The Montreal Canadiens have completed a minor trade, swapping minor league forward Peter Holland for Adam Cracknell from the New York Rangers. Cracknell was claimed off waivers from the Dallas Stars earlier this year, but will report directly to the AHL’s Laval Rocket for the time being.
While this is just a minor league swap on paper, both players have considerable NHL experience. Holland was a first-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks in 2009 but could never quite find a role as a top-six center in any of his previous stops. A natural puck-carrying forward, his offense has been limited throughout his career. For Laval this season, he had 18 points in 20 games and will certainly improve the Hartford attack.
Cracknell on the other hand has always been a hard working bottom-six player, but actually had 10 goals last season for the Stars. He was waived early on but couldn’t catch on in New York either. The 32-year old could add some size to Montreal’s group if called up, but is likely just a minor league depth addition at this point.
By all accounts, Montreal did this because Holland was unhappy playing in the AHL.
Why do the Canadiens keep trading away centre depth? Holland wasn’t going to right the ship in Montreal, but I don’t see how a moar big approach helps.
Apparently the coaching staff was left unimpressed with him and the Laval writers have mentioned that despite Holland’s point total, he’s been disengaged far too often and has seemed completely unwilling to really compete at the AHL level.
The coaching staff at Laval is very unimpressive, but that makes sense. Thanks!
A pretty low risk gamble for NYR, acquired for a guy they got for nothing. Maybe he finds some chemistry in New York, or can be a (young) veteran presence for Hartford….
It is crazy sometimes how a player’s career can get turned around just by going to another team.
The career rarely stays the same, it either goes south or takes off in a whole other direction for the better.