That's a lot to give up for a winger when your c corp has potential but not much established NHL talent yet. You better hope Kotkaniemi et al pan out.

You can't build a championship team in the wing.

For that matter I don't see much in the organization to build around over the next 3 years on defense besides maybe Juulsen and Mete. Weber has likely declined by then and Petry is a free agent.

I probably wouldn't spend so much at this point on him. He's a piece to out you over the top

Might want to check out the WHL defensive scoring leader or check out the dcore for the championship CSKA team if you want to know what MTL might build around in the next 3 years.

That Vegas trade is also brutal for MTL, MTL doesn't get anything of value while giving up Danault and Lehkonen

It's my understanding that Marc Bergevin has either reached out to, or attempted to reach out to, every single high profile RFA over the summer. So, I guess there is always a chance Montreal gets Connor. Also, would not trade Jake Evans. I full expect that when he finally gets his chance in the NHL, he will surprise a lot of people.

MTL has ton's of D prospects. Probably the best depth in the league right now... The two you mentioned+, Brook, Romanov, Fleury, All their LD picks from this year.

They also have great C depth (Domi, Kotka, Poehling, Suzuki, Oloffson,Evans) and can afford to splurge on a high-end #1 LW RFA.

Clearly I'm not a Habs fan and don't know your prospect depth. Haha.

Are there top prospects there?

Agreed on Evans being a sleeper; however, this gives MTL two french younger french prospects to offset the loss of Danault.

Top 5 in the league right now.

They don't have great c depth nor great defensive depth. They have good prospect depth at D and young players with upside at C and prospects.

But the only player they have at C who has proven he can be a high end C is Domi and while I am convinced he will be an excellent NHLer im not sure if that will be at C or W.

Kotkaniemi looked great for his age, but he has not proven he is a top 6 c, let alone a number one c. He would be far from the first player to stall in his development.

If all goes well this is a deal you make in two years. I think it's a mistake to make it today

(And I apologize I clearly am not up to date on your d prospects)

No problem - most people don't realize how quickly Montreal turned their pool around.
Here's a randomly googled recent article: here which shows you that others place their value in the Top 5 as well.

Not going to say 'top' but very good, Josh brook lead the WHL in scoring for a defenseman last year and made team Canada. Then we have Romanov, who was the only 18 year old to play in the Russia Super league last year and became a reliable player for them as they won the championship, he also was one of the top defenders at the world juniors

Those two are blue-chippers for sure.

Habs right now have:

Joel Teasdale - Ryan Poehling - Cole Caufield
Lukas Vejdemo - Nick Suzuki- Jesse Ylonen
Cole Fonstad - Jacob Olofsson - Joni Ikonen
Rhett Pitlick - Jake Evans - Allan Mcshane
Arsen Khisamutdinov/Brett Stapley/Cam Hillis

Alexander Romanov - Josh Brook
Jayden Struble - Cale Fleury
Otto Leskinen - Jordan Harris
Matthias Norlinder/Gianni Fairbrother

Cayden Primeau
Michael Mcniven
Frederik Dichow

Habs need those 2 French prospects back for Danault, as well as the 1st and 3rd (hopeful late 2nd) they lose on Connor.

Eakin could be retained and flipped at the deadline to a contended for additional picks+ if you want more value out of it. He provides 1 year leadership to help the kids settle into more difficult roles for this season ala Danault.