I would love to bring Danault and Halak back if those are the price they ask for, but it seems like the bare minimum they could get. Playing Caufield next to Danault and Armia is just an offense killer imo, a pure goal scorer won't go far with Danault's passes on the skates.

This is definitely an optimistic take on it, but Danault can't be asking for anything over 5 AAV with how he's played this season, and Halak is in his late 30's, and Danault is a fine playmaker, just the goal scoring he lacks.

A 20 games of poor play won't erase the last two incredible seasons to the point where he doesn't get 5m on the open market. As for Halak, he's putting up impressive numbers and even on a one-year deal, 2m$ is a clear discount. Danault's playmaking is average, but he's still not the guy I'd use to feed Caufield.

Hard pass for me on Danault for anything more than $4mm and max 4 years.

You’re right that it doesn’t erase it, but Danault will be paid (either by us or another team) based on what he projects to do going forwards, not what he did when the canadiens played him with our top two wingers and our top D.

Show me a team willing to pay him more than Toffoli as a UFA, and I’d imagine that the team doesn’t project to be very good.

Danault is a center and therefore, probably more valuable on the open market.

Toffoli's a weird signing to gauge. He had a good run in Vancouver and was great in LA for the most time, but nothing impressive either. Center is a prime position and teams are naturally enticed to value them more than wingers, so there's that. There are numerous teams with wholes at center on their top 9 and would likely be willing to bring Danault in. The argument that he played with good players is also worthless, as the gap between him and Tatar is little. The three players just ended up having great chemisty and that's pretty much it, there was not a single player carrying the team at the moment.

spoiler:

he doesnt

Except for the whole zero goals thing. No, all kidding re: an 18 game sample size aside, I digress...
Danault is already the highest paid defensive center in the NHL (maximum 13 goals in a season). Does he really deserve a raise? Post COVID, teams aren’t going to rush out to overpay a center who just can’t score (when compared to his peers). He’ll be lucky to get 4x$4mm with the course he’s on right now. Especially if Ducharme makes clear to him that he’s our #3. Julien didn’t do that, and Julien is gone now.

Beggars can’t be choosers. Which teams do we think are going to be racing to sign Phil Danault next off season?

Which teams do you think?

Re: linesmates, the numbers don’t lie. Gallagher is a consistent top 5 5on5 scorer in the entire NHL.

Your point about centers getting paid more is a fact. But that refers 100% exclusively to centers who are also decent scorers. Danault is not. He is the highest paid 13 goal max center in the entire NHL already at a $3.08mm cap hit.

Gallagher's numbers have also considerably went up when paired with Danault and Tatar. The three players have benefited from this line that was not carried by a particular player.

Danault has never been a good goal scorer and probably never will be. He's never played under an offensive coach/system either. Kevin Hayes, Jordan Staal were never goals specialists, they were defense or playmaking specialists who got paid for their defensive game, goals were just an extra. The team that will pay Danault, no matter which one it is, won't pay him to score goals.

Hayes is 6’5’’ Staal 6’4’’ and both score around twice as much as Danault.

I agree that the team who signs him will pay him to be a good defensive center. And the going rate for those centers (who don’t score) is unlikely to be more than $4mm per season post COVID. I just don’t see anyone (at least not anyone good) either being willing to (or more likely being able to) pay more.

It's not only about raw goals totals. Once again, Danault's not a goal scorer so his goals totals don't mean much. At the end of the day, he's a 45+ points scorer despite being a defensive center. Judging Danault by his goals doesn't make sense at all, as he puts up assists to make up for it.

We’re talking in circles, but I don’t understand the argument that he isn’t picking up assists primarily because Gallagher is an elite 5 on 5 scorer. And also since Tatar is more than capable as well. When they were our go to line when we needed 5 on 5 scoring. Playing with our top D at the time. If you put Jake Evans between Tatar and Gallagher in a parallel situation playing similar minutes, I imagine he gets 40 or so points also, despite being a defensive center. And Jake Evans costs 2x$750k.

Gallagher does not score at a similar 5 on 5 clip to Ovechkin because Danault is Backstrom.

Exactly, Danault is a defensive specialist that's an adequate playmaker, and is a 45+ point scorer like you said, that has serious value on the open market, goals aren't everything.

At this point I assume that you just don't like Danault and Tatar for some reason, so I'm gonna stop it here even if I firmly believe you're wrong.

I’m fine with counter opinions, just curious where you think he’d be a fit (that’s not Montreal) and for how much? I agree that goals aren’t everything, which is why I think he’s been able to make more than 3 million dollars.

Also, I quite like both Danault and Tatar, both as players and also as people. I find it unfortunate to neither realized during the off-season (like Toffoli and Gallagher did), that a flat cap world differs strongly from what their agents previously told them they could sign for as UFAs. So it’s not personal, it’s business. Time for Bergevin to move on. Bergevin mentioned that Gallagher never once complained about who he was playing with. A direct shot to Danault.

We’ll see how Ducharme uses both of them. I can’t imagine it will be more favourable for them now than it was under Julien.

2022 1st instead of 2021 and id accept.

The Rangers seem like a good fit for Danault, Danault is going to make at least 4.5 wherever he goes, I'd say that's a given. Danault is one of the better pending UFA centers and whichever team has a hole at center will be happy to pay him.

The Rangers 100% I agree would be a good fit. With that said, I also imagine that they’ll have better options available to them. More specifically, I imagine that they’ll be spending most of their free agency money on D.

They desperately need a center behind MZ, they've got good D prospects, but no real answer to that 2C yet.

Strome doesn’t work at #2? Decent start so far for Blackwell, also.

The Rangers don't seem to be big on Strome, I'm not sure as to why, but Strome doesn't seem like he's in their long term plans, and small sample size for Blackwell, time will tell.

If the Rangers want a center long term, my guess is their first pick is RNH.