That's a hell of a trade for Phillip Danault, that would be very hard for Montreal to say no to. As important as Danault is, Montreal says yes in a heartbeat.

using WAR as a hockey stat... also that trade is BAAAAAAAAD. you got robbed by MTL. you gave up a top 4 Dman and a pick for a lateral move at center

Danault always been a center hello. Danault played last year on the first line & right now he’s on the second line. In the best world he’s a very good third center. He’s good in faceoff & very good defensively. He plays on PK too. Brassard will not resign with Montreal because Poehling or Suzuki will be ready to play on the third line next year. That’s leave Domi,KK, Poehling & Peca. Määttä he’s Finish like KK Armia Niemi & Lehkonen. Montreal accept the trade.

It helps if you actually read the additional details. It's a conditional draft pick

yeah montreal accepts the trade but thats because its super one sided in their favor

how does that change what I'm saying? if brass stays with them we are trading a 2-3C and 3-4D for a 2-3C. If brass doesnt stay with them we are trading a 2-3C, a 3-4D and a first for a 3C. awful asset management

That’s the price to pay for a good 2-3C sign another 2 years at 3M who can play against the best line & play on PK.

If thats the price than its not worth it. brassard and danault are vitually the same level of skill players. Maatta is locked up longer than either and is younger than both. and then to throw a first rounder in the mix? There are plenty of centers available in free agency. sign one of them for 4-4.5 mill if you have to, thats way better than dumping that amount of assets into a 3c

Fine to me.

Well, you sound like you don't fully understand the trade. Yes, Danault is a slight upgrade over Brassard but he would be a much better fit with Kessel. He's also under contract for an additional two years at essentially the same cap hit and is six years younger. Montreal is essentially receiving a top-4 defenseman, rental center, and a late 1st-round pick. That's eerily similar to the package Ottawa received for Brassard.

gave up too much to get brassard as it hasnt really worked out so why would we want to give that much up again? the bigger picture would be awful. We'd be giving in total: 2 top 4 dmen (Cole and Maatta), Ryan Reaves, 2 firsts, a third and a goalie propect all for Phillip Denault. bad asset management. you trade all that for brass and then brass and a whole bunch more for... another brass???

It's not similar at all. Maatta is considerably better than Cole. Brassard has more value than Gustavsson. Montreal could flip Brassard for a decent package at the TDL if they wanted to. This trade heavily favors Montral and hurts the Pens both short term and long term.

Flipping in Danault for Brassard today is more a wash than an improvement (it can be argued either way, but close enough). Then you have the negative affect of Maatta also being gone. This is a big negative short term.
Danault still in for two years, but missing Maatta and the 1st... Pens are out a top-4 D and a 25ish pick for a 3C. At the very best for Pittsburgh this is a wash and only if Danault works out perfectly, otherwise they are a lesser team overall. Much like with what happened with Brassard, Danault would be coming in and becoming the 3C so all of his numbers would drop across the board. Negative long term.

Maatta: -5.6 rel. Corsi, 47.3 FF%, 13 TK, 30 GV, 11 PTS
Cole: 1.9 rel. Corsi, 50.7% FF%, 16 TK, 27 GV, 9 PTS

That's not what I would call considerably better. Maybe I should have been more specific, but Montreal only gets the pick if Brassard leaves in free agency. If they decided to flip him, the Penguins get to keep the pick. As stated in the description, the current third line has dismal chemistry. Throughout his career, Kessel has shown the most chemistry with two-way centers. Acquiring Danault capitalizes on this trend. In that regard, this is absolutely an upgrade. The entire point of this post (which you've completely missed) was that Kessel and Brassard do not mesh. The only area of debate is with Maatta, and with Schultz returning they would be just fine pairing him with either Riikola or Oleksiak. So no, it is not a big negative in the short-term. You also have to keep in mind that this trade gives them financial flexibility at the deadline to acquire an expiring contract or two (another point made in the description that feels entirely lost).

It doesn't matter if Kessel and Brassard mesh, you don't throw away assets over it. Also, Kessel and Brassard not meshing doesn't mean that Brassard has zero value to other teams, meaning that you need to overpay to get rid of him. it also completely fails at giving flexibility because you threw 3 assets away for a single asset that it potentially not as valuable as any of the three individual assets that you sent away. Sure, you have more cap space now, but you can only use it for UFAs in the summer.

Back to the Cole/Maatta thing, you can throw all the numbers that you want but Cole got Ottawa an ECHLer and a 3rd three days after Pittsburgh moved him. Your "eerily similar" comment doesn't hold, just as your "Kessel and Brassard don't mesh" argument doesn't hold.

"you threw 3 assets away for a single asset that it potentially not as valuable as any of the three individual assets that you sent away."

That couldn't be any more inaccurate. Either you overvalue everyone on the Penguins or you have no clue what Danault is worth. Go ahead and make a post with a straight up trade with one of those assets for Danault and see what the response is. I'm not even going to bother debating any of your other points after reading that nonsense.

Danault has the potential to be better than Brassard, but brassard has top 6 center pedigree. Maatta is far more valuable to the pens than you give him credit for. after Dumo he is our best LD, and in MTL he'd be the second best LD at least. thats just as much value for a 3rd line center, and depending on the team, it's more valuable. A first could be anyone from a tanner glass to the second coming of wayne G, so who knows what happens with that

Yeah okay. Right after you look up the word "expert" because you are using it wrong.

Massive L for insulting a meme profile name

What would you consider a more fair trade for Danault?

Maatta for Danault straight up. Maybe Maatta with a pick, not a first though