This is the best MTL/WPG trade I've seen in a long time

seems a bit steep given his cap hit
byron is as productive and now face's criticism from MTL media and fans for his 3.5m cap same as Eller before him

Perrault
Appleton

for

Peca
5th

MTL retains on Perrault at the TDL and flips him to a contender if we're not in the playoffs
If we are then we got Perrault and Waiver Exempt Appleton in the AHL developing chemistry with Poehling and Suzuki .

Could be this too, we don,t specifically need another middle-6 winger but I think the intention here is that Poehling and Susuki get a bit of AHL seasoning, and then perhaps one of the vets (Tatar, Byron, Perreault, Armia, maybe Drouin if he continues to play inconsistent) could be dealt for assets and to clear roster space. Perreault is a big upgrade on Peca in any event, and Habs have the space. I like Byron though, I know he's stashed on the 4th line here but he could play anywhere.

he's a RW player with tremendous speed .
Traditionally MTL's always done well with players like these
Appleton could be the next Byron or just another Hudon but the gamble's worth it .

but he's more of an insurance policy that gives Ylonen and Caufield time to develop unrushed as Gallagher , Appleton,and Armia can hold down the top 9 RW


Byron on 4th makes perfect sense as he's a tremendous special teams player and has about a 17-18minute per game capability before his speed is effected which is a huge part of his offense. he's the top PK guy so he'll still get his minutes . plus Byron's good for 100+ hits a year so he's got that 4th line Merlot Line style Claude Julien is building .

Appleton fills a hole on RW at the AHL level we have . we got great prospects on RW in junior , NCAA and Europe but only Mccarron in the AHL. right now we're looking at having to make Evans ,Suzuki or Poehling a RW because of the gap so adding Appleton who's waiver exempt allows us someone who can rotate between NHL and AHL as needed and allows our prospects development to not go the way of Jesse Puljujarvi's Yo-Yo experience in EDM that saw him leave for Europe .

Tatar-Danault-Gallagher
Domi-Poehling-Appleton
Drouin-Kotkanemi-Lehkonen
Byron-Perrault-Armia
Weal

Mete-Weber (DD-OD)
Chiarot -Petry (DD, OD)
Kulak-Folin(OD, DD)
Reilly(DD)


Lehkonen and Appleton play stop/gap until 2021-22 then we trade them at the TDL as our Junior, NCAA and European prospects should be pushing for a roster spot but like Suzuki and Brook will start in the AHL due to depth being solid . Perrault and Armia re-uniting to play a similar shutdown role along side Byron gives us a line with Size , Speed , Goal Scoring and Experience to be the Anchor along with Tatar -Danault -Gallagher that allows our middle 6 youth core to grow together as the Core of tomorrow