Quoting: JGDD11
Just had to check what team you were a fan of and it doesn’t seem like there’s any reasoning with you. Petry returned to form under St. Louis and put up the same, if not better, numbers than he did last year when he garnered Norris votes, while playing on a way worse team who traded four good pieces away at the deadline. Considering the right D market lives and dies with Letang and Klingberg, some team will be left with a good top 4 d. Has Dallas ever shied away from a player because of his age? Does Philly even care about a player’s age as long as he can help them get better now? And I’m sure when Gio won the Norris the only thing you were thinking about was dumping the remainder of his contract because “oh my God he’s over 35!!!!!” Petry will return value, you’re just too set in your opinion and too stubborn to see that, and that’s okay, our arguments on this hockey site don’t affect anything in the nhl.
Allen has been a solid starter throughout his career. Dreidger was a backup for 35 games (35!!!!) on a very good Florida team and put up those numbers. How’d he do this year on the kraken? They were supposed to be solid defensively and still finished better in the standings than the Habs. Allen is 100% better and more proven than Dreidger.
Barron was the main piece in the Lehkonen trade, and Lehkonen was highly valued by the Canadiens and has been excellent for the avalanche. He’s a good d prospect who will stabilize the right side of the Canadiens top four for years to come.
Yes I saw how he performed on a stacked team in the Stanley cup final. He’s a nice player, but again, on a cup contending team he is a third line center. Montreal is anything but that. He’s making over $5 mil and is on the wrong side of 30. If Montreal wanted that they could’ve just paid Phil, who got a very similar contract. My argument here is that Montreal doesn’t make sense as a fit to trade for Gourde. Don’t get me wrong that he’s an excellent player on a contending team, but he’s not a top 6 center that I see people good trading prospects and picks to acquire.
How does me being a team of literally none of the teams involved in this have any relevance, if anything that should mean my views arent bias like yours probably are. Did he play better under St. Louis? Sure but thats a pretty small sample size and it didn't take long for that team to fall off it's coaching change hype and return to subpar. IF you think the RD market starts and ends with Letang and Klingberg you really dont know what you are talking about. You are also making assumptions on teams because they signed like 1 veteran to an expensive contract. This is not only about his age as we will probably see with Giroux this summer. It is about his age + cap hit + term + a clear struggle at points this season. Obviously I was never thinking about dumping Gio's contract, he was the team captain and was a vastly better player than Petry has or will ever be. I was giving an example and speaking hypothetically. But that's fine, you can keep living in a fantasy land where you think Petry will return good value but I'll be here when reality sets in.
Allen was a solid starter? Did you see him in St. Louis? The team was dead last in the league when he was their starter. They won the cup that year because Binnington took his job. He'sa decent backup but he simply cannot deal with the workload of being a starter. As for Dreidger, yes he was backup in Florida but their defense was not very good, they were like the Rangers this year where they just banked on their goalie to make the save and really didn't play much defense.
I'm aware who Barron is, he is a good prospect but probably peaks as a 2nd pair guy. He definitely isn't a lock to be a long term guy in the top 4 though.
I am not arguing Montreal's need or need-nots for Gourde. I agree they he doesn't make any sense to target, especially when they already have Dvorak (who is kinda a knock-off version of him). I was arguing about how you "werent high on Gourde" and used Danault as an example of an extremely similar player in both playstyle and caliber.