Hughes passes this off as a "we need more grey hair in the locker room" kind of trade, but i suspect its more of a "better an extra winger than an extra goalie" kind of trade.
I think the habs have rushed too many players in the last few decades, possibly because of the mentality of maintaining the status quo of making the playoffs every year; there was so little coming up from the farm team (after trading all the picks) that fans want talent to be in the NHL and see whoever is in laval as depth or a bust.
I dont think that it would be Pearson blocking Roy from making the team. I just dont see the point of putting the kid up in the big leagues right now, when he would need to oust someone like Anderson, Gallagher, Newhook, etc in order to get the opportunities that he needs in order to succeed. Laval's lineup is starting to look interesting, with quite a bit of competition for those chairs.
I think Montreal can afford (and would benefit from) to sending players like Roy to Laval to grow there. Id much rather see him take top 6 minutes there than 4th line minutes in Mtl and following last year's pile of injuries, I found that, if anything, the coaching staff there is good at prepping players to fit into MSL's approach.