I like Desmith and Kovacevic as potential trade options, but not for a 2nd

Kovacevic is under league min for this year and next year and Desmith is a good back up goalie. I value each around 3rd round pick (with the retention). 3 + 3 = 2 in my mind.

How do you see the value?

fair in value for sure (Kovacevic is highly underrated and has great on ice impacts)

issue is that the habs `already have 2 retention slots used, I dont think they want to retain on a desmith trade under any circumstance

Not unfair but Kovacevic was a bit of a revelation for the Habs considering he was a waiver claim, and he fits the Habs timeline, no real incentive to trade him for a future pick. Desmith is of course available for a cheap price.

I think the Habs take it. It uses their last retention spot but they'll get two of them back July 1 anyways. Once they have those two back they can look at Savard and Dvorak for the next year

At the deadline maybe but not today.

Until they know whether monahan is tradeable they wont give up the last spot. With his cheap cap hit already if hes healthy and productive thats a bigger return. There wont be many guys at that cap hit able to put up 50 piint paces.

Plus if kovacevic has a similar season to last they probably can get atleast a 3rd for him being cheap.

At the end of the day worst case for desmith they waive him and he gets claimed. The habs already got their return in the whole Karlsson trade so losing him vs a late pick isnt a issue

The value is more than fair. Using that last retention spot for MTL might be tricky so early in season but the only other option that may return the same or better return is Monahan. With his injury history its hard to bank on that.

So yeah, I would do this I think.