WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY to much for Laine. Laine is great and all but hes not worth giving ALL THAT up for

Not disagreeing with you. But the second Bergevin calls Cheveldayoff and asks about Laine. The only names they are gonna wanna hear is either Suzuki or Kotkaniemi. If they don't hear those names they probably just hang up the phone. If Habs want to acquire a star player AND not have to give up one of their future top Centers (and I also didn't include a 1st rd pick), overpaying becomes the only option.

Then it becomes not worth it

Only thing I'd try and negotiate is keeping Caufield out of the deal. As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to acquiring a 22 year old 40goal scorer, Danault and Tatar are expendable and worth giving up.

Honestly I don't know whether Jets would be interested in that either. Don't get me wrong, the value is more than sufficient in a vacuum, but in general I just don't see a move including two pending UFAs and some prospects Jets as a playoff team isn't looking for an elite scoring winger happening. Seems like there's too many running pieces in there what makes this just unnecessarily complicated. Also signings prior extension almost never happen, and frankly I don't see the point for neither Danault or Tatar to do it.

Just make it a simple offer like this:


Patrik Laine


Nick Suzuki
Jeff Petry
Karl Alzner
Conditional 2022 2nd round pick (MTL) [turns to 1st if Petry doesn't re-sign with them].

The deal is that WPG needs a solid puck moving defenseman and a young 2C to build their future in. And these are also the only kind of assets WPG would look to move Laine for.

You're point are all rock solid and I can't disagree with everything you mentioned BUT, Suzuki is off the table in every trade discussion all around the NHL, the path to finding a 1C in MTL was as long as the path for Philly to find a real goaltender in Hart. Suzuki is our only shot at it and the word untouchable with him is as rock solid as your arguments. So if WIN are not willing to let go of him in any trade discussion between the 2 teams, the whole idea just fades away as quickly as it was born.

I'll disagree with the extension point you bring up. Habs did it with Pacioretty to Vegas. VGK were only interested in Patches if he came with an extension. Pacthes agent got in touch with Vegas and got the overall numbers out of the way (years and AAV) and hashed out the rest after the trade was done. Danault would be looking for a 6 X 6 deal and would most likely take it.
But for sure the rest you said is spot on.

For me Suzuki and Kotkaniemi are untouchable. Also Petry would axe any deal going to WIN imo with his NTC...

There's a line regarding this sort of circumstance in the new CBA formed by NHL.



I think in layman's terms this'd mean that an extension to a contract cannot be held as a compensation for the trade value itself. In other words, extension prior trade aren't allowed anymore.

Any hypothetical way in which a potential Danault extension to WPG would happen, it can only occur in a situation where it is not beneficial for the Habs anymore as a piece of the trade...

That's not what that means. Unless I'm reading it wrong, It simply states that team X cannot add a condition that if traded player re-signs or not with team Y, team X doesn't get any modifications to their compensation for it.

So like the example you proposed with Petry, as in if he doesn't re-sign the 2nd gets bumped to a 1st. that would no longer be allowed. A situation like the Pacioretty deal to VGK would definitely be in that grey area. Because there was never an official condition that Patches had to sign an extension, more of an agreement with all parties involved prior to the trade happening. Because Pacioretty didn't sign the extension prior to being traded, it happened a day or two afterwards, but McPhee said when they acquired him that they received permission to discuss with Patches agent to ensure an extension was agreed upon. Or else I doubt Vegas would of done the deal knowing Patches could of just been a rental.

Guess there's several ways to interpret that. English isn't my main language so I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if your way of interpreting is correct lol.