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?

I actually like Alzner, I just think he has about 1-1.5 million too high of a cap hit.

If MTL was serious about trying to compete, yeah sure I guess but they are quietly rebuilding. They don't need to do any of this and simply keeping Alzner and trading Byron at the TDL for picks makes more sense.

Phaneuf isn't going to improve MTL much, certainly not enough to offset the loss of Byron. What this trade does do for Montreal is, at the cost of 625k in cap space for the next 3 seasons, get 4.625 million in cap space off the books a season sooner. Maybe just Alzner for Phaneuf straight up would work.

Phaneuf can man a PP at least. Alzner is a PK and that's it. Im not trying to pump Phaneuf too much here, he;s getting older but I'd gladly pay any extra 625K for one year less of Alzner, to get Dion.

Regardless as I said, this is a moot point. Habs gain nothing from slightly upgrading their defense but losing Byron in the process and they are retooling so all they need to do is show up and lose games for them to eventually get better.

Weber and Petry are the more likely options on the PP. I don't see Phaneuf bringing much to the Habs, which is why I would take him over Alzner. Minimal, if any, overall improvement and a bad contract off the books sooner. As I said if it could be done without Byron being included, or LA throwing in picks for Byron, even better, but getting out from a bad contract a full season sooner is useful.

Whose going to play on the opposite side of Weber and Petry on that PP? That's where Phaneuf would come in. Anyways this is a redundant debate. Im open to either option but if Byron is involved, we need picks coming back or no deal. Getting out of Alzners final year of his contract is pointless if we don't have players to spend that extra money on. Yeah its useful to have sure but its not worth sacrificing Byron and since the above offer makes no mention of picks, there really isn't any point to the Habs doing this.

1st PP is likely Domi, Gallagher, Pacioretty, Drouin and Weber. 2nd PP is something along the lines of Danault, Scherbak, Shaw, Petry and either Armia or Hudon. It's not just cap space but the roster spot that opens up, Rielly showed 2nd pairing potential last season, and I hope Mete can be a 2nd pairing guy, leaving Alzner as a 4.625 million cap hit on the 3rd pair. Again I would love to be able to just do Alzner for Phaneuf, then get some picks for Byron, I just wasn't sure how highly valued Dion was and if the Byron/Thompson swap was needed to balance it out.