Brandon Prust on being traded by Canadiens: 'I had no clue'

Brandon Prust was caught by surprise.

The forward was traded from the Montreal Canadiens to the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday in exchange for Zack Kassian and a 2016 fifth-round pick - a move that caught him off-guard while he was vacationing with his wife in Italy.

"Did I have any idea I’d be traded? No, no. I had no clue," Prust told Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette. "I know on July 1 there’s a lot of action and I’m going into the last year of my contract. But after the playoffs I had, I didn’t think there was any way they’d trade me."

Prust, a hot-tempered agitator, has accumulated close to 1,000 penalty minutes in his career, and may have been moved because of an incident in the playoffs involving referee Brad Watson - a situation Prust spoke about with Stubbs.

Some observers were suggesting that Prust was on thin ice with the Canadiens the minute he ran afoul of referee Brad Watson in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semi-final vs. Tampa Bay.

He was thrown out of the match, then fined $5,000 for having alleged in post-game comments that Watson had insulted and sworn at him, remarks for which he later apologized.

“Stuff happens,” Prust said of that incident. “If that’s why I was traded, it’s a bad excuse.”

Whatever the reason for the trade, Prust is looking forward to the opportunity.

"Vancouver is going to be great, I’ve always enjoyed the city," Prust said. "I played against the Canucks a lot when I was with Calgary. The Vancouver organization is great and I’ve always liked playing in that building. I’m very blessed with the teams I’ve been fortunate enough to play for. I’ve played with some great teams and some great organizations and Vancouver now is another one. I’m really excited."