Personally I'd be very happy if PLD is able to come home, but I don't think I'd give him more than 8.5 and hopefully he'd be willing to take a slight hometown discount but that might be wishful thinking.

He's not likely to take a hometown discount if he's going ufa so it's either trade for him and get him to a price like 9m now or Risk the open market driving up his price (if he goes ufa that is)

This is his big payday and most likely his biggest money and term wise so taking a discount for a team doesn't really track there. US based teams with better tax can offer the same contract and he'd bring home more at the end of the day so. Either really hope it's mtl or Nothing (unlikely) or bite the bullet and trade for him this offseason to guarantee you get him

They need to also get some veteran presence with a physical edge to protect some younger guys besides arber

Not true many players entering ufa take hometown discounts. Tavares reportedly did, it all depends on whether they are being truthful about wanting to play at home and not just using the Habs as a bargaining chip as many have done in the past.

Exactly the players I'd like GMKH to draft/sign in the next 18 months. Not bad, and you're a Sens fan?

Now, it would be a fun team to match for sure, but does it have the ingredients of a perennial contender in the making? Unless the Carlsson/Hutson pair become the next embodyment of MacKinnon/Makar, I doubt so.

Won't be good for a couple years, but in their prime it would be pretty good

and how do those contracts normally end up overpaying for a guy that's effective but ultimately takes away the ability to address different needs. This might not be the case with Dubois but it has to be said that there's no guarantee he makes ufa and if he does it might be advantageous for him to go to a lower tax team like la or etc. 9m a season there vs mtl can really add up over the years. Best case scenario is they trade for him and get the discount while he's still under team control imo

Also they need to understand that teams don't piss away assets so the chance he makes it to ufa are kinda less than what every mtl agm says

Boqvist is almost certainly available, but we'd probably be looking for something based around futures. The kinds of prospects we need are shutdown LD and two-way C, and I'm not sure who Montreal has in their pool that they can or would spare. Guhle would be wonderful, but I also understand he's a tad highly valued over there...

Slaf-PLD-Dach as a the star first line!