A rare occurrence took place on Thursday as the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, hockey’s long time arch-rivals, swung a trade.

The Canadiens shipped young center Mikhail Grabovski to the Leafs in exchange for prospect defenseman Greg Pateryn and a second round pick in 2010.

Grabovski showed promise In his limited time with the Canadiens but was unable to crack the roster full time last season, and at one point left the team in the midst of a US west coast road trip to fly to Los Angeles and confer with his agent, who advised him to return to the Habs.

The Canadiens have $10 million in available cap space but have several young free agents to re-sign and are expected to land a veteran forward from the UFA market, making Grabovski expendable.

For a rebuilding Maple Leafs team thin at center Grabovski could be a good fit and should get much more playing time in Toronto than he got in Montreal.