MTL declines for obvious reasons

Habs decline. Drouin should be traded for futures at deadline. And habs prefer Armia over Vlasic for obvious reasons.

What kind of futures did you have in mind for Drouin? He'll be UFA in a year and last 3 seasons have been brutal for him, so it's hard to interpret what that return would be

Yep been a bad couple of years. I’m hoping he improves under St.Louis coaching and more offensive style and pads his stats. Maybe a 2nd and a prospect if all goes well

that's a Pipe dream buddy. just like us saying if Labanc pads his stats we could trade him for a 2nd.
even if Drouin comes out and plays well he would be a rental and his history plus high cap hit will scare off almost everyone interested. at best he plays well and you get a 4th... maybe a 3rd.
my hope for Labanc is him playing like a solid middle 6 guyI know he can be and we can move him no retention for a late pick. even this is high hopes and probably unrealistic.

and only way Montreal accepts Vlasic is with Multiple high picks (2 1sts and probably a few 2nds and 3rds) or 50% retained and a 1st.
and that wont help the sharks. Were stuck with him guys.

Haha… I don’t care about Leblanc and if you asked me last year at this time Habs would sell Toffoli for a 1st++++, Chariot for a1st+++ or Kulak for 2nd++ And Lehkonen for 2nd +top prospect at the trade deadline I would call that a pipe dream.
Anyhow imo Habs will be trading Drouin for futures whatever they are at trade deadline when player values seems to be maxed

And I don't care about Drouin or the Habs but I'm using two very comparable players for reference.

Edit

funny you mentioned this I was playing around with swapping Labanc / Drouin. They're both potential comeback stories in the making. Habs fans hardcore hated the idea of Labanc tho

last year was rough no doubt but I attribute that to Boughner forcing him to play a style hes not built for. Labanc has been working hard this off-season and i could see him being a 18G 32A 50P guy with the right coach and line-mates.
Anyone who would want to take him on would have to understand hes a player who when surrounded by good players plays well but will never carry a line.

through his struggles Drouin has still outproduced Labanc the last 3 years Dro = 0.55 PPG and Labanc = 0.46 PPG

yeah, it wouldn't be a 1:1 trade; would have to be a trade with other stuff going on to make more fair

Habs take on sooo much more money here though. They save like what....1M in cap this year but than gain like 4M in cap for the next 4 years? The logic doesn't make sense. They'd literally save more cap just sending both Drouin and Armia down to the minors...

IMHO, Vlasic has the worst contract in the league. The main reason for why its the worst is because he stays healthy. Guys like Carey Price have a worse contract but at the very least they get injured a lot so the team can put the player on LTIR to save cap space. Vlasic just sucks now and doesn't get injured. Literally the worst combination a team can have for a high priced player. Throw on his NMC and its the biggest albatross.

Vlasic is literally untradeable. Either SJ buys him out or just lets his contract rot as the 6th/7th dman on the team till his contract expires. Im not even sure SJ could sweeten the trade enough to make a team take on that contract.

Yeah, to address the cap hit longevity that Vlasic brings SJ would have to take Price, something like Drouin+Price for Vlasic+Simek+Labanc+Reimer/Hill+something else because the price contract is so huge and SJ could only take on so much. Because we know those huge swaps of players happens all the time... lol ... which is why this ACGM was mostly made for fun