Falling to coyotes at 6 or possibly sharks

I think if it’s bringing in young Russian players with real upside that would make kk want to stay danila yurov and marat are already a great starting point. Both of which have talked about looking up to kk like players would have ovie when he was 25 or 26. Not that the michkov isn’t going to be worth it, just saying k think the allure of top end Russian talent to make kk want to stay does exist in the organization currently.

Is that your way of saying Habs decline, or are you just separately commenting that you think he'll drop further?

for sure - I mean this is a video game trade, so not anything that would ever actually happen.

But imagine Kaprizov, Michkov, Yurov, Khusnutdinov, Firstov.....that's a lot of high end "-Ovs" !

There's a clear top 5
Bedard
Fantilli
Carlsson
Michkov/Smith

MTL will pick whoever drop at 5

And yes, Michkov is probably that guy

But you can't draft a guy like Dvorsky or Reinbacher over Matvei Michkov, that would just be silly

Just a couple teams ready to gamble on appearing, kind of a wartime Russian effect, kind of like the zadina fall to detroit, obviously not the same players, but just think benson and a couple USA players may scoop him, if you get to 5 and that deal probably gets you to 5 he will be available.

Oh I understand that, I just don't know what that other guy was trying to say.

Habs have a fantastic prospect pool as is, so def understand why they'd be perfectly happy to take a high-end guy at 5. Not arguing that MTL should do this - just wanted to have some fun from the MN side, that's all.

Sorry don't mean to be rude, but I'm really not following what your point is at all or even what you're trying to say.

HABS have a 5 year plan for a rebuild. This is the 2nd year of the rebuild. If michkov falls at 5 he will be drafted by the HABS.

We are talking about the next Ovechkin. HABS will not pass on a 1st line of Caufield, Suzuki and Michkov.

Kirkby Dach is seen as the 2nd center of this team with Slaf on the left side. They need a TOP 6 RW which they can trade for.

Michkov there at 5 and possibly 6, imo

Your trade would get you 5, and michkov not getting by Arizona at 6

Yeah makes perfect sense - your fellow Habs fan covered that pretty thoroughly above your comment here.

Yes - the trade here has MN sending a package for MTL's 5th OA pick for purposes of drafting Michkov. Not sure what Arizona has anything to do with this.

I am aware that my trade returns the 5th OA pick, that's the entire point here.

Just saying that Arizona may pick him at 6, if he gets there, my comment is that he isn’t getting by 6

Right I think that's pretty much consensus opinion.

In this particular ACGM, AZ would not pick him at 6 because MN would take him at 5. Not that this trade is realistic, it's just a "what would it actually take" for MTL to consider it.

I think Montreal is hoping the sharks pick michkov, so they don’t have to decide on him, and smith is still there, will be interesting draft

Agree. Gonna be a super interesting draft.

Ya know.

I get the wanting to get another franchise level player into the system in Michkov. Having him, Kaprizov, Boldy, AND Yurov would be devastating to opponents.

But I'm not certain moving your best center prospect for another winger, albeit a potential franchise one, when this teams greatest weakness is still down the middle is exactly the way to go.

Even if it's... "just for fun". Doesn't make sense to me. Even if that's what it would take.

Let’s say there’s no trades, bedard/fantilli/carlsson/smith/benson/michkov would be my prediction. Gives Montreal there Caufield 2.0, not exactly what they need but could still be interesting with less of a gamble. But just an opinion. Somebody falls in love with michkov and has a rhd prospect and 1c prospect and not falling that far down from 5 I could see Montreal moving out possibly.

Yeah that's completely fair. Definitely can appreciate that argument. I'm not all that high on Rossi, so this isn't as unpalatable for me as it is for you, but I understand where you're coming from.

I think in this scenario if you fast forward to 25-26 and had a fwd core of Kap, Michkov, Boldy, Yurov, Ohgren, Ek, Khusnutdinov, etc., you could either land a legit C via UFA or make a huge trade to get one. At that point, I wouldn't be all that concerned about further gutting the prospect pool. It'd be an all-in, whatever it takes to get a 1C. You'd be at the mercy of the market in terms of trade prices and who's even available, but I'd be optimistic that you could get someone suitable and have enough firepower to be a true contender.

But I acknowledge all of this is video game planning.

Yeah I don't think it's likely he drops below 5, but it's definitely not out of the realm of possibility. That would be pretty spicy.

If he fell to AZ, I'd offer damn the kitchen sink to get him. I'm incredibly high on Michkov. Trades are just so rare that high in the draft, it's tough to see anything actually materialize.

Montreal probably the only possibility of trading out if it falls what they deem is wrong, top 6 picked in order otherwise, I don’t see the other 5 teams trading out for any reason.

I can kinda sorta see an argument for AZ. Not a strong one, but I do think there are some possible angles. Arena uncertainties, apparent unwillingness or inability to spend to the cap, perpetually subject to relocation rumors, recent history of at least one player asking for out (Chych), etc.

Michkov fits their timeline and his upside is the trump card, so i think it pretty much stops there. But I do wonder if there's a tipping point in value where they'd at least consider it.

IF we're discussing hypothetically moving up to target a specific player in this years draft.

I want Brayden Yager.

There's enough talk of him probably dropping and going in the teens at this point that I think there’s a decent chance to be able to move up and take him. The better part of this for us is that the cost of moving up to get him is significantly less than it would cost for us to get Michkov. I think he has every chance to be as good as Logan Cooley too.

They just have so many picks though, not sure what the package would need to be for Arizona to trade out, possibly a ridiculously good d prospect or two with a ton of team control. Arizona in large need of dman with high upside over anything else, elite offensive winger or Center, pretty easy to pick in draft, not sure of trade bait to fill that though.