Hindsight is a beautiful thing.

Word was he turned down a 1st and Jake Bean offered before Free Agency
He declined another offer to for Foegele ,1st and a mid level pick

Coulda kept Danault and prevented an OS
Upgraded KK with Dvorak and flip Bean or Foegele
To get a decent RD in return

A 1st and Jake Bean for what?

He priced himself out. It doesn't matter how good you are defensively, you have to carry your weight offensively in a top 6, as production is a large part of determining adequate compensation for a player's services.

Dvorak replaces his offense while still maintaining some defensive ability, and Evans (hopefully) is able to manage some of the matchups to lessen the need of having a shutdown center playing 20 minutes.

Well let's say Denault signnedwould have cost 6m, then you're right no Dvorak and with that 1.5m cap hit addition, no Hoffman, which might have a good thing.

Ironically they could have kept both if they didnt sign Hoffman

Either way sometimes you got to let guys go if they ask for to much.

Danault 👏 didn't 👏 want👏 to👏resign 👏in👏Montreal 👏

Get over it.

Why ?

The couple wanted to go live in California.

Honestly, who cares why. My point is it was his decision to go UFA and it's not Bergevin's fault he couldn't resign a guy who wanted to leave.

Dvorak > Danault

KK

There was different rumored offers depending on if you were watching TSN or Sportsnet
1st and Bean
1st and Foegele (plus late pick)
1st and Suzuki

They said CAR had been Circling KK since after playoffs 2 years ago
They just werent willing to offer more so MTL kept saying no

If we just dealt KK earlier we'd still have Danault likely have picked up Dvorak still
Chad Johnston i believe it was said he thought MB was close to saying yes for Suzuki's brother but ultimately said no.
But that really doesnt mean its true as many Analysts are all telling a variation of the same story with only the 1st remaining consistent

We couldn’t afford both Danault & Dvorak.

Also we would’ve justifiably called for Bergevin’s head if he accepted any of those trades. They’re barely better than the offer sheet compensation, and the habs lost nothing by saying no. Now while I still think not matching the offer sheet was a bad move, the value of $4 million in cap space is also a consideration.

But they are better even if Barely
For 2 years we knew an Offer Sheet was coming clear as day from a team that needs any publicity after sucking so long their market nearly folded before new Owner came on
He's a Character to who doesnt mind talking smack so its not really a hindsight is 20/20 thing IMO

We coulda kept Danault and Dvorak easy especially knowing Webers situation, That's not even a Question even with Suzuki's raise.
We woulda lost KK a young Center to keep Danault and add Dvorak which woulda been the rub
I think bringing on Ryan Suzuki and a Pick would have worked best even if he just becomes a Cal O'reilly , Jarret Staal ,Stephen Gionta or Dennis Hull (all fan Favorite Depth guys who stayed in their brothers shadow)

That said if we ever intended on Replacing Weber you'd have been 100% accurate about the Cap.
Issue is i dont see it happening as i think MB will try to use Niku/Savard behind Petry until Mailloux is ready
(scandal or not MB doesnt make that draft choice unless Molson ok's it as President and CEO )

That’s a whole lot of words and not one of them explains how we could have afforded Danault & Dvorak. That’s an extra $5.5 million over what the habs already have this season, and you haven’t outlined any movement that didn’t already happen.

Also if you saw the offer sheet coming a mile away, could you show me the post where you said that it was going to happen before hand? You’re just projecting what you know now on past events, pretending like you were much better at predicting things than you actually were.

Dont Qualify Lehkonen and offer him the same deal Paquette and Perrault got or the chance to walk(2.3m there)
Let Armia walk (3.4m there) or dont sign Mike Hoffman if you're upset about the idea of letting Armia walk
That's 5.7m

Replacing them as good as they are
Isnt nearly as Costly as replacing a Center like Danault
Since we offer sheeted Aho multiple media sources covered it
Not just me , even Stu Cowan covered the importance of locking those two up before OS

All ive done is point out that in the end MB made a choice
He prioritized bottom 6 wingers over a top 10 Center
He had the chance to have two Centers who are both Top 10 Ranked Faceoff Centers Respectively
IMO that's just a bad judgement call in a sad attempt to use them to curry favor for MB after getting new deals

Agreed , MTL would be a better team right now with Danault over Armia/Lehkonen ?
Replacing 4th line players shouldnt cost 5.7m for 2 players unless they're Martin-Czisikas-Clutterbuck level effective.

Below is one of many sources that can be found warning it was likely to happen if we let our young players become RFA's( i like to read so remembering sources is easy)
https://montrealgazette.com/sports/hockey/nhl/hockey-inside-out/stu-cowan-what-happens-if-canadiens-dont-get-sebastian-aho