Look, it’s perfectly possible that Montreal Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier and Calgary Flames GM Jay Feaster passively floated the idea of a Michael Cammalleri trade before. That being said, it’s also quite likely that the sniper was just one of many players discussed with middling interest up until he criticized himself and his teammates this week.
Honestly, you’d have to be pretty naive to think that his critiques weren’t the catalyst for the trade - whether they ended up being the driving force or just the final straw. Give Gauthier credit, though; he’s selling his argument pretty hard in the press conference.