MTL trade, fair/who adds?

With MTL building slowly through the draft, being done sooner with the ghosts of free agency past should be appealing.

I doubt they're particularly looking to move Byron, and I think they're probably more interested in adding picks coming back than in getting another big salary for two years, that doesn't help them reubild at all.

Alzner for Phaneuf? Okay... you win on possession and cap hit. They win on points, nastiness, and term. If the total money is similar, they shrug it off.... except that Alzner because their de-facto top pair guy when Weber got hurt and his partner put up a career year, while Phaneuf's offense might not help anybody's offense, so right there, they want some sort of a pick to get that done.

Trading Byron? Okay. Throw in some picks.

Accepting Nate Thompson? Okay. Throw in some picks.

Their divisional rivals in Toronto just signed John Tavares and they have signed nobody. Team is not that excited about adding points or salaries at all. They're going to draft in the lottery either way, but adding a few more picks could brighten their future.

I think this is a fair trade for both sides

Kings need Nate Thompson to center the 4th line. Change Thompson to Clifford and I could see it working.

Thompson was also more to give LA a bit more cap relief, and I figured Phaneuf for Alzner was in MTL's favour so Byron was added to help offset that. But if Phaneuf for Alzner is relatively fair what kind of picks would you add to even the trade out?

As a Caps fans I always saw Alzner as the guy who stayed back and made Carlson's offense possible. This year Orpik played that role for half the year, then Djoos for a bit, then Kempny.... but it's still a role that takes work, and in spite of MTL's fans' low opinions of him, I think Alzner and Petry were one of the few things that really clicked for the Habs last year.

Nate Thompson is 33 and has broken ten goals three times? But not lately. Paul Byron is 29, has the same cap hit, and has broken twenty goals in both the last two years and had eleven the year before that?

So Thompson is just kind of thrown in there.

My guess is that they don't want to open up that level of yard sale just yet, but at the trade deadline, it could happen for a couple of 2nds?