Wondering if people think Montreal should trade Cayden Primeau for more if a win-now asset? Perhaps as part of a package fir someone.
I ask this because Carey Price has 5 years left on his contract, which I think most people would agree is untraceable. Primeau will be 27 by then. That’s pretty old to become the next starting goalie. To me it does not make sense to pay Price $10.5M to be a backup any earlier than that.
So does it make sense to trade Primeau while he is still “up and coming” and probably has highest value rather than hanging on to him for 5 more years while Price plays out his contract?
If you draft The Next Goalie even next year (1st or 2nd round) that still gives that goalie multiple years to develop (while likely watching Price becoming painfully worse and worse unfortunately).
I am not sure what else the Habs can do with the Price contract. He has been phenomenal for them, but he is on the downside of his career

honestly i see zero upside in trading primeau, he's not a super attractive piece in a package since theres still a lot for him to prove. He can probably start taking on 30-35 starts as soon as 2022-23 i view him as being a 1b for the final two years of price's contract. the reality is you could draft a goalie in each draft for 5 years and not have any turn into starting goalies. We have one that seems like he is on the path to be a starter and habs should be more than happy to wait and let him develop into that. if he only becomes full time start at 27 thats fine cuz i see him getting close to 40 starts atleast two years prior to that and theres the issue of price's injury history, good chance his body doesnt hold up to the end of that contract.

The truth is Primeau will be the #1 goalie before Prices' contract is up. Chances are Price will be backing up Primeau by the end of the 5th year so may not be wise moving him out.

With that said, Habs could have had Sam Reinhart for Primeau + 2022 1st essentially. (Flo paid Levi+1st). That would have been a solid addition also.

Primeau’s going to become the backup when Allen’s gone and then the 1b behind Price, then the 1a ahead of Price, so I’d keep him, also there’s a chance Price gets ( sadly ) a career ending injury before his contract is done

If Primeau has a great year in Laval, he could even be 2nd goalie as soon as next year if that's MTL choice. Allen at 2.8m for 1 year will be really easy to move if they go this path.

But you expose a good plan. We need to avoid the dichotomy of G1 - G2 because it can very well be G1a - G1b even if Price is paid 10m

I expect Primeau and Price to be at least sharing the net in the last 2 years of Carey’s contract. Dobeš is still mostly unproven and a long ways away, so we should keep Primeau.

Plus I don’t think he’d have enough trade value to justify moving him.