The Habs already said he was feeling good and was going to be at camp

Why not just sign Tatar? Hes better than Drouin and probably costs around 4-4.5M

Don't want him for anything

I think MTL will need to just keep him. No team is taking him for free. Someone will take him 50% retained because there's not a lot of risk there, but MTL shouldn't do that either. Best to just let him play in MTL.

Source?

Do you know what his issue was? One would think that he'd be eager to help his team in the playoffs.

It’s been reported that if Drouin was available, a couple teams would be on him. Young talented player always keep value
So he has positive value (I’m just the messenger)

Marc Bergevin ? He said Drouin will be at training camp

The source is Bergevin himself.

Bergevin will not trade him at 0 value... he will wait 2 months into the season after he puts up 20pts in 25 games playing with suzuki and Caufield.

Sure, I mean "rumors and reporting" claimed Holtby had value too. I'm sure those rumors included alot of retention. Can't imagine MB actually wanted to lose Danault if he could have shed Drouin for free.
I hear ya. Just a messenger. Not trying to pin you down. I just have a hard time seeing him having value at $5.5M in this flat cap environment. Saad just signed for less and he's a playoff beast.

Untill camp opens and we all know what he was dealing with, he wont be traded with negative value or bought out.

He apparently is ready to come back so under that pretense, hes worth more to us than in a negative value trade. He hasnt asked for a trade and the team wont trade him for nothing. Hes still good just not what we hoped.

Im not even adverse to keeping him. We really need a speedy puck mover like him. Lots of goalscorers on this team now, need some passers to get it to them.

A player with the skill set of Drouin, if he comes back 100%, is kind of what we need right now so i think MB isnt trying to just dump his salary for nothing.

Why not resign Tatar if you need a playmaker? You know he works well in Montreal with Gallagher.

He doesnt show up when it counts and chances are he didnt want to resign in MTL after being a healthy scratch in the playoffs. Wasnt a playmaker anyway, more of a dangler/shooter. Drouin is more of what the Habs could use as he is a good passer/distributer.

Also we have Drouin under contract, Tatar is a UFA. Why sign someone when we have somebody already here under contract.