Buyout Drouin and use cap space

$1.83m for the next 4 years. why not just retain $2m for the next 2 years instead and move him for a depth player.

“We know what we’re going to get with Drouin”

What on earth kind of reasoning is that?
For one, we most certainly don’t know what we’re getting with Drouin, and secondly, we know what we’re going to get out of Brendan Gallagher, but the habs aren’t buying out his contract.

I'm ok with what he brings
In his final year even if he's struggling he'll bring value
Plekanec everyone insisted wouldnt bring any return worth mentioning
He got a 2nd and to AHL prospects having a caeer worst year

Drouin even if he only plays a bottom 2 role if we retain we could easily get atleast that
Drouin's a Speedy Winger who can take faceoffs and be a top 5 PP player on the team consistently
Teams will pay for that if there's no commitment and the cap is right


That said i think he's going to have a great year and we'll need him
His ability to help with Faceoffs will be an advantage as we're skating Suzuki,KK,Evans and Paquette as our Centers
Only Paquette and Evans have over 50% faceoff win rate . Drouin can be there to help KK handle the 1100 faceoffs he'll have to make up for Danault

You think , because of a pause of a few months, Drouin is gonna magically score 70 ppts??? No. He will again be a liability, not physical and sheltered. He’s gonna be exposé with MTL médias. I think it’s better to turn the page

If Drouin were on any other team, he'd be signed for $4.5M and considered a useful middle 6 winger who mans the PP, putting up 40-50 points a season.
It's okay if that is what he is.
The problem is that he was mantled with high expectations and given a lucrative contract before he even had a chance to prove himself.