Why would MTL trade Evans... that makes no sense. Your point about them keeping other C's is irrelevant because Evans can play all three forward positions.

4th line C/RW is ideal for him, if he is RW he can step into C role in case of injuries. Good depth.

He's more valuable to MTL than a 3rd round pick.

I don't disagree with you, in fact I said I don't want to lose him but the truth is Poehling has outplayed him and we aren't likely going to move many of our wingers unless we go into rebuild mode which I don't think is the plan. If I had my choice I would keep both Lehkonen and Evans and move Hoffman and Armia but this was more of what I expect than what I want to happen.

To be honest, if I was Gorton I'd be calling LA to see what they'd offer for Gallagher. He had great chemistry with Danault, Bergevin is there now and loves him to a fault, and Dustin Brown's contract is up so they have the space to add him.

If you want to make a spot for Caufield then trading the other undersized RW on the team makes sense. Of course it sucks to lose Gallagher leadership, but long term Gallagher's contract will be a problem.

They could also likely move Armia if they retain a bit of salary. $3.4M is too much but $2.5M is reasonable, a team that wants a big playoff RW that can kill penalties would be interested I'd think, Armia has been one of MTL's top performers in playoffs the last two seasons.

Move just one of those guys and you've got a spot for Evans at 4th line RW.

I think Lehkonen should definitely be traded, his value will never be higher as he is still an RFA. MTL doesn't need to pay him with Byron returning and guys like Poehling, Pitlick, Pezzeta, Dauphin, Ylonen etc. fighting for spots.

Edit:
There's also the fact that Caufield is terrible right now, he might not even be ready the NHL next season which would also open a spot for Evans. I don't know what's going on with Caufield but he needs to get his mojo back, might take an AHL stint to find it again.

This is news to me. How has Poehling outplayed Evans?

There's not going to be a bidding war over Chiarot. Reality is it looks like there will be a lot of defensemen available and Chiarot won't be any in teams top 2 or 3 choices. He will be what a team ends up with and that won't be a 1st in value. It's a buyers market this season and that's going to hurt guys like Chiarot the most.

Who's on the market other than Klinger and Josh Brown

Can't see Wideman/Perreault getting anything more than a 5th

Projected defensemen who teams expect to fetch a 1st round pick: Klingberg, Lindholm, Gio, Miller, Manson and Chiarot.
Those are just rentals so you can throw Chychrun in too and potentially options with term like Severson.

If we look at the wider market, there are 12-13 players people are expecting to fetch 1st round picks. A total of 3 first round picks were exchanged at last years deadline. That many 1sts simply don't get traded and especially not in a year with a strong draft. The worse players, like Chiarot, are the ones who will suffer.

I had this debate with someone the other day... i just don't see anaheim moving anyone of substance this year. Wouldn't make much sense but I've been wrong before so idk

It was me and I'll still tell you that Anaheim aren't in a playoff spot currently. Even if they did squeak in they wouldn't be a contender. They'd be dumb to hold on to all their rentals this season rather than get returns on their big names (Lindholm, Manson and Rakell). A lot of their fans would agree with that too.

Guess we'll have to reconvene at the trade deadline then and see what's what, because i'm not doing this whole back and forth again which is totally pointless.

I don't think its out of the realm of possibility still. Cap space is really hard to come by for virtually all playoff teams this year. Either the best dmen available are 5M+ in cap hit OR they'll cost more than a late 1st to acquire OR they're on teams that are more than likely making the playoffs so they're not available. There are other options yes but not for every team. Some teams don't have as many options as others do.

Chiarot may very well not get a 1st but regardless of what people on here think of him, NHL GM's seem to like him and his skillset so his potential low cap hit if MTL retains 50% and ability to play big playoff minutes can make him a player a team may be willing to throw a late 1st on.

Chiarot is trash. You missed your window to deal him for a 1st.