Montreal’s Side
Let’s start with the Canadiens’ side. Scott Gomez had a fine time in Quebec but never reached the 30-goal mark he set in New Jersey. Besides that superb season in Jersey, he never hit the 20-goal plateau at any other point in his career. In Montreal, his goal-scoring seemed to deteriorate season after season.
In 2009-10, he had just 12 goals but tacked 47 assists onto that for 59 points. It’s not a bad season, but it’s still underwhelming for how much he was being paid. As time progressed, his production started to drop as he put up seven goals and 31 assists for 38 points in 80 games in 2010-11 and just two goals and nine assists for 11 points in 38 games in 2011-12.
After that season, the Canadiens bought out Gomez, and he never really found another home. He had spells in San Jose, Florida, St Louis, and Ottawa and even briefly returned to New Jersey, but the tank was empty, and Gomez was not the player he had been when he was a point-per-game player so many years ago. A career ended after declining for so long, and it was sad to see.
Montreal also got Tom Pyatt in this deal. He scored 12 points in 101 games for the Canadiens before signing in to Tampa as a free agent. Michael Busto never played hockey at any level higher than the ECHL and retired after spending most of his career in France. This leaves the Canadiens’ side of this deal over, so I wanted to start with the far less complicated half of this trade tree.