Joined: Jan. 2018
Posts: 473
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Caufield is 1 of MTLs top prospects, the top prospect depending on who is doing the ranking, so he is untouchable in anything resembling a fair trade. Also, as I have pointed out on several other Ehlers to MTL threads, yes Ehlers would be an upgrade among left handed wingers for MTL (unless Domi shifts to wing and has a similar season to last) and he has a decent contract with decent term, but he isn't an upgrade worth paying a large cost for.
Down the middle going forward I think the hope in MTL is Kotkaniemi, Poehling, and either Suzuki or a resigned Danault to round out the top 9, the RW would likely be a resigned Gallagher, Caufield and either Suzuki if Danault stays or maybe they keep Armia, that leaves Domi and Drouin under team control moving forward at LW with Lehkonen playing 3rd line to round out the top 9. Ehlers should be an improvement on this group, but again it's not a massive improvement, so MTL's management would likely prefer to gamble on Caufield living up to his predraft hype (most mock drafts had him top 10, comparisons to DeBrincat) and Drouin finding some consistency, rather than take the PR hit of trading their most recent 1st round pick. LW just isn't what MTL needs right now, so they aren't paying fair price for a LW who is a minor improvement.