Quoting: CareyPrice301
When Adam Lowry is getting paid 3.5 mil, it is clear danault will want more. No knock on lowry's skill, but the defensive impact he provides is not as efficent or as visible as danault. Lowry was given time to play as 1c whenever players went injured, and his defense was not anything noteworthy, neither was his offense, 3.5 mil is around what scott laughton and adam lowry got paid recently. Phillip Danault is a player in the range of pageau in projected salary wise, however pageau gives you a good offense and good defense, but while danault is centering the shutdown first line that held stone to zero points, matthews to 1 goal, and there is absolutely no denial danault played a much larger part than chiarot in defending these marquee players. Also to add on to danault, yes his offense is snakebitten this year, but he had had more 40+ point seasons than pageau on his track record, his offensive role has diminished this year, and his defensive duties have increased, there is reasoning behind why his offense has decreased. You don't win these series with danault being able to anchor that shutdown first line, because no other center on that team has reached that level of defensive play as a center as of yet. Keeping him is important to team structure. Maintaining this center depth can be the key to consistent success for the future of the canadiens.
I agree fully that Danault will want more. What you want, and what you get however, are not necessarily the same thing. Put Danault on a team without Price and without our top 4 shutdown D, and all of a sudden he doesn’t look like quite as good of a shutdown center anymore.
Explain to me how Danault is more critical at shutting down Matthews than Chiarot? Last time I checked, centers battle with opposing D when trying to score in close far more than opposing centers. Plus Danault plays less minutes than Chiarot/Edmundson.
I fully agree with you that keeping Danault would be important. But that’s contingent on him being willing to accept a contract that’s also palatable to the team and our overall salary structure.
I guarantee you that Bergevin is prepared to let Danault walk if he’s unwilling to be reasonable. He’s not irreplaceable. We could also replace him with a more offensive center like Granlund, possibly for less money.