Former Canadiens captain Shea Weber admitted he was hurt by the trade that took him from the Nashville Predators to the Montreal team in 2016.
“The hardest part was that I was so invested in the team, I played there for 11 years, after everything we had built since I was there, I thought we were on the point of getting there, we had lost a seventh game against San Jose the previous season,” he recalled during a recent interview with TVA Sports on the sidelines of his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
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“So it hurts, it’s a shock, it’s part of the ‘business’, as they say, but at the same time, it still hurts,” insisted the sturdy defender.
“Then you start getting calls from the other side and it gets exciting, but there was pain for a little bit,” he added. Now it’s far behind, it’s “business” and I spent five great years in Montreal too.”
Weber, who was forced to end his career after the 2021 playoffs due to an accumulation of injuries, also has very fond memories of the moment he was introduced to the Montreal public at the start of the 2016 season. -2017. While some of the Montreal public more or less liked that the organization had traded PK Subban to get him, the reception was nonetheless warm and noisy.
“PK was one of their favorite players, it’s hard to come by when you were acquired for a crowd favorite and I didn’t know what the reaction would be,” he admitted. It made me understand that it was going to be OK here and that I wasn’t going to get booed on the ice. It was emotional and it stayed with me.”
Today, the 39-year-old keeps in touch with some of his former teammates who still wear CH colors, such as Nick Suzuki, Brendan Gallagher and Jake Evans.
“They are friends,” he recalled. That’s the great thing about hockey, no matter where you go, you make friends and it lasts forever. I just ran into “JR” (Jeremy Roenick), whom I hadn’t seen in I don’t know how many years, and it was as if time hadn’t passed. It’s crazy that it’s like that in hockey!”
Weber has been taking care of himself and his family since he stopped playing hockey. He has not yet made a real decision about his post-career.
“I don’t know, I go day by day, I keep busy with the little ones’ sports and we’ll see what bridge we’ll cross in the coming years,” he explained. Anyway, I’m still stuck with my contractual situation, I still have time to think about all that.”
Watch the full interview in the main video.
