PK Subban reveals the actual reason he was traded, or at least his version of it

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Joshua Deeds
January 2, 2023 (12:31)

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P.K. Subban has had a storied career in the NHL, namely winning a Norris Trophy in 2013 with the Montreal Canadiens, it included him making it to the Stanley Cup Finals with the Nashville Predators in 2017.

According to Subban, the Montreal Canadiens have a legacy of trading star players for a reason.

"The tradition with Montreal is that no matter which star players had big names or got bigger than the team, they would trade them." - P.K. Subban

The Shea Weber and P.K. Subban trade was considered a blockbuster trade for its time and rightly so, as Subban was still in his prime and Weber was at the latter end of his career.

"What happened to me is nothing special in terms of history. Definitely, when my career started, I started my own brand. [...] That was a big deal because they were paying me to be a member of the Montreal Canadiens, but I was telling them, 'OK, so let's work on a way that our brands can co-exist.'" - P.K. Subban

Subban's philanthropy led to his name competing with the Montreal Canadiens, as in 2016 his $10 Million dollar donation to Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation was a 7-year commitment. He attempted to work with the organization to maintain cooperation, but Bergevin decided otherwise.

The trade allowed Bergevin and Molson to refocus attention back onto the Canadiens themselves, than their own Norris-winning defenseman. Subban mentions that he understood the logic of the trade and respected the Montreal Canadiens' culture and history.

"I never looked at myself or ever felt I was 'just a hockey player,"' wrote Subban, who won an Olympic gold medal with Canada in 2014. "I always looked at myself as a person who happened to play hockey.