Max Pacioretty’s agent denies his client wants out of Montreal
Despite reports that Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty wants out of the organization, but his agent claimed those reports were false.
The drama between the Montreal Canadiens and their captain Max Pacioretty has been well documented since the turn of the new year, but he’s still on the team, and his future is still uncertain as training camp approaches.
There have been no contract extension talks between Montreal management and Pacioretty, and management has been reported to be shopping him to other teams over the last couple months. At his charity golf event on Tuesday, management said they fully expected him to be at camp, and Pacioretty confirmed the lack of trade talks.
Now more reports began to surface earlier in the week that Pacioretty had requested a trade out of Montreal multiple times during the regular season, and had previously asked to be moved during the 2013-14 season as well. Leclerc states his information was confirmed by three sources.
The translated report from Marin Leclerc of Radio Canada read as such, “During the last season, it was Pacioretty himself who asked to leave Montreal several times and asked for an exchange. This information is confirmed by three sources well aware of the file. You read correctly: three sources.”
According to Pacioretty’s agent Allan Walsh, those three sources are misinformed, and he set the record straight for the hockey world in a tirade of tweets on Twitter, saying his client is ready to sign an extension with the organization today if offered.
Max Pacioretty has stated repeatedly that he loves Montreal and wants to remain in Montreal. To this date, he’s never received any offer from Montreal. You can have 3 sources or 10 sources, how many times does Max have to state that he wants to remain in Montreal long term?
— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) August 30, 2018
Obvious these “sources” are coming from the club. Max will always take the high road and repeats again, he is ready to sign an extension with Montreal TODAY. It was Montreal that traded Max to LA at the draft and it was a DONE DEAL subject to Max signing an extension with LA. https://t.co/KsLbJ6prJr
— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) August 30, 2018
Another interesting part of this is that Walsh calls the potential move to Los Angeles as a “done deal” just barring Pacioretty signing the proposed extension from the Kings. Kings president Luc Robitaille said the trade talks never made it that far, implying that the Kings were more interested in acquiring Pacioretty than the Canadiens were in trading him.
«Ça n’a jamais été aussi loin (les discussions avec le CH). On était intéressés à Max. Marc sait qu’il a un très bon joueur. Nous étions plus intéressés à l’obtenir que Marc de s’en départir» - Luc Robitaille au sujet de l'échange avorté entre les Kings et le CH
— Jean-Charles Lajoie (@JiCLajoie) August 29, 2018
Pacioretty is coming off of the worst season of his NHL career when he scored just 17 goals, snapping a four-year streak of 30-plus goals. The Montreal captain is entering the final season of a contract that counts for $4.5 million against the cap, after which he’ll become an unrestricted free agent and receive a much-deserved raise after taking a team friendly contract.
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Even with Pacioretty’s enthusiasm to stay with the organization, all signs point to his time Montreal winding to a close. It makes sense that Montreal hasn’t moved him yet considering his trade value is at its lowest possible point and could look to boost his value during the season, or to see if they can possibly keep him around.