It certainly helps the tank. I'm not sure Seth Jones would accept though. Also, not 100% sure MTL would want to do this. They're every bit as close to getting Bedard as CHI/AZ. The Atlantic is by far the hardest division.

If Seth Jones can bounce back with Martin St-Louis & the trade happen at the draft, Habs said yes.

I would not add Jones at this stage of rebuild, maybe in 2-3 years if he fits into the cap and HABS aren't paying enough

Hawks wouldn't touch mailloux. Can't handle any more negative publicity.

I’ll echo this.

CHI probably declines. Most of what you are sending only pays for dumping Hoffman and Armia, and we don't want anything to do with Mailloux.

If Mallioux was someone else and the 2025 1st was moved to MTL 2024 I would probably do it

I'll disagree to that last point you made. On paper on this MTL looks twice as good as the hawks and yotes. Feels like a 2 team race to the bottom (as of now). That will change at the TDL i'm sure. On paper though I don't think MTL looks that terrible

The issue is that those two teams play each other alot. MTL won't be favored in any divisional game. They just got last place (in the entire NHL) and the other teams in the Atlantic definitely got better. Sens probably had the best offseason of any team, BUF getting Power and Dahlin's second half was incredible, DET adding Peron, Copp, Hudson, Chiarot...None are superstars, but thats a lot of solid depth.

The 4 or so wins CHI/AZ pick up against each other are something but I guess I just think MTL is clearly more than "4 wins better" than those two teams if that makes sense. Like even if CHI and AZ win 4 or 5 more games within the division I full expect MTL to win more than 4 or 5 games out of the division. Hawks probably won't be favored in a single game this year other than home games vs AZ