I don't know anything about Gustafsson. Is he a real C, or is he a winger? If he's a good C prospect I suspect the Habs would say yes. They might even say yes anyway.

This would be a great trade for the Caps, would think they need to put in a prospect instead of the second rounder though.

Burakovsky was 124th among forwards with at least 40 games played in goals per sixty minutes of ice time (www.nhl.com/stats/player?report=skaterscoring&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20172018&seasonTo=20172018&gameType=2&position=F&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,40&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=goalsPer60Minutes) and he is 23 years old.

Pacioretty was 161st (http://www.nhl.com/stats/player?report=skaterscoring&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20172018&seasonTo=20172018&gameType=2&position=F&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,40&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=goalsPer60Minutes).

So you want to trade a middling 2nd line goal scorer for a poor one who's older, but won't be around as long, and also throw in a first round pick, a 2nd round pick, and a prospect?

The Caps are good enough to win the Cup as is. If they make trades, it's to stay this good for longer. I know there are teams that overpay to get veteran leadership, but they aren't usually teams that just won the Cup. Those teams get to be on the other side of this kind of deal. The Caps have a #1 goalie, a future #1 goalie, three #1 defensemen, two #1 centers, and a #1 wing on each side. They could logically trade Niskanen for a surefire future #1 defenseman plus picks and prospects. They could trade Wilson for a first pick, if they aren't getting anywhere on salary negotiations, and replace him with a grinder off waivers in training camp, and Ovechkin and Kuznetsov would still be a solid first line. There are definitely possibilities to explore for trades with the Caps.

The way to magically turn Burakovsky into a thirty goal scorer is to quit healthy scratching him and just play him on Nick Backstrom's left or on a line with Ovechkin and Kuznetsov for one year. Boom. Thirty goals. Done. Still got your first pick, and have RFA rights to a thirty goal scorer, whom you can then trade for another first pick, after you sign Pacioretty as a UFA, if you still think he's a better fit.

He isn't though. Pacioretty had 17 goals last year. Burakovsky got that as an NHL rookie and then ran into a Trotz ceiling. If he plays 20 minutes a night for 82 games, Burakovsky is a 20 goal scorer next year. Pacioretty's 20 goal scoring days might start again, or they might be over. The above trade is worse, on paper, than Forsberg for Erat, even before you start adding picks and prospects to the wrong side of it.

You can’t use one season of stats to compare players. Paciorettys worst season in his career and your trying to say that a 23 year old player is better then him because f a season where he played 63 games.

And your actually wrong, Pacioretty has never been a 20 goal scorer. Never in his career has he finished with between 20-29 goals in a season.

He is a 30 goal scorer.

Well, last year he didn't get 20 or 30. He got 17. He's going to be turning 30 this year. Burakovsky will turn 24. At even strength last year they each had ten goals and eleven assists. Pacioretty only played 64 games due to injury, but Burakovsky only played 58 because the head coach didn't like him and said he needs to work on his defense. Burakovsky got the same corsi as Pacioretty in 4% more difficult zone starts, so how many games would Pacioretty have played under Trotz? I would not trade Burakovsky for Pacioretty one for one. I do think there are a bunch of teams who would trade for a veteran goal scoring winger who can add leadership and dependable offense to their top power play unit. A team that just won the Stanley Cup and hasn't changed one person on its top power play unit in three seasons isn't the least bit interested. Sorry. Sell him someplace else.

Once again man, you only go to one season for a comparison. Trots would love Patches, Pacioretty is very good playing both ways and also makes plays, tends to get almost as many assists as goals.

I think Pacioretty will have a similar next couple years to Blake Wheeler. Pacioretty actually has had better stats then Wheeler until the last 3 seasons, the difference was that Wheeler had Scheifele become his center. Pacioretty hasn’t gotten that center yet, him with Backstrom becomes a 40 goal 80 point player.

Burakovsky will get a shot this year with the new coach, but if he doesn’t perform, I don’t know how Washington says no to this trAde at the deadline.

I agree that Trotz would love Patches, and I think the Islanders are a team more likely to make a desperate push to make the playoffs than the Caps this year, so definitely talk to them about him.

Now that the Caps are coached by Todd Reirden, I'm pretty optimistic that Andre Burakovsky stops being a healthy scratch, and becomes a regular top six forward, meaning he'll go from having Lars Eller as his center to having Nick Backstrom as his center. I can see how that would lead to an improvement for Pacioretty. Can you see how it would lead to the same improvement for Burakovsky? Burakovsky's 17 point year actually came with an unproven rookie named Evgeny Kuznetsov as his center, so that's always an option, too, if he earns his way up there. I predict Pacioretty gets 25 goals this year, with a decent center and 1st power play time, wherever he lands, and Burakovsky gets 27 goals if he plays with Backstrom all year and gets steady time on a 2nd power play unit. After that, Burakovsky is a 24 year old RFA who costs 4M a year for eight years, whom the Caps can easily afford, and Pacioretty is a 30 year old UFA who costs 8M a year for eight years on the open market, and whom no team can reasonably afford, especially not one that already has two thirty-something thirty-goal guys. If the Caps make big trades, they need to be selling off leadership and banking cap space, not the opposite.

I think Pacioretty is still a very good player, who most likely just had one weak year. I thought the same think about Erat, who actually was team captain this winter, in his third Olympic appearance. Shhh. Don't tell Caps fans. They think the wheels came off just because he didn't get top six minutes in Washington and didn't bounce back up to the 50 points he used to get on a 1st line in Nashville when he played third line in DC. He was still an okay checking forward, but the fans turned on him for not being Forsberg.... if Burakovsky plays top line in Montreal, though, and top power play, and gets thirty goals next year, and the year after, and the year after, while Pacioretty gets 25 goals in Washington and then leaves in free agency, then at least McLellan got to win a Cup first.

Washington would probably say no because its a rental player, compared to a rfa player plus a couple picks, and if the prospect is anything decent(I don't know a thing about him) that is too much for a rental where the improvement is there but isn't drastic.

One good stat to show how underutilized Burakovsky was this year is just his total minutes. He played under 800. Pacioretty played just under 1200 minutes. They got the same number of even strength goals, assists, and points, even though Pacioretty got 50% more ice time. Since Burakovsky is six years younger, and will be an RFA, he has more trade value right now to a team like the Caps that is up close to the salary cap and trying to keep its offensive depth mostly intact.

There are also teams who will trade for Pacioretty for his playoff scoring and experience. He has 19 points in 38 playoff games. Burakovsky has 16 points in 41 playoff games, though, so if the Caps cared about adding more playoff experience this summer (after winning the Cup, remember?) there's barely a difference, but Burakovsky has a slight edge in playoff exprience.

Ow ya bald man moved out. I don’t argue Burakovstky was under utilized or a bad player (actually drafted him in my fantasy last year thinking he would break out) but there are question marks with him and like I said if e doesn’t show up this year and the new coach gets the same opinion of him, then this is a trade Washington might do for a rental.

I agree with the guy below me though , I think it would be more because Washington would be getting a pure rental and might find someone suitable for less price. In Montreal’s side I wouldn’t even want Burakovsky just because and I don’t know if you know this, MONTREAL HAS TO MANY GOD DARN LEFT WINGERS. MB loves them though, them and bottom pairing defenceman. Don’t know if he knows what a center is.

Personally, I'm not sure Gustafsson will ever be an NHL guy so he's not adding a ton of value.

Only way Caps do that is if Pac signs an extension, which I don't know if Caps have room for.

Don't think either team does this deal honestly. MTL would be looking for different young player than Burakovsky. Habs have no need for LW now or in the future. that cupboard is full. Habs are looking for Centers (although I doubt any team wants to give them up), Right shooting forwards, and Left shooting defensemen. those cupboards are pretty empty.

WSH doesn't do this deal, because there's legitimately no chance at them resigning Patches next year, for them he is a rental. I know a lot of people on here like to say Patches is only a rental (to which I disagree with most of them) but in this case it would be true. no point in giving all these assets up when the guy is 100% guaranteed to leave a UFA.

Who cares about long term when the team has the window to win two Stanley Cups in a row. Resigning Patches would be faisible but one or two assets has to be traded. Talk to the Black Hawks about that.

By all means if WSH want to give up all those assets to push for another cup, go ahead. I don't see any scenario on how they could resign him at the rumored 6x$7.5mil deal he's seeking. There's no significant contract coming off their books next year, with Vrana needing a new deal and Holtby needing one the following year.

and MTL most likely still turns this deal down (unless this happens at the trade deadline) and looks elsewhere. I don't see Habs being interested in Burakovsky, and if it's for a deep playoff push, the 1st + 2nd picks are not that valuable considering they will be in the 30 and 60 pick.

I would prefer Lucas Johansen than a 2nd round pick. And Mtl don't need Gustafsson.

If you mean Johansen instead of Burakovsky, then yes, I think having drafted Alexeyev the Caps can afford to trade Johansen and Riley Barber for veteran help for the playoffs. Barber plays right away and eventually scores some goals for the Habs. Johansen is a potential top pair defenseman with one more year of waiver exemption on his ELC. He can move up or down, whatever is best for his development. Maybe they throw in a third pick to get enough cap retention to make it all work, but I think once you start talking about including Burakovsky or Connolly who each had eleven even strength goals last year, in a trade for Max Pacioretty, who had eleven even strength goals last year and is older, then that's the trade from the Caps side, and it doesn't help Montreal long term. Better to trade for two solid prospects.

Let say it that way. Lucas Johansen , a first and second .... late. I think is a yes on Montréal side.

We're not that far apart, but I don't see the Caps including both Johansen and a 1st. Pacioretty absolutely may be worth that at the deadline, to a team that lacks wings with power play ability, if he bounces back really well from last year, but not to the Caps in July. Too many leaps of imagination to even think whether the Caps will be adding a wing at the deadline.

I think if the Habs sold early on Pacioretty, they'd have the year to highlight Byron and Plekanec on their power play while auditioning kids at evens, and probably push Byron and Plekanec's value up to a 1st and a 2nd, respectively. But I could, see the caps offering Barber and a 2nd for Byron right now.

A late second for Byron , a 20 goal scorer is low offer. Even if you had up a Ahl player and former prospect , it doesn't help. In the case of Byron, Mtl is better wait to the trade deadline.

I think there's a misconception here. If MTL with Pacthes (or OTT with Karlsson for that matter) would be trading him as a rental, might as well just wait until trade deadline (or mid-season) where contending team are more likely to over pay. As of right now teams that are looking into Pacioretty have every intention on resigning him to a long term deal, hence why the asking price is of a signed player (also why interested teams are granted permission to speak with the player's agent to see if they can negotiate a deal.)
We're going to be having the same discussion with Panarin now. He's a UFA next year so he has to be a rental right?....wrong. Teams inquiring about him have every intention on resigning him to an extension.

Yeah, if the only guy MTL wants to sell in this rebuild is Pacioretty, then, sure, they wait and raise his value. If there are teams negotiating with his agent for an extension, the Caps are out of the running. They don't have a power play spot for him. I do think that the Habs might consider a low offer on Pacioretty in order to give power play time throughout the year to Byron and make him into a 30 goal scorer by the deadline, to maximize their total return. It will make the team worse this year, but they'll draft higher, so whatever.

But that narrows buyers down to teams willing to overpay for a top line wing who might score 30 goals or might only get 17, willing to overpay him when he arrives, after a terrible season, and still confident they will make the playoffs. So if things fall through with Columbus, then maybe they're back to square one and willing to listen to what works for other teams to add Pacioretty as a depth rental. Or maybe they just re-sign him and take him off the market. Who knows?

Patches isn't really, and never really was, a PP specialist. He was on the Habs 1st unit by default. He's a 5 on 5 guy and PK specialist. If you skip this past season, his last two 30+ goal seasons, he only had 8 PP goals, and was only behind Plekanec in terms of PK usage among forwards.
As for his 17 goals last season, take into account that he was injured, but pro rated he would be at 23goals which is still really high considering someone having his worst shooting% of his career, but would still be his lowest total since 2012 (lockout season). Also add that Pacthes took far less shots than any previous year, because no one was actually feeding him the puck this past season (Radulov last year and Desharnais every previous year). Which is why basically every Habs fan says that if you put him with a true top 6 C (not even a #1) and Pacioretty easily gets to 35-40goals.

I completely understand the reluctance from some people because of his last season struggle, but teams looking to acquire him aren't getting a one-dimensional goal scorer that every on here believes him to be. He's a legitimate 1st line 2way LW. Habs fans aren't expecting a #1 C in return, but he's worth a lot more than most lowball deals suggested on here because "he only has 1 year left so he has to be a rental". (not saying the one suggested in this thread is a lowball, just that it's not the greatest fit for MTL.)

Well teams can have that "extension discussion". Doesn't mean that much, the player just might want the option of sign with 30 other teams. Unless the team that "owns" the player and offers him eight years, all the other teams have the same equal footing.