You could take Comtois out and the Ducks still decline, if you arent offering a 2023 first we arent taking a multi-year cap dump

wow alot of value for players that contributed to the worst team in the league

Vegas will pass on that

Sabres have no need for Drouin

These trades are all garbage but your statement is equally as ridiculous.

All those teams decline.

Hoffman has some value, but is slowly becoming a hated teammate. His age, last yrs performance and contract work against getting market value

Drouin really has no value. Between injuries and team absences I'm not sure any team wants a 5mil UFA who just might not play. Drouin has just 105 games in the last THREE years, and took a leave of absence when his team made the finals. I think its immensely difficult to put a price tag on him, because I dont know if any teams (contender or not) are willing to take a 5mil bad bet like Drouin.

Wideman and Norlinder have okay value, but not much....

MTL doesn;t have the cap space (Price and Byron dependent) to take on cap, and the players on offer above just are really flawed.

Drouin hasnt been worth a 2nd in years

Slowly becoming a hated teammate? I'd love to know where people get this stuff, especially seeing how he got along just fine with his teammates in MTL last year. Whatever his wife/gf said years ago was ridiculous, but I'm pretty sure Karlsson had a role in that beef too. In fact, I'd bet that Karlsson is a much bigger locker room cancer than Hoffman ever was.

So you want a top 5 pick just to take on $4.5M in salary for the next couple years, even tho your team has trouble reaching the cap floor? Makes total sense.

Yeah maybe, but he didnt work in VGS either and there were some internal rumblings there too. And while he still has the wife/gf history, its more to do with the fact that hes almost viewed as a rather one dimensional mercenary, who MTL fans seem to want rid of, joining Ottawa and Vegas fans who voiced the same.

But again, even without that: His age, last yrs performance and contract work against getting market value.

As for ANA, they just signed Klingberg, and reach the cap floor fine. They're rebuilding, theres no point in paying for someone like Hoffman, who is not part of the rebuild, unless he came for well below value.

Hoffman never played in Vegas... OTT, FLA and STL before joining the Habs.

As for Anaheim, Klingberg and his $7M likely won't even be there at the end of this season. Not saying they should pay to take Hoffman, but asking for a top 5 pick is ridiculous. They'll be around the cap floor for the next few years, so taking on Hoffman actually helps them get there and they could potentially retain 50% and flip him for an asset or two at the deadline before he hits UFA status.

Sorry, I got my teams confused, you are right, he was a training camp try-out for STL, I was thinking of FLA, (got VGS on the mind from another thread). But it illutsrates my "mercenary" view of him.
I see your point, Im just not sure Hoffman with 2 yrs at 4.5mil, coming off a bad year and looking for his 5th team, and almost 3rd in 3 yrs, gets back tons at deadline. As I said about Kerfoot in another thread, the buyer (a non-contender) would have to hope he stays healthy and stays productive on a poor team and then has to move him for more than they paid, so its just not a good investment.
And Hoffman, at his age, probably doesn;t get better, certainly not on a poor team and without top 6 minutes, and if hes not part of the rebuild, why would they give him top 6 minutes.

As for ANA and cap floor, theyve got RFAs who'll cash in and then go back to the UFA market to get the right players to fit the cap, I just dont think Hoffman is the right player.

Team has already reached the cap floor, we have no reason to take a cap dump just because.

Ducks have Terry, Zegras and Drysdale all needing new deals next year, Taking bad contracts for next season is going to cost a ton to get ANA to bite

No reason for MTL to trade a first obviously, but no reason for ANA to take Hoffman for any less

That price isnt just for MTL, thats for every team in the league

Boom, people just don’t get it and also just don’t pay attention

If you've got a ton of cap space, why not take an asset to pay Hoffman over the next two years? As I said, he could potentially be flipped for another asset at the 2024 TDL if he puts up 40-50 points per year and you retain 50%. If not, you still get the asset for taking him on - it just won't be a first.

Not every team's 1st rounder has equal value, so slapping that price tag on "every team in the league" in nonsensical.

Not at all, Cap space is king, especially right now. Ducks have all the leverage if a team wants to dump a bad contract

And with Hoffman, They arent going to be doing MTL any favours to bring in a guy that has been a locker room cancer in the past

Just because ANA has cap space doesnt mean they need to use any of it, the Ducks operate off an internal budget as opposed to the salary cap, and Ownership has a chance to save a bit of money the next few years before we are ready to be truly competitive again

If all it was easy to dump salary, Kerfoot, Holl, Hoffman, a BOS LD, etc all would have been moved by now by various teams

Not at all? So every team's first is equal?

Understood that ANA is not a big market team, but if they have the flexibility to collect more assets during the rebuild, DO IT. Simple. Not easy to dump salary, but it doesn't cost a top 5 pick, or even a top 32 pick in most cases.

That’s not remotely close got Theo