Probably will have to attach a second with drouin right now to move his contract.

Yeah right

Why would Seattle, of all teams, want to invest a second-round draft pick in one year of Jonathan Drouin? So that they can win 30 games instead of 27?

The Kraken might do that deal without retention (which suits your needs better) if you gave them a second-round draft pick instead of taking one away.

Did you see what vegas got for patches or Tampa for McDonough? Drouin is on a worse contract than those guys. It’s a buyers market for cap dumps. JVR was gonna cost a phillys first to dump. Drouin is averaging 20 points a season over the last 3 years on a 5.5 million dollar deal. His market value is 2 million right now. If he has a huge rebound year you might be able to dump him at the deadline for nothing or something small with retention

I would move Dadonov instead of Drouin

You said you need to attach a 2nd RD pick for a Drouin retained ...
Not happening
I know Drouin is a cap dump but with salary retained, I don't think we need to attach anything to dump him

Half retained he’s still a negative value. He’s injury prone and hasn’t produced to his contract when healthy. If he bounces back and can stay healthy he could be a good dump at the deadline. Don’t see them getting anything of value even with max retention right now. Not many teams have the cap space to fit his contract in. Especially when there are better players available for trade and on the FA market right now

100% agree, Habs are stuck with him until the deadline, and he"d only have value then if he comes back and performs like he was supposed to when drafted. Given his history, he might be on LTIR all year and thus its a moot point for everyone. I think this season is his last chance to show he can be a player or he'll be looking at <1 000 000$ as a UFA. Dadanov with some retention is the only player habs might be able to dump without adding a pick, he doesn't carry the stench of poor performances in Montreal

Drouin is closer to a 50 point player than 20. The problem is that he has missed a lot of games. It's true that teams aren't going to give up much for him, if anything due to that factor.
It's also true that Montreal would not need to attach a pick to move him. At worst they ride out his contract.
If Montreal pays to offload anyone, it will be Hoffman.

The difference is that Vegas NEEDED to make that trade to remain cap compliant. Unless the Habs get very lucky on a Dubois trade, they don't need to clear more cap room, especially not my giving away a player who has only a year left on their contract. When he's healthy, Drouin is a useful player. When he's not healthy, he doesn't cost a thing. So really the Habs have no need to move him and probably don't want to move him.

I agree with all your points of view. Drouin was actually putting up points before he got injured (20pts in 34 games). He was on pace to get 50-60 pts (mentally fatigued and not at 100%).

If the trade doesn`t happen and he plays well this year and has 40-50 points at the TDL teams will have to give a 1st rd pick.

When he is on his game, he is always a threat on the ice.

You can’t say he’s closer to 50 points than 20 points when he hasn’t gotten anywhere remotely close to that in the last 3 seasons. Again he has negative value as of now and add to that guys with slightly positive or neutral value can’t get anything you would need to attach a premium pick to dump him. If he lights it up and and you retain half at the deadline I could see him getting a decent return like third round pick. But right now you would need to attach a third minimum with no retention. Best course of action is to just hold onto him and see if he can improve his value unless you want to trade for PLD

In 27, 44 & 34 games. If you average out over a season it equates to 50+ points per season. He didn`t play those full seasons either due to injury or covid.

He is 100% now and I believe he will break out again. To what level we`ll see

Do you consider Malkin a 35 point player because he's only averaged that the last two seasons? Or do you account for the fact he had 70 points in 74 games? It's the same thing.

Being on the ice is important. It’s fine to use point pace to project a player if they have one down year or are injured one year but three years in a row is a big problem. I agree he’s a fine player when healthy (big if). If he plays most games and is on a 60-70 point pace by the trade deadline I could see the Habs getting a second or third for him half retained

Malkin has more points in the last two season than Drouin has in three, plays center, and still barely got a contract worth more than Drouin. Ask any team if they would rather have Malkin at 6.1 or Drouin at 5.5 and it’s not even close

That wasn't the point.

MTL should give Drouin another chance - it's only one year. He may not play very well defensively, but I think he's an even better playmaker than Suzuki.

And as someone mentioned earlier, Drouin and Dubois are both from Ste-Agathe in Quebec and could develop great chemistry on the same line.

But we do need some cap to sign at least Dach. The players to dump are Byron and Hoffman who both have long term contracts. For that to happen we will have to give some of our many picks.