Montreal Canadiens Acquire Mike Weaver From Florida Panthers

According to Bob MacKenzie on Twitter, the Montreal Canadiens have acquired defenceman Mike Weaver from the Florida Panthers for a fifth round pick.

Weaver is 35 years old and is listed at 5’10, 183 pounds. He is a right-handed shot which is probably the primary reason that the Canadiens and Marc Bergevin had their eyes on him in the first place. My hope is that he will allow Jarred Tinordi to get onto his real side and have Weaver slip on the right side. Which will obviously mean that Douglas Murray no longer plays.

Like I said, that is my hope. Weaver isn’t that bad of a player and by all accounts plays like the player people believe Murray is, minus the size. It will be interesting to see what the actual deal is and if it indeed has happened.

Weaver actually has pretty good possession statistics, in that he is over 50% slightly. He does play a lot with Dimitri Kulikov which may explain part of that but Weaver is solid in his own end in the actual hockey way. Not the Murray way.

He has nine assists in 55 games this season and is a -9. He has one goal over his last three seasons and it came last year. His best offensive season was 16 points (all assists) in 2011-2012 where he played a full 82 games.

This explains the Canadiens need for an extra roster spot yesterday when they put Carey Price on injured reserve. It will be interesting to see whether it is Murray or the rookie Tinordi who sit for Weaver – assuming Weaver enters the lineup and he is not just a new Francis Bouillon.

Of course, the Canadiens wouldn’t need another right handed defenceman if they didn’t just trade Raphael Diaz to Vancouver for Dale Weise.