Habs decline; already have Chariot, Mete and Romanov slotted as LD

Pass on Ghost, either Graves or Zadorov gets traded not both, and I wouldn’t separate G and EJ. I don’t think Makar and Girard are the future #1 pairing I think it’s Byram and Makar. Girard slots in nicely with Timmins.

mtl declines

Montreal can keep Domi and send us Danault instead. That's the guy the Avs should be after if they're trading with Montreal. I don't get the seemingly universal preference for Domi over some of their other forwards.

Agree with Xqb that I'd pass on Ghost and keep one of Z and Gravy. Gotta have guys to complement the puck movers, and I think either can fill that role.

id rather danault than domi too. he suits the avs needs better.

Sakic said at the deadline that he's not interested in rentals. Hence Domi is the obvious candidate if we target a forward from Montreal.

danault has a full year on his contract. if you can keep domi long term you can keep danault. they'd make around the same money.

In 2021 we're adding Newhook as 3C behind Kadri, so I don't see how Danault fits long-term. If you plan on having him as 3C long-term with Domi $5.5m money that probably isn't the wisest way to use capspace.

newhook goes to wing until kadri's contract is up and then go from there. either run with 3 strong centers or keep newhook on wing.

Avs have always liked to start guys on the wing. MacKinnon is an example. Duchene too. Can't recall on RoR but I think maybe him too.

In any case, too many Cs is a great problem to have (imo). I think Danault would stay, so he wouldn't be just a rental. If not then you don't do it. I tend to think GMs often have a pretty good idea if a guy will stick around or not. Obviously I could be wrong though.

LOL.

I would use the same argument to advocate that we need Graves badly.

Fair points. Do you think Montreal would actually trade him though? He's their best C after all, and I think they're going to want to keep him over moving Domi back to C. Suzuki and/or Kotkaniemi may be ready to play C I suppose, but even then I don't see why they'd trade Danault given that they have tonnes of capspace and that he's part of one of the best possession lines in the league.

unlikely. they'd have to land barzal or cerelli to do it.

They are deep at C so maybe. Depends on what the offers are and if they think he'll stay when hus deal is up. Dater said they really like Graves. If that's true I would hold out for Danault.

I had a think about it, and made a couple of AGM's to test the idea out, and I think it could make a lot of sense for both Montreal and Colorado. Montreal are pretty strong at C with Kotkaniemi, Suzuki, Domi, and Poehling, so moving Danault as a pending UFA for a top 4 LHD might make a lot of sense. Danault could anchor our bottom 6 as we introduce a few rookies over the next couple of seasons (Newhook, Kaut, Bowers, O'Connor, etc), and we do have the capspace to make it happen.

He'd be a top notch 3C (imo). Jost and Nichushkin would look great on his wing.

he'd be on Habs 3rd pair

I'm not ready to say Romanov would be better until he plays his first NHL game at least. Graves proved he can compete at this level already.