Philip Broberg is going be there and going be steal

If you can fetch Skinny to come in MTL... Drouin is expendable.
But you won't get Kappy from To @ 4M$... they will match it easily and trade Kadri, Brown for a decent cost control D and not sign any of their UFA D...

No need to offer sheet Kapanen, habs have a ton of right wing prospects (Suzuki, Ikonen, Ylonen, etc.) and they already have Gallagher, shaw, armia and weal for next year.

Byram is clearly the top Dman in the draft but I'd rather keep Drouin and select Broberg (or another D available at 15) over Byram.

I agree with the Kapanen sentiment, I'd take him for a 2nd rounder though but chances are TO would match and move other players just to keep him if that the case. To guarantee landing Kap, you'd need to go 5M+ and that's where I wouldn't pay that price.....

As for Byram though I disagree. If Colorado entertains this deal, I think I'd do it. Drouin ultimately is a winger. The least valued position of all of them and the easiest position to patch up with free agency. Habs had Tatar thrown into a deal and he outproduced Drouin and is only 4 years older. Players who can produce what Drouin has shown he's capable of are available if your smart. Players of Byram's ilk? Virtually never.

They are only available through the draft. Habs have a specific need for LHD and Byram fits that need to a tee. There's added value for Colorado to do it as Drouin and Mack have killer chemistry and what not but considering the plethora of wingers we have and the odds of at least one of Domi/Poehling/Kotkaniemi/Suzuki etc needing to play the wing instead of center if they are to play top 6 minutes, this trade makes a ton of sense. We've seen enough of Drouin to know he is not a leader and guy that will consistently bring the team on his back. He's a great complimentary player to other good players. Byram could be the best dman Montreal has had since vintage Markov, more recently prime Subban/Weber and maybe even pre-GM Rejean Houle Habs dmen like Chelios for example.

He's the consensus best dman in the draft and we could replace Drouin wing with the 15thOA in a guy like Ryan Suzuki, Caulfield, Lavoie, etc whoever is available.

The first thing taken off that board is center, then next is defenseman. I think when people look at prospect rankings and they see a lot of RW and LW ahead of defesnemen they aren't taking that into consideration. You are more likely to find a steal on the wing and end up with an over rated bust at defense. Because once they start coming off the board its usually a run on them

Just look at last year. 4 of the top 10. Really it started at 7. 3 of the last 4 top 10 picks were defense. and 5 of I think the top 12 were defense.

My guess is the top 5-6 defensemen are gone by pick 15.

No way drouin goes for 4th overall

that would be a big pass from the Avs. Why move the 4th for Drouin and a meh Goalie prospect who split with ECHL and AHL last year (not great AHL numbers as well) when Avs can just keep the pick and get teh younger guy on the ELC vs Drouin.

Its not tempting enough to move the 4th as I dont think Drouin has even close that value. Think of it this way....Habs wouldnt trade the 3rd for O'Reilly who is clearly the better more complete player offensively and defensively while being a C...so why would Drouin fetch the 4th in comparison?

I forgot about still having the 15th pick, I'm on board with it. Like you said they could draft a replacement for drouin at 15th. Not to mention the $5.5M in cap space they could create with this deal that they could use in free agency even to get a player like jeff skinner or something, then drouin is effectively replaced and the habs added a potential top pairing defenseman. If the avs are interested I'd do it.

That’s the most I’d give in the kapanen deal I’d just throw it out there worst case senario it forces Toronto to make a move win win for habs eitherway and I still think we could use more finish on our wings, we have lots of wingers but not much consistent players who can finish I’d be looking for kapanen to continue his progression into that if that offer went through

Only one way to find out and forces Toronto’s hand one way or the other

I like Kapanen but offer sheeting someone geneerally means you'll have to over pay and if thats' the case, a 1st will have to go back the other way and I prefer the Habs to use their 1sts to get stronger in better quality positions. IMHO.

It would need to be Primeau with Drouin for the Avs to entertain it in my opinion.

And Drouin (3rd OA) + Primeau One of the best Goalie Prospect for @ 10AO.... NO THANKS!
If Avs don't see anyone valuable @ #10... the type of trade that team do is= MTL 15OA + Lehko (or 2nd#46) for 10OA (gaining 5 spot)

Drouin may have been a 3rd OA but he simply hasn't turned out to be that level of player. Primeau is a decent sleeper goalie prospect. If I wanted to I could offer a similar argument in reverse that McNiven has no value as he was undrafted regardless of how good he may be (and in truth he's no better than anything the Avs have in the system at present and that doesn't say much for him). Plus you're trading for 4th OA, not 10th OA.

Drouin is 24yo and put up 53 pts when he slumped for the last 2 months of the season the guy is still figuring it out and maturing everyone’s talking like he’s 28 and has maxed out the guy you get at 4th overall might not even hit those numbers so I don’t think it’s so far off .... on mcniven he played in AHL all year except 1 game Laval has been a terrible team giving up all kinds of grade A chances so his numbers won’t be that great but 2 years ago he was the top goalie in the OHL last year was a rough year adjusting to the pro game and this year he’s improved as he will next year he’s still a decent goalie prospect he put up better numbers than Charlie Lindgren who will probably be habs back up next year ... yes that’s how bad Laval were