Girard is going to need to have a pretty good season to get that kind of return, especially since we are in a position of needing to dump cap. My main issue here is that I think we need to keep Annunen at all costs. Georgiev will likely price himself out of CO after 24-25 and I don't know that we have any better options than keeping Annunen and giving him a shot.

MTL decline, we have no use for Girard

i'm going to say it now so we can all start preparing for it. I think it might be byram moved in two years. if he breaks out like we all are hoping he does over the next 2 years you have to think his contract will be somewhere around 9mil. Can we really put 25 mil into 3 d while still filling out the rest of the roster to be competitive? i understand the negative side to girard that everyone loves to point out but he's been a reliable top 4 d man for us for the last 4 years and can eat minutes. plus the return for byram would be substantially more than we would get for sammy or manson.
I'd hate to see byram go but we might need to move him in two years to fill out the team. It's not like our d core gets that much weaker it's pretty much keeping sammy and manson(or another physical d man for 4 mil) and getting the haul for byram or keeping byram and getting what we can for girard and manson.
Obviously if landy doesn't come back that changes everything

You don't keep a bottom pairing D making $4.5M over a top 4 guy making $5M; the return isn't what's important, it's the cap space: trade Manson.

Are there rumours of Landeskog coming back?

I didnt think we would see him again.

There is optimism out there that he can return for the playoffs this year. But I don't know that it is anything more than speculation at this point.

Amen. Avs should move Manson first. Return won't be great, but it's all about cap space. Let Johansen go at the end of next year and those two moves give them close to $9M in room. That maybe doesn't fully answer whether Bo stays and for how much, but imo we're still a ways off from knowing what Bo will truly be worth.

If Byram does break out, they'll never get value back in a trade but, with Toews coming back and essentially blocking him from playing top pair minutes on his strong side, he may want out.

No, but he has some 5 or 6 years left on his contract to come back. We can't rule him out yet, plus he hasn't officially stated that he is considering retirement.

Exactly what Montreal needs, more defensemen lmao.

Quoting: NMAvsFan
You don't keep a bottom pairing D making $4.5M over a top 4 guy making $5M; the return isn't what's important, it's the cap space: trade Manson.

Amen. Avs should move Manson first. Return won't be great, but it's all about cap space. Let Johansen go at the end of next year and those two moves give them close to $9M in room. That maybe doesn't fully answer whether Bo stays and for how much, but imo we're still a ways off from knowing what Bo will truly be worth.

Behrens and Gulyayev will be the main factors for what happens 3 years from now. For this year, set. For next year, they're going to have to get rid of Girard or Manson. I know everyone would rather get rid of Manson but if you can get enough extra value in return for Sammy, that makes trading either one an option.