Joined: Jun. 2017
Posts: 373
Likes: 88
I think Duchene represents a special case: you had two teams looking to make trades for centers, with one of those teams far undervaluing one of the deals' biggest pieces (Turris). While Ottawa obviously gave up a large package (particularly in hindsight), the actual deal itself wasn't that lopsided if you ignore Turris. Additionally, Colorado had massive leverage on Ottawa, as they had no reason to trade Duchene, and could therefore keep him with very little risk.
Montreal, on the other hand, has significantly less leverage. Until recently, Pacioretty was having a much worse season than his career norms (although still okay on the whole). Teams are now 30+ games deeper into the season. Pacioretty is a wing, not a center. And finally, he's due a significant raise when his contract expires (probably to the seven million range, a bump of 2.5 million, where Duchene was already at six and was probably looking at 7, for a bump of just one million) and also two years older than Duchene.
That being said, he's still obviously a great player.
He's likely worth a late 2018 first (20-25 range), an A-level prospect or additional 1st round pick, and a B-prospect. Phil Kessel is a reasonable comparable.