Quoting: Bigphil
Your trade is well packaged but I think we could get more from a really motivated team at trade deadline or at the end of the season. Teams like Edmonton, Tampa, Toronto will have major cap issues for next year. Only three third round picks has played at least one NHL game in the last ten years for Montreal.
Looking at all 3 teams none of them have a guy like Gagner. Gagner isn't even in the NHL and he only has 1 year left after this one. Taking a guy like Russell, sekera, or lucic from Edmonton would be stupid because they have multiple years which would hurt the habs when they are finally ready to push for the cup. Toronto has nobody to dump. Tampa has Callahan maybe but hes listed as an assistant captain they will probably just keep him for the playoff run this year.
And you cant look at the last 10 years because it takes 3-4 years for a prospect to develop. Fluery and Jordan Harris were 3rd rou d picks and look promising. From 2014-2004 the habs drafted emelin, white, Weber, and andrighetto who have become full time NHL'rs and lernout and nattinen have played at least one game. They had 11 3rd round picks in those 10 years so more than a third of montreals picks became regular NHL'rs and over half played at least one game.
Lately Montreal has had good success in even the 7th round (Stapley, Primeau, and Evans look good). So the point is more picks = greater chance they find some prospects.
Lastly hudon is done in Montreal and Gagner would actually help montreals center depth and maybe even there powerplay. If kotkaniemi, domi, or danault go down there is no way chaput or peca could fill a top 9 role, gagner could.