Who says the Habs are the front runner?

Literately everyone thinks he's going to Nashville.

I didn't say they were the only front runners but rumour has it that there are 2, the Preds and the Habs and Nashville is going to have to move out cap in order to afford him. This may all be false hype and as I stated I don't think it's the right play for the Habs but meh figured why not have some fun with it.

Sportnet (Elliot Friedman) reported Nashville and Montreal are the frontrunners, while also mentioning the fact that Nashville would have to move salary to get him, MTL would not.

Also to the thread starter, that is an overpayment for Duchene according to the contract projections at evolving wild (6 years × $7M). I would do 7 years × $8M max.

Edit:
By the way I really like that trade with Philly, assuming Juulsen's injury hasn't scared off potential suitors.

Oh its definitely an overpayment but to get Duchene in Montreal it'd take an overpayment.

OTT already offered 8x8 contract, but Duchene didn't accept it. Hence he got traded. He's definitely going to get more as an UFA.

See here: https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/senators-make-matt-duchene-long-term-contract-offer/

If that is indeed the case then I think there are better options out there. Dzingel, ferland, skinner, zucarello, nyquist, etc. Lots of wingers they could get and just keep Domi at C.

I prefer Duchene, but I would be careful about overpaying for him.

1) Ohhhh ok! I see what you're referencing to. I think the rumour is more fueled towards the fact that MTL really wants to add a center (Not exclusively Duchene). Whereas Nashville is rumoured to be going all in on Duchene (Trading away Subban, etc to create cap space for him).

2) why don't you think they should?

You're pretty much proving my point. Ottawa definitely had to make an offer that was an overpayment because let's be honest, why would Duchene want to waste the prime of his career in Ottawa.

So the overpayment value is $8M. Even with the extra year he still didnt want to stay. In my opinion he knew he could still get $8M in the free agent market, so why stay in Ottawa.

You're looking at this as proof that he wants more money, I see it as even though he was offered a ton of money, he didnt want to stay in Ottawa.

It can be thought about in many ways. But there's nothing that says that the my stance is incorrect.

I'll be extremely surprised if Duchene gets a contract anything below $8,5M AAV.

Because high profile UFAs are almost always overpaid and on the tail end of their prime years. Only makes sense to me if a team is a contender and think that a UFA can put them over the top. Now I've been a Habs fan as long as I can remember but I honestly believe they aren't close enough to being a contender to justify this kind of signing, they're on the right path but not there yet.

Yeah, any free agent going to a Canadian team is going to be Overpaid due to the high taxes.

And maybe the Habs aren't a contender, but they're definitely not rebuilding especially with contracts like Prices and Webers. That said, I do think signing Duchene makes them a contender. The best thing with signing Duchene is that you're getting an Elite skater! So you know that he won't drop off a cliff in a couple of years in terms of his performance.

Fair enough, but the point I'm trying to make is that would be an overpayment for the player he is. There probably are plenty of teams that would offer that, but they may come to regret it eventually ($8.5M isn't that bad, but $9.5M is pretty rich for me).

I got to admit the elite skater argument is a good point and it would be interesting to see if Gally could reach that next level that I think he can playing with a center of Duchene's caliber.

@Jay27 if you look at my past couple teams these moves are exactly what I want to happen.

As for the lineup the only differences I had was keeping Tatar and Gallagher with Danault and playing Domi and Shaw with Duchene. Domi's a playmaker and Danault isn't a goal scorer.

I also had Kulak with Petry, but I had a 3rd pairing of Mete and Juulsen (my trade was Drouin and Reilly for Gostisbehere).

Tuna-Danault-Gally was a great line for us this year, but I got this theory and I may just be talking out of my arse here. I don't like Marchand for the obvious reasons but take away the cheap shots, the after whistle antics, the trolling and what do you got? A short stocky player who uses that to his advantage, battles hard every single shift and shows his skill at unexpected times. Remind you of anyone?

If you compare Marchand 3 years ago(when he was the same age Gally is now) to Gallagher they have very similar numbers. What changed for Marchand 3 years ago? He hit another level when he started playing with Pasta and Bergeron.

So my theory is that Gally has another level yet untapped. Give him Tuna and a high caliber center and this could be a #1 line that could do some serious damage.

Ps. I'm not knocking Danault whatsoever with this post, he's a solid player that I hope is a Hab for life.

Marchand played with Crosby and was the MVP of the world cup, for me that was the turning point. Watching Marchand play, there is no way Gallagher will every be the same type of player in my opinion.

Marchand is a skilled, smart player, more of a playermaker. Gallagher is a hard worker that throws everything on net, but he has tunnel vision. I like Gallagher, I think Danault and him compliment each quite well. I don't see that connection between Domi and Danault.