You’re not the only one. I’d personally wait for him to become a free agent and if goes elsewhere, well good for him

Good assessment. Probably not wise to trade for him. And as you suggest, may not even be the guy you want on a long term contract either.

So an ACGM using the handle Sergachev is warning us not to make the mistake of spending valuable assets to get a former 3rd OA pick from Ste-Agathe is...on brand.

And I agree with you, Mikhail.

You're not alone.

The least you can do is just wait until PLD becomes a UFA and then decide what to do next.

Trading for him is completely unnecessary.

I don't know that the reason he forced himself out of Columbus and (possibly, probably) Winnipeg is necessarily a poor reflection on him as a character. I think a major reason that he hasn't been willing to commit long term is because he WANTS to go to Montreal sooner rather than later, so unless that team is just utterly toxic I don't see why he would go there and force out later considering that's been a latent motivation for a lot of his behavior thus far anyway.

But also, Columbus was a team on the decline after Panarin and Bobrovsky left and he obviously didn't get along with the coach, which maybe says something about him but we all know how Tortorella can be himself. And if all the quotes coming from that organization over the last couple years indicates anything, Winnipeg seems just absolutely miserable to play for right now, and it has nothing to do with the weather (maybe it has a little to do with the weather) and everything to do with how mismanaged that team culture has been. Not to mention they're also a team that seems headed for the brink at the moment.

Basically, if it was me, I'm not sure I would have wanted to stick around in either of those places myself, especially if my goal is to win a cup in an organization I like and teammates/coaches that aren't grating to be around. Playing for a team on the rise (theoretically), playing for MSL and playing for my hometown seems much more appealing to me than playing for Winnipeg for the next couple years or playing for Columbus the last couple years. The thing with him is that he's just not an elite player. This isn't like going out and getting Artemi Panarin or Johnny Gaudreau when the future of your team is somewhat uncertain. This is like, a good top six mostly offensive center, despite his reputation. So like, I don't know how much I would really be giving up for him and an extension would be in the Trouba/Hayes/Anderson danger zone of "well we just traded for you so I guess we have to give you way too much money"

Lol yeah my name elsewhere is actually Romanov cuz I changed it...then he got traded too and been to lazy to change my name everywhere.
I see a lot of similarities with Drouin but one major difference, I think PLD is a more established player and will have more success. But yeah I thought the Serg/Drouin trade was a bad decision then and I think a PLD trade would be a bad decision now

Exactly this

the issue is really cost of acquiring him and cost of the contract but you dont acquire him without the extension done .. that you just be stupid and give the player all of the leverage.. So at 9 mil i would pass...and 8.5 mil i would pass also.....at 8 mil i would consider it.....at 7.8 mil I would think it was fair.