Quoting: J171393
The two best players in this deal are Matthews and Marner. Suzuki is the best player on Montreal and he isn't even included in this deal. Montreal is built horribly, the tightest team to the cap and they aren't competitive right now. How many forwards does this team need? I bet you guys were waiting to see them get Dubois for nothing. Hahahaha
Yeah Suzuki is the best player on Montreal roster currently that precisely why no player get more $$ then him which is call an internal cap hierarchy. You have Caufield who have accepted to take less money because he want to have player around to be good and pay aswell .
Meanwhile Marner and Matthews are both excellent player yeah but take every buck possible on the table. You call Montreal horribly build and tight on the cap space but look at Toronto situation where they have no money to really made move. Toronto have currently 9m available maybe 14 if they use LTIR and have maybe around 12 to 15 spot to fill on NHL and AHL roster. There only one year left on Matthews contract how many $$ do you think he would want ?? I would guess he would be around 12 to 15 millions which you can argue that is the price of an Matthews but with him asking that Marner will have more money in two year after that Nylander will want more money in final you will still have fourth player team that take all the $$ and nothing around.
Did Montreal have bad contract ? Absolutely someone like Hoffman, Gallagher or Armia shouldn't have been given this much or an contract. But the difference is that it's not Kent Hughes that have done that. It's Marc Bergevin who have left Montreal with some good ( Suzuki Caufield etc) and some bad ( Hoffman & cie).
Speaking of Marc Bergevin want to know an fun fact ? He's currently working with Los Angeles management group along with is good friends Luc Robitaille. Another fun fact is that both guys is good friends with a guys name pat Brisson, you know the guys who is working to get Dubois out of Winnipeg and send it to los Angeles.
Maybe if it was still Bergevin managing the Habs, Dubois would have been trade to Montreal and guys like Kirby Dach would have been pay to acquire him but we can clearly see that Kent Hughes don't want to take shortcut and get at the end average.
And yes my opinion is that Dubois worth 7.5m to 7.850m as Suzuki and Caufield and I wouldn't trade Villardi, Kupari, Iaffalo and an second round pick for acquiring an guys who could have been UFA next summer and would only cost the money you would give him. And in final Dubois have done exactly what every other guys have done use Montreal market to boost is campaign to sell him on bigger contract.