As if this disastrous season couldn’t get any stranger, the news came out on Wednesday that former Montreal Canadiens defenseman Jarred Tinordi has been suspended 20 games by the NHL for violating the NHL’s Performance Enhancing Substances program. This adds another mysterious layer to the trade that went down between the Canadiens and the Arizona Coyotes in January that sent John ‘All-Star’ Scott, along with Victor Bartley, to the Habs for Tinordi and Stefan Fournier.

I won’t speculate as to which substances the 20-year-old could have been using since, based on this, a lot of things can be considered as an illegal drug based on a variety of things.

However, here’s where this tidbit of news gets interesting. According to Coytoes head coach Dave Tippett, this isn’t a new issue for Tinordi, and the failed drug test allegedly happened before he joined his new team, though the Coyotes were unaware of it. .

Now this might explain a few things:

1) It could explain why the Habs traded a former 1st round pick for essentially nothing.

Tinordi’s value was reported to be non-existent when the trade happened, and many fans were perplexed as to why Bergevin waited this long to finally trade the 6’6″ defenseman when all we got in return was some waiver fodder material (please don’t hurt me Mr. Scott!). Considering that Tinordi practically had zero value to begin with, imagine after the news hit that he was suspended for 20 games for violating the league’s substance abuse program? A very marginal asset would have become a toxic one that no organization would touch with a 10-foot pole.

By orchestrating this trade, Bergevin tried to avoid having another ‘scandal’/off-ice distraction unfold under his watch, because God knows, we Habs fans have been fortunate when it comes to drama this season. I think it’s to the point that the TVA series ‘Lance et compte’ is being put to shame in terms of storylines.

2) It could also explain why both teams agreed to this trade.

This trade was simply one problem for another problem. The NHL and the Coyotes weren’t very happy with the fans putting John Scott in the All Star Game via the fan vote (in case you missed it, here’s Scott’s take on the whole situation for The Player’s Tribune). The NHL forced Bergevin to take the enforcer in an attempt to ‘sabotage’ Scott’s chances of being part of the ASG, while Don Maloney – allegedly unknowingly – got a player who would soon be suspended for using PEDs.

I think this likely marks the end of Tinordi’s NHL career. When you’re already a fringe NHLer, and practically only in the NHL because of your 1st round status, violating the NHL’s substance program isn’t a very good idea, and will probably seal your fate as far as your NHL dreams go.

Tinordi could have been a decent NHLer but I think the management blew their chance when they decided to give ice time to the likes of Francis Bouillon, Douglas Murray and Bryan Allen over a kid who could have definitely benefited from the NHL experience he would have gotten.

I will end this article with a cheap plug: Is Jarred Tinordi Just Ryan O’Byrne 2.0?

I – sort of – called this one guys!