TBH, I don't think you need to add the picks if you were willing to take Hoffman back. Both are still capable secondary scorers and both struggled this year. The question is would Philly be willing to take on the extra year to save cap?

Cost the leafs a first round pick to dump $6 mil of patty marleau. Gonna cost you at least a second to dump JVR at $7 mil, especially with a team as cap strapped as Montreal.

1. I don't think we are cap strapped, from what I can tell we actually have quite a bit of space.
2. If we swap Hoffman for JVR we get space back when we need it for CC

Ya the habs arent going to eat JVR who beyond tipping pucks is a complete liability at this point for essentially a 3rd round pick.

They could easily look elsewhere and get a 2nd+ for that space.

In theory we may have lots of space, that all depends on this offseason and what the status of Price ends up being, If he is healthy and playing and we arent able to move petry and Drouin then we really dont have much space at all.

We actually can afford it, it will be very tight but it is possible. We would have to buyout Byron and bridge Romy though.

https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/3242710

Ya just barely fits. Although i'm sure with that you can retain on Drouin and move him also.

Yes, or move others. This was just to show that as a minimum 1 for 1 trade that it would work with very little additional moves.