Quoting: NoWah49
I may soon be wrong, but I think this is still holding on to the hope of a contender. Trading another 1st is so risky imo
I personally think this roster is highly competitive next year, especially refreshed coming out of that long break.
But whether or not they actually are/are not competitive is a bit irrelevant. SJ and DW are forced to try and be competitive next year because of the way their roster is built and constructed, with age/prime of existing players and the relatively immovable contracts.
The reason this deal makes too much sense to me is because it acquires another key prime piece in Danault and it leaves Burns to be expendable and selected in the draft after next season to hugely adjust SJ's roster problems [in very DW fashion, I might add (i.e. "we love Burnzie and what he means for this organization but the reality is unfortunately we live in a salary-cap business yada...")], in addition to Smith coming off the books in time for Hertl's extension.
From MTL's perspective, the package deal is a good one for Danault. French-RD borderline 1st/2nd round prospect in Roy (who's stock, granted, fell when he got badly injured a few years ago but by all accounts he's worked hard and is fully healed and played great hockey in a full season last season) and a 1st round pick, with 1yr of a cost-controlled 3rd liner in Sorensen who chips in with ~15 goals and PKs great and plays 2nd unit PP a nice bit of icing.