The Predators announced today that they traded Blake Geoffrion to the Montreal Canadiens.
Geoffrion is a former Badger and winner of the Hobey Baker Award.
Though he started the season in Nashville, he was injured early on and hasn't made it back to the NHL in a few months, spending time with the AHL Milwaukee Admirals.
Geoffrion played 22 games with the Predators this season. He registered three assists, 29 hits and 17 penalty minutes, playing an average of 10 minutes and 20 seconds per game.
He had two goals in 20 games with the Admirals.
Let's hope that this move to Montreal allows Blake to get back on track and get some major NHL minutes.
He was up with Nashville last season and had a pretty productive rookie campaign, but hasn't been able to straighten things out this season. He has so much talent and its been sad to see him languish in Milwaukee and not get another shot in the bigs.
Interestingly, the Canadiens story on the trade talks about the player leaving, Hal Gill and thanks him for his time there. The Predators story only talks about Gill, saying nothing about the departure of Geoffrion and the other part of the trade, Robert Slaney.
The move to Montreal is of special note for Blake, as his grandfather, "Boom Boom" Geoffrion played 14 years with the Canadiens. His great-grandfather, Howie Morenz, spent 12 years there. Both are Montreal legends. Both have their numbers retired for the club.
Blake's dad Danny also played in Montreal.
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No pressure, kid!
While I'm certain he'll be welcomed with open arms, those are big skates to fill. A few of the articles on the trade have headlines mentioning Boom Boom's grandson, not even referring to Blake by name.
On his Twitter page Blake said: "“Wow. What a day. It’s bittersweet, going to miss my hometown of Nashville, but going to where it all started with my family … Montreal!!!”"
