Dubois & Connor for Caufield & 5OA?

Habs pass here. Not giving value for Dubois and Connor is a bit too old for the core.

Would rather pick and prospects

Equivalent of 5th Oa this year in value

Whatever Winnipeg got for Laine adjusted for size

Of course Laine had a 40 goal and 2 30 goal seasons before being traded

Value wise: something like PLD +Perfetti should be fair... but MTL passed...
they are keeping CC and will add PLD at the draft

Respectfully

Connor is better than Caufield. He's a better hockey player, he's skater, he plays better defense, and he has established himself.

The only issue with Connor is the lack of team control as t the end of his deal with no guaranteed extension.

I agree with your assessment btw... Habs should not do this deal.

If the Habs believe in Caufield, that he's an Elite player, they should give him an 8 x 9 deal. It will feel like a lot at first, but by 2025 a lot of players worse than Caufield will have 9M deals.

If they don't believe in him, they should sign him short term and trade him 2 years from now to maximize his value

I agree with what jonh514 is saying. Personally, I'm not a MTL fan, and I'm not NEARLY as high on him as most everybody else. I don't think he's all that special. But if MTL does, then they need to gamble on a long-term contract or try to sell high on him with a shorter term deal which keeps him RFA.

We're talking about cap space that the Canadiens Have, and will have more and more of until 2026 when their real cap crunch will begin.

We've seen from teams like VGK & FLA that teams can Gamble with big deals in the 10M range on 3 players. The question is: Is CC one of your big 3?

It's not a simple question to answer, because making a mistake on 1 of those 3 is the difference between the Florida Panthers when Bob is at his best and the Florida Panthers when Bob is in the press box.

Is CC a top 3 player on this team or is he trade bait?

And that's a question I'll leave to MTL fans, since I'm not one.