Why is Suzuki playing 3c

So they do...though it would be a bit tighter.

Wheeler Is primarily a winger. Montreal shouldn't be counting on him playing center full time.

Right! It's crazy. When I was thinking of who might be able to take on Wheeler's contract I never thought about Montreal. But then I looked and I was like HOW!!!! Bergevin I don't think gets enough credit as a GM. Dude knows how to build a team. I mean he got a lot of help (if you want to call it help) with Weber sounding like he will never play again. So that money comes off the books when he goes on LTIR.

Question then becomes how many years does Wheeler have left?

That is Montreal's problem if this goes down. HAHA. The problem with Wheeler is that he has 3 years left in him for sure. But those years aren't going to be worth $8.25M. He is the last remaining member from the Atlanta Trashers team. Maybe he is getting done with living and playing in Winnipeg. I mean I get it. I lived there for 5 years and I got the heck out and moved to B.C. So maybe him moving to a city like Montreal might give him some more jump. I doubt it but you never know.

Gallagher is the 2nd least likely winger to be traded after Caufield. Watch the announcement from MB when he signed Gallagher's extension, he was literally in tears during the press conference. No way he moves Gally one year later.

Hey I get it. But even Wayne Gretzky was traded at his prime. Bergevin would probably take it hard but he is a smart guy and sees that he has some challenges up the middle and he has a plentiful group on the right side. It would be hard to lose any of them but it is a business and he is in to win stanley cups. So if moving Gallagher to get closer to a Stanley Cup he does it.

Not really something were interested in
Wheeler is great and Stanley is solid but we got a Wheeler and a Stanley already
The only piece we'd actually need is Niku to play 3rd RD with Wideman and that's worth maybe a 3rd round pick to us

If you were offering up Dubois i think MTL would sell the farm outside Suzuki,Caufield and Romanov just to get him.
Ehlers has some appeal but we're good with Drouin as he/Anderson had good Chemistry last year and Andersons offense dried up when Drouin left.

Adam Lowry might draft some interest as he'd fill a need and give MTL a Power Forward Gritty Center

We're just not good trade partners unless its Dubois really
Then they become extremely flexible in their return

This move doesn't make Montreal any more of a contender though. Sure it solves the 2C/3C issue but by giving up 2 of our best wingers for an overpaid 2C. At 8.25 Mil he is paid like a top line center and that screws Montreal's cap structure going forward. It's one of the main reasons Montreal didn't match the KK OS. If you want to do Byron + Drouin + 1st for the package above sure no problem but Gallagher, Suzuki, Caufield, Petry and Price are all non starters.

Gretzky requested the trade and it wasn't a cap era, that's different than just trading your core for aging guys who may not even payout their current contract.

Another issue is the cap after this year does not work. You showed we can take Wheeler's cap hit this season but beyond that how do we pay Zuke 8+ mil? Or Romanov 2.5+ Mil or keep Lehkonen 2.5 or Evans 2.0 or fill out our roster going forward with 0 cap space? Montreal passes for so many reasons.

God I wish this would happen. I would love to have a player like Brendan Gallagher on the team