If he only played games in Canada that would still ensure he played more games per year for the team than Tanev would ever be capable of.
agree it would be a leap of faith on Nylander. I've thought that Kadri is one of very few of our forwards who's looked comfortable in the tighter/more physical playoff style games too
I actually don't think that Kadri is a great match up center, he sort of got thrust into the role to shelter some young players and because Bozak is very incapable. Backlund would have been a nice replacement, I think Nylander has the potential to be sound defensively without being overly physical - just skate, take away passing lanes and lift sticks kind of thing. We might need a proper match up center with a lower offensive ceiling to take the 1st lines, but that's probably something we can find, like a Bonino kind of thing
that's fair, there would be no deadline on that deal being that they're both signed long term unless Tavares was signing here because we'd need the cap space
Getting a 'traditional' 3C will eventually cost the same if not more cap-wise than Kadri, and you will likely be downgrading the overall player. I also doubt any team will offer something other than futures/prospects package, as a team who wants Kadri likely wants to win now . Simply put, I think he serves more value to us on the team rather than trade. And the reality is, Matthews has to develop into the matchup C. The true elites like Bergeron, Kopitar, Crosby did it, Barkov and Couturier are getting there now, Matthews will have to get there soon too. If he's a cream of the crop player, he'll need to be able to do it all. So really, it's better to get a productive C who can handle average matchups rather than another matchup C since Kadri and Matthews are more than capable of handling that together.
