I think I'd do that?

Isles decline, not trading an elite prospect for a 29 year old

Dufour's ceiling is like a 3rd liner right now dude

So you would rather acquire a long term contract for a W who is most likely on the decline from his physical play who the team already cannot afford, then keep 2 of the teams top prospects and have the ability to resign Dobson?

im saying hes not an elite prospect thats just silly and Im really not judging any of the habs for this season considering pretty much everyone sucked

His ceiling is quite a bit higher than that.

Neither one of these guys is anything close to an elite prospect. Bolduc's has a decent chance of being a productive 2nd/3rd pair guy. If Dufour is probably not more than a bottom 6 guy - yes, he put up gaudy numbers in the Q this year, but that gets tempered by the fact that he was a 6'2" 200lb 20 year old playing against mostly teenagers.

Not going to argue about the prospect value (IMO, Bolduc's ceiling is a left handed Scott Mayfield, and Dufour's is a solid middle-6/PP specialist) but more about Gallagher's value to the Isles.

First off, if they made this trade they 100% need to move one of their $4M+ forwards or Varlamov - they won't be cap compliant any other way. If they move out Bailey's $5M, it would leave them about $4M to figure out LD2/LD3 - so most likely you wind up with an okay LD2 and Robin Salo as your opening night LD3. Not the end of the world, but not ideal. Then you enter the 2023 offseason with Barzal & Wahlstrom needing new deals and needing to replace Mayfield & Varlamov, and you only have $18.7M to do all that.

I guess my main point is that if the Isles want to spend $6.5M on a forward, I'd prefer they go after more of a sure thing than Gallagher. He's 5'9", about to be 30, and has been alternately injured and ineffective the last couple years (21-26-47 in 91 regular season GP between this season and last, and only 6 points in 22 playoff games last summer.) Habs fans can argue about this year being a down year all they want, but he wasn't that great on the better version of their team last season either. It's hard to look at those numbers and say "yes, I'll give up some young guys with potential to take on that player and his 5 remaining years at $6.5M!"