Subban really dropped off after he went to Jersey. I don't know if it was any one injury, but that fact is, he had a fairly injury-riddled career, and the accumulation of damage caught up to him. His first step was never that great, and without having watched him closely in the last couple of seasons, I would guess that once that regressed he was done as an impact D-man.
Without question the most consistently electrifying player the Canadiens produced after Lafleur, PK was a fabulous player for us and for Nashville too. He brought it every single shift and thrived on the big stage. I loved him from Day One and never understood the joyless resentment of him evinced by some fans. The talk about his dodgy D-zone play was just that, talk, oblivious to the fact that when he did make a gaffe he usually recovered very well. Meanwhile the toxic attitude of Habs management toward him said a lot more about those A-holes than it did about him. Not unrelatedly, he had to put up with a sh*tload of subliminal and not-so-subliminal racism, especially early in his career when he was widely demonized for being too uppity.
Although The Trade seems to have been undertaken for the wrong reasons (Therrien hating PK's guts, MB being angry over a contractual outcome which his own stupidity ensured, etc.) it was a classic case of a trade that, thanks in part to Weber's career-ending injury, worked out for both teams.
Props to PK for a great career. 👍 I look forward to what will surely be a memorable second act in broadcasting.