Trade Grades: Jets pay hefty price to bolster power play with Sean Monahan

Monahan will give the Jets' power play a boost, but the price might have been too high

By Austin Nivison Feb 2, 2024 at 2:35 pm ET• 4 min read

On Friday morning, the NHL trade market continued to heat up when the Winnipeg Jets added veteran forward Sean Monahan from the Montreal Canadiens. The Jets got some badly needed power play help, but they might have been forced to overpay in a very shallow market for centers.

The Jets sent a 2024 first-round pick and a conditional 2027 third-round pick to the Canadiens in order to acquire Monahan, who has bounced back this season after injuries knocked his career off track for a few years. The main reason for Monahan's rebound has been his performance on the power play, where he has tallied six of his 13 goals and 10 of his 22 assists.

On the Montreal side of things, a rebuilding franchise was able to add another first-round pick to its chest of draft capital over the next few years. The Habs had a highly-coveted player, and they took advantage of that after the top center on the market, Elias Lindholm, got dealt to the Vancouver Canucks one day earlier.

Let's evaluate both sides of this trade and see which team came out with the better deal.