The Montreal Canadiens finally found a taker for Rene Bourque.
More than a week after sending Bourque down to the AHL, the Canadiens shipped the veteran forward to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for defenceman Bryan Allen.
Allen, 34, is in the final year of his contract that carries a salary cap hit of $3.5 million, while Bourque (cap hit of $3.33 million) is under contract until the 2015-16 season.
“Allen’s a big guy with a lot of character who played for one the best Western Conference teams,” Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said before Montreal’s home game against the St. Louis Blues. “I can’t see why he wouldn’t be able to help us here in Montreal.”
Allen has registered one assist and four penalty minutes in six games this season. He has played 716 career NHL games with the Ducks, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks.
“One of our biggest strong suits is our depth on defence,” said Bergevin, who wouldn’t reveal what the trade meant for young defencemen Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi. “Defencemen are the players who get hurt the most often. We’ve been lucky until now, but having greater depth on defence is a luxury.”
Bourque had no goals and two assists in 13 games with Montreal before he was sent down to the Hamilton Bulldogs. In four games with Hamilton, Bourque added two goals and two assists.
Bourque is expected to come back to the NHL and join the Ducks.
A 32-year-old native of Lac La Biche, Alta., Bourque has 142 goals and 136 assists in 573 NHL games played with Montreal, Calgary and Chicago.
“He’s going from Hamilton to Anaheim,” said Bergevin. “No, he wasn’t upset. Rene understood. He was ready to leave, ready to turn the page. I won’t be surprised if he does well with the Ducks. That’s a really good hockey team. He can produce, and I hope he does.”
Since being a 20-plus-goal producer for the Flames from 2008-09 through 2010-11, he has failed to score more than nine goals in a season. Montreal was reportedly shopping the forward at the trade deadline in March of 2014.
With files from The Canadian Press.
