Canadiens Acquire Moore from Panthers

The Montreal Canadiens announced yesterday that they have acquired center Dominic Moore from the Florida Panthers in exchange for their second round pick in the 2011 Entry Draft. This trade marks the first move by the Canadiens' newly-appointed general manager Pierre Gauthier, who took over the role this past week when Bob Gainey stepped down. In 48 games this season with the Panthers, Moore has eight goals and nine assists for 17 points. He was signed as a free agent by the Panthers on October 4. In 353 career NHL games with the New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota Wild, Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, and Florida Panthers, he has 43 goals and 74 assists for 117 points. This is not a terrible depth move by the Canadiens, as Moore should be a decent fill-in while Andrei Kostitsyn, Mike Cammalleri, and Benoit Pouliot recover from injuries. Moore will bring plenty of offensive depth to the team's third line. What I am surprised with in this move, however, is what the Canadiens gave up to land him. A second round draft pick seems kind of steep for a player has struggled to live up to the offensive numbers he put up when he was with the Maple Leafs. To me, a third round pick is probably the most the Canadiens should have given up for Moore and they probably gave up a little too much to land him. The Panthers walk away winners in this deal, as they likely would not have re-signed Moore this summer when he becomes an unrestricted free agent.