Let alone the difference in value, finding a winger to complete the top 6 would be far easier than it would be to find someone to replace Guhle. The kid is a gamer and a leader for this team, he’s not going anywhere.

Counter more realistic offer : Kaiden Guhle vs Holtz + 10th OA pick

Guhle for 10th overall pick, 1 for 1.

Though call
Matheson is kinda annoying blocking our left side and management really likes him. If management are really high on Sam Dickinson for exemple and they know they could land a forward they really like at 10th (Eiserman/Helenius for exemple), it could be a scenario that make sense IMO. But they really like Kaiden Guhle, he is the only dman who proved he will be a stud (maybe not a true #1 dman but a really good one). Though call

I wouldn't do it if I were MTL, but Montreal and their fans are much higher on Xhekaj's potential than I am (who I believe is an AHL caliber player).

If MTL believes they can build a quality left side using Hutson, Matheson, Xhekaj, Harris, Struble, etc, it may make sense for them. If not, they should 100% keep Guhle

That is laughably bad.

Holtz had 5 points in his last 36 games he was a writeoff for half the season. He had the same ppg as pezzetta over that span and pezz plays 8 mins a game and fights people

Thats like us asking for dawson mercer for william trudeau

Kirby Dach 9 goals and 26 points in 1263 minutes alongside Patrick Kane and Alex Debrincat: flirting
Alex Holtz 16 goals and 28 points in 954 minutes alongside Chris Tierney and Tomas Nosek: harassment

Xhekaj is a bottom pairing dman, but he brings something unique. This is why MTL fans wouldn’t trade him. But Harris & Struble are projected career bottom pairing dman as well. Matheson is gone in two years, so right now the future left side looks like Guhle/Hutson/Xhekaj. If management thinks Dickinson is projected to be better than Guhle, now the trade looks interesting

Imo Xhekaj just sucks.

He has to be incredibly sheltered (Currently putting WAY too much strain on Guhle and Matheson). He consistently puts his team on the PK. He isn't good 5v5, and provides 0 value on special teams.

I don't know how you can play him and Hutson together, especially while hutson is developing.

He has ranked at/near the bottom of the league in quality of competition (this is forcing Guhle and Matheson to be at/near the top of the league).

He can't kill penalties, forcing Matheson to kill a ton of penalties, and he SUCKS at killing penalties.

MTL PK sucks and Xhekaj can't stay out of the box.

I don't think you can put Hutson into the role Matheson or Guhle currently plays where 40% of their minutes are against elite comp so Xhekaj can continue to play 17% of his minutes against elite comp.

And I don't know how you run a competent penalty kill with Hutson and Xhekaj on the left side. Who kills the penalties that Xhekaj constantly takes? Hutson???

You cant be stupid enough to not know how time works.

Holtz is one draft year younger than dach. Dach had 38 points in 58 games at the same point in his career.

If time doesnt matter wele give you colin white for holtz. He had 40+ points once because apararently context doesnt matter lol

I personally don’t like Xhekaj on ice play. Struble & Harris are better and both can play PK. But what Xhekaj brings (hard hits, intimidating the other teams, our players playing better because they feels safer with Xhekaj in the line up, etc.) is something positive despite all the negative aspects he brings. He is still young and hopefully he will take less penalties going forward. For Hutson, it remains to be seen if he will play PK. He has a high IQ and active stick.

Kirby Dach at age 21 even strength stats:

8 goals, 20 pounts, 823 minutes playing mostly alongside Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki

Alex Holtz age 21 even strength stats:

15 goals 26 points 841 minutes playing alongside Tomas Nosek lmao.

But hey, Kirby Dach got 4 minutes a night on PP1 that he helped lead to being, checks notes, 29th in the league. Real valuable.

I like what he brings in terms of Physicality but in my view at least, you can't hide a dman. Montreal has tried to hide Xhekaj (he plays the easiest competition in the league), and it just makes the life of the other dman absolute hell.

If he was a forward that I could hide for 9 minutes a game and simply give more ice time to my top guys that would be okay. But a dman, especially one who can't stay out of the box and can't provide on either special teams unit is a problem.

I don’t disagree with you here

If he can find a way to become a quality PK guy a ton of my worries disappear, but the fact that he hasn't gotten any time there to give matheson a break is very concerning to me

Who is William Trudeau?

Isn’t the whole point to find players when their prices are their lowest? Holtz’s 5v5 pt/60 rates were the same as Cole Caufield. There is a lot to like.

Montreal fans would be singing Kent Hughes praises endlessly the second a trade went through for Holtz, just like they have done with the Romanov Dach trade.

Ok then so which one do you want for mercer? Pezzetta gallagher or armia because by your logic you would have to add in each of those scenarios because they all had a better 5v5 p60 than mercer

I can't figure out who's more overrated and unwanted on this site Holtz or Kakko?



Ignoring the fact that Dach is far more proven already than Holtz.

Guhle is 10 times the player of Romanov whom has zero offence. Context missing here a wee bit.

You made a point about Holtz’s point production and I responded with a reference to these figures…

Caufield 1.90
Holtz 1.87
Suzuki 1.79
Gallagher 1.75
Slavkovsky 1.68
Monahan 1.65
Pezzeta 1.56
Armia 1.46

Habs need offensive forwards who can score….and plenty of other Montreal fans have asked about Holtz. The trade I offered above is a fair way to get him.

I am not sure how you got to Pezzetta, Armia or Gallagher for Mercer.

Kirby Dach has yet to surpass 18 points 5v5 despite getting paired on lines with Alex Debrincat and Patrick Kane, and then Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.

Wonder how many 5v5 points Holtz could put up with them considering he put up 26 points 5v5 playing with 4th liners for 10 minutes a night

Since when do top pairing D that are never traded outside a return of anything but a big center, a fair deal? (when you include Holtz)

Here is the difference between Kakko and Holtz. A lot of other teams GMs keep asking NJD about Holtz. I have not seen many GMs seeking to trade for Kakko. And I think most Devils fans have a pretty honest assessment of Holtz. The offensive upside is fantastic, but there are still some improvements to be made protecting puck in neutral zone.

Also, Romanov had a solid season this year…so I think it’s a hard case to make for either side (Guhle vs Romonov).

Guhle is not a top pairing dman.

Because cherry picking one stat doesnt make you correct.

Boyd, berggen, sprong, nick robertson, mantha, foegele all outproduced hughes (who didnt finish top 100 btw are you saying hughes isnt a 1st line forward?)