Quoting: Juiceman
I think teams are better off staying away. Would imagine contenders have a better use for their assets and 4.5 mil in cap space than to target a forward that has never scored 20 goals in a season, or even put up 40 points in a season.
Yep I don't see a trade being made that satisfies both team needs...right now. Habs deserve better than essentially nothing for him and teams don't have much cap space to work with right now either.
With that said, "assets" is a loose term. A 7th rounder is an asset, so you got to be more specific. A 1st round pick? Yeah I agree, teams shouldn't be moving a 1st for a guy like Dvorak IMO, at least not right now. I will say this though, Dvorak is eerily similar to Copp in statistics. Good pro scouting is about finding the guys that are capable of producing better but have been hampered by bad teams, etc. Of all the teams Dvorak has been on in his NHL career since 16-17, only 4 players have ever scored 50+ points in one of those teams he was on.... Vrbata, Keller, Stepan and Suzuki. There is a reason why the Habs paid a 1st and 2nd to get him a couple years ago. He has potential to hit 50+ points on a good team, easily. Heck he was almost a PPG on the Habs once St Louis was hired and we saw the difference that made with Cole Caufield. I mean he was literally on pace for 48-49pts in back to back years. One season cut short due to covid and one due to injury.
The thing is though, I don't think the Habs are asking for a 1st. Its probably more modest than that. They are however, asking that they don't have to take on a guy like Zucker in return. Dvorak has value, teams do want him, maybe not for a too high price but they do want him. Nobody wants Zucker at 5.5M. Zucker on waivers right now would not even be picked up for free. So your paying a team to take him on. That isn't the case for Dvorak.