I feel like it would be more beneficial moving Gaudreau for a young centre and have Laf slot into his place.

I disagree with this. 1) teams arent exactly offering young top 6 centers that a player of Gaudreau's caliber and term would return since all the teams that have them are rebuilding. 2) Lafreniere - decent 2C is probably not as good as Gaudreau - Byfield. Laffy will probably be better than Gaudreau, but Johnny will still be a top end LW in the league. 3) player chemistry and relationships are important.

I think you're undervaluing Laff tho, this guy has 100+ point upside and will definitely be a top player in the league for essentially his whole career, franchise tier talent. Byfields upside is still incredible but you're looking at more of a 70-90 point upside, big body, maybe develops a good two way game and you have Mark Scheifele v2. While any team would kill for a Scheifele, wouldn't you rather have Matthews/McDavid/MacKinnon? Obviously both players may not hit their ceiling but to trade away a guy with Lafrenieres talent would be the biggest mistake of all time. Gaudreau + could potentially fetch Cozens (don't kill me Sabres fans) with the team trying to win now.

In theory Gaudreau should get Cozens + but Sabres like Flames are in much more need of a top 6 center than a LW. Thats where the issue lies. I would rather keep Gaudreau since his market value is tanked right now, as well as no teams are willing to pay Calgary's asking price with the cap not going up. Johnny has already proven he has 100 point potential, hes in the middle of his prime too. Also I like the idea of Calgary refilling their already very dry prospect pool too

Holy crap hell no from Calgary. Just trade Gaudreau. If Gaudreau can't do anything in the playoff why keep him?
And thats not nearly enough to make the difference between Byfield and Laf

Byfield is going to be very good, remember hes one of the youngest people in the draft. Also Madden is a projected 1st line talent right now

Maybe Cirelli+ for Gaudreau.. 👀

It would have to be a significant +. Im a big Cirelli fan but he will probably never be a 1C. Since Monahan is already questionable to so many people as a 1C adding an elite talent like Byfield down the middle makes more sense to me.

I don't see the Kings doing this. They can use their stockpile of draft picks to help fill other holes in their lineup.