, as the latter has not played in three of her team's last four games.

The truth is that Kjellbin never lived up to expectations. The captain of Team Sweden at the last World Championships, the player who will celebrate her 31st birthday on Sunday has not been able to adapt to the level of play of the PWHL. In 18 games, she had just one assist and maintained a minus-5 differential, one of the two worst differentials on a team with the best goal differential in the league.

Does Willoughby meet the criteria?

When Sauvageau was asked what Willoughby can bring to the table as a hockey player, the GM mentioned that her new forward brings experience, speed, that she’s a smart player and in a very strange way, seemed to say that Willoughby would allow the team to maintain its goal differential on the positive side.

And it's true that Sauvageau likes to go after players who have a certain number of games played in the PWHL. We saw it with the signing of Alexandra Labelle, Clair DeGeorge and Abby Boreen.That said, Willoughby's choice remains surprising. If you want to keep your goal differential above zero, why go for a player who hasn't scored a goal in the PWHL in 43 games (she has one assist) and who has a minus-7 differential in two seasons in Toronto?

And Gabrielle David in all this?

Sauvageau also said that she considered all scenarios. If this is the case, and I have no reason to doubt it, it is obviously a vote of disavowal for forward Gabrielle David.If you want players with experience in the league, David, four years younger than Willoughny, has played 26 games in the PWHL in two seasons. If we want to make sure we score more goals than our opponents, David is capable of producing offensively as shown by her two goals and four assists last season, as well as her +4 differential.

And she's a Quebecer. A Quebecer who was sent to represent the team last fall at the National Assembly of Quebec, even though she did not have a regular player contract with the team. A somewhat peculiar situation when you think about it.

So clearly, the only conclusion we can draw is that David is not part of the team's plans.

In any case, will this trade help Montreal stay on top with only seven games left in the regular season? Let’s wait and see.

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