Every now and then you come across a thought in the strangest place. Suddenly the dominoes fall – logical, but probably completely fictional. This one came from Reddit and explains how Phillip Danault planned his five-year absence so he could return to his home province to help his former Montreal Canadiens team win the Stanley Cup.
Creating a Canadiens conspiracy theory around Danault
Every fanbase has one of these stories. The kind you don’t fully believe, but don’t completely reject either. This one starts in 2021, when Phillip Danault skated through the Stanley Cup final with the Canadiens and learned a hard truth along the way.
They were close. But without Carey Price playing like a myth, they didn’t win it all. Not really. Danault knew. He also knew something else, something a little less flattering. He was too good at what he did.
As long as Danault was in Montreal, the Canadiens would never hit a good low. You can’t tank cleanly if you have a center who closes down the top lines, wins difficult minutes and drags games into the mud. He made teams respectable when they might have been terrible.
Danault did well by leaving the Canadiens for the Kings
So Danault did the noble thing. He signed with the Los Angeles Kings for $5.5 million. He not only left, but went as far away as he could. The west coast. California. With him out of the Canadiens’ lineup, Montreal fell apart almost immediately. What followed were three years of pain: lottery nights. Long reconstruction talks. Just the kind of destruction you need if you’re serious about starting over.
Meanwhile, Danault went to work. Every spring he stood here with the black and silver kings, lining up against Connor McDavid again and again. By losing some battles but winning others, he has sharpened his most important weapon. His defensive excellence is now at the highest level. If you want to play a strong role as a shutdown center, there is no better training program than playoff McDavid.
Back in Montreal, the Canadiens were slowly rebuilding
Back in Montreal, the damage was doing its work. The draft picks caught on. The squad slowly became meaner, faster and more dangerous. Nick Suzuki grew. Cole Caufield arrived. Juraj Slafkovsky developed. Lane Hutson became one of the bright lights on the blue line.
The team was no longer vulnerable, but started to become interesting. Then – only then – Danault made his move. He requested a trade when his value was low as a second-round pick. And suddenly there he was again. Back in Montreal. Older. Smarter. Still elite at exactly what this younger, more aggressive Canadiens team needed.
The missing piece.
Canadiens conspiracy theory fiction, right?
Was it planned? Naturally. Probably not. But if you wanted to craft the perfect arc for Phillip Danault and the Canadiens — burn it down, let it grow back, and then slot him into a role tailored precisely to his strengths — you’d be hard-pressed to draw it out better.
A conspiracy theory? Certainly. But sometimes the best stories are the ones we wish were true.
Related: Sniper going out in Marchessault-to-Canadiens “Sit Well” trade?
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