Quoting: TheRealisticGuy
MTL current management drafted him not even a year ago. He is one of the best friend of Juraj Slafkovsky. He is really good, he just needs to adapt to smaller rink. Our current management would rather trade prospects that they didn't draft, exemple : Riley Kidney, Oliver Kapanen. They won't include the guys who they believe in : Mesar, Beck, Hutson, Engstrom, Rohrer. They didn't hesitate to trade Alexander Romanov. Maybe Mesar ends up better than someone you named above, you never know. MTL have Barron & a lot of NHL ready LHD : Guhle, Harris, Xhekaj, and this is without counting the vet presence on the blueline : Edmundson, Matheson, Savard. MTL are stacked right now with defenseman. Yes it would be nice adding a RHD with top 4 potentiel, but it looks like Mailloux could be that guy
I hear what you are saying about Mesar. I agree it is rare to trade a guy that the team just drafted a year earlier, but he is on the smaller side and IF Montreal truly intends to go after PLD, I cannot see him fitting into the top 6 (I think Montreal will be more patient with their #1 overall pick from last year and their #5 overall pick from this year than they will be with the #26 pick from last year). I could be wrong, as I have absolutely no "inside info" from the organization obviously.
Maybe Mailloux and Barron are the RHD in the top 4 for years to come, but neither one of them is guaranteed to be in that role.
I think that Guhle and Hutson (despite his size and reported skating concerns-- which can be improved) will fill the top 2 LHD positions in the long-term and I think Xhekaj is good on a third pairing with someone.
If they had Schneider they could slide Mailloux down to that third pairing with Xhekaj and be a power play QB. This would let Barron, Schneider, Guhle and Hutson fill out the top 4 and the top 6 would be set for years to come, while still having prospects like Engstrom, Trudeau and Norlinder.
Plus the role of Mesar (offensive minded forward) could be replaced by either pick #13 (from Buffalo) or pick #23 (from NYR) this year.