Lars Eller didn't get to Montreal in the best fashion... The Habs acquired him in the then much maligned trade of the 2010 Playoffs hero in Montreal, Jaroslav Halak. Remember how Halak got the Canadiens to the Eastern Conference Final against the Flyers before they were eliminated in 5 games? That year, the Habs played their last game on May 24 and shook Habs nation on June 17 by shipping the net minder to St-Louis with Eller and Ian Schultz coming back their way. Schultz failed to make any impact on this side of the ocean and is now plying his trade with the Edinburgh Capitals of the Elite Ice-Hockey League in the United Kingdom (believe me, the only thing elite about that league is its name). Today, most people would probably say they were alright with that trade, but it did give us one of my favourite Youtube video ever, this one:
In the end, Eller played 6 season in Montreal never getting more than 30 points (even though he got those in the work stoppage shorten season in just 46 games). He was used on several lines, with a lot of different line mates, even playing with Galchenyuk and Gallagher at one stage with their line being nicknamed "the EGG line" by the media:
Eller is also remembered for being obliterated by Erik Gryba later that year in the playoffs:
And generating this great Prust quote:
In the end, Marc Bergevin decided to trade Eller in June 2016 sending him to the Capitals for a pair of second round pick in 2017 and 2018. Since then, Eller's career has taken a turn for the better; getting 25, 38 and 36 points in the last 3 seasons and even capturing the cup last season with Washington.
Eller is now a fixture on the Caps 3rd line and was even an intricate part of their run to the championship last season. In 24 games, he racked up 18 points and 3 game-winning goals including the most important of the all, the Cup winning goal:
Funnily enough, the game-tying goal was scored by another former Hab, Devante Smith-Pelly who's now playing in the AHL for the Hershey Bears. As for Eller, he played his first playoff game of the season last night and scored a goal, it still counts even if it was an empty net one. In 38 playoffs games with the Caps, he's got 24 points while he had gathered 18 in 37 postseason game in Montreal. I think it's fairly obvious that the trade did Eller a whole world of good, chances are he wouldn't have come out of his shell in the same way had he stayed in Montreal. It's a lot easier to accept that you're the 3rd line centre when the first 2 centres of your team are Backstrom and Kuznetsov than when you've got Plekanec and Desharnais ahead of you.
Here's to you Larry and I hope you get a nice long playoff run!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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