I think it is more of fundamental disagreement regarding the strategy of a trade with the Isles than the perceived value of the package.
Would de Haan or Hamonic improve the Avs defense now? Yes, undoubtedly.
Would it result in improvement on the ice? Perhaps a little, but the Avs will still not be a playoff team IMO.
Will either player be a core player in the future as the Avs come out of a rebuilding mode? I don't think that they would, which means that you are staking all of your hopes on the Isles included prospect that will be a a tier or two below their better prospects and a mid-first round draft pick in what is perceived to be a weaker draft.
I would rather go with a strictly futures package than pick up a player that is close in age or older than Duchene and will not be a core piece in a few years.
I mean, not really. If you go and look at my post history you'll actually see that I would much, much rather go scorched Earth on this team and rebuild right from the bottom again. That includes selling all of Duchene, Landeskog, and Barrie. It's not a matter of me wanting us to get better next year or anything like that. I want us to be awful again next year to give us an opportunity at landing Dahlin or Svechnikov.
Just because CDH is already 26 doesn't mean he cant still be highly useful both during and after the rebuild. He entered the league late so its not like he already has a lot of mileage on him. And Dmen of his style are able to play longer anyway. If we entered a full 4-5 year rebuild he'd still only be ~30 coming out of it and would have 4-5 good year of play left in him still while our window is fully open.
We get our core pieces through the draft. The pieces we get from a Duchene trade and a potential Barrie/Landeskog trade are the pieces we hope can turn out to be good complimentary guys to the future core that will help to fill out the roster extremely well later on, not become the core themselves. Look at the Leafs and the Kessel return. None of those pieces were expected to be core pieces, but instead complimentary guys that help boost the overall depth and strength of the roster. Same thing with the CBJ Jeff Carter trade. Jack Johnson wasn't brought into be a core member, but a complimentary Top 4D. And again with Jordan Staal.
If it were strictly up to me, this is the way I would go.
1. You trade Duchene for CDH + MDC(Or if people prefer lets say Beauvillier instead) + #15. A comparable trade would be something like Murray + Milano + CBJ 1st. Or Ceci + White + OTT 1st.
2. You trade Barrie + a small piece to EDM for Eberle + Caleb Jones + EDM 1st. Again a similar trade could be something like Jakob Vrana + WSH 1st
3. You trade Landeskog to Boston for Carlo + DeBrusk + BOS 1st. And another similar package could be Manson + Max Jones + 2018 1st.
All of a sudden you have 4 1st rounders this year. You pick up 2 steady Top 4D that are already established at the NHL level and are young enough that in 3-4 years they're still great Top 4D for you, if not even better in Carlo's state. You also take a flier on a guy like Eberle and hope that he can bounce back to become a quality Top 6 player that can either be a complimentary piece to the core later on, or you can move him again for more picks/prospects later on.
With those 4 1sts and pick #32, you could come out of the draft with say Heiskanen at #4, Suzuki at #15(NYI 1st), Poehling at #18(BOSt 1st), Brannstrom at #24(EDM 1st), and Oettinger at #32(Our own 2nd).
All of a sudden we have arguably the deepest prospect pool in the entire league because along with the 4 1st rounders we just drafted. We also added Caleb Jones, Jake DeBrusk, and Anthony Beauvillier to that prospect pool as well. None of them are elite prospects, but the two forwards have Top 6 potential and Caleb Jones has Top 4 D potential.
Now all of a sudden, you already have a decent Top 4 Defense that includes EJ, Zadorov, Carlo, and CDH. But you've also got Heiskanen, Jones, Brannstrom to go along with Meloche, and Bigras in the system. That's now 5 Dmen with definite Top 4 potential, and 2-3 with Top 2 potential. Between all 5 of them all you need is one to become a Top pairing guy and you've got an elite Defense on your hands.
And the forward group still consists of the new core around Mackinnon, Rantanen, and Jost. But now you also have Suzuki, Poehling, DeBrusk, Beauvillier, Compher, Greer, and Beaudin.
For next season, you sign 2-3 free agents on 1 year deals with the intentions of trading them at the deadline, just like what Toronto just did 2 years ago. And you go into the season with a lineup something like this:
Andrighetto - Mackinnon - Rantanen
Jost - Soderberg - Eberle
Nieto - Grigorenko - Comeau
Colborne - Nate Thompson - Korpikoski
Zadorov - EJ
CDH - Carlo
Babeiro - Mironov
Varlamov/Nillsson(Lose Pickard in expansion draft)
The team would still be bad next year because we would've moved out a lot of our current forward talent, so we'd likely be looking at another Top 5 pick next year, where you could potentially draft Dahlin or Svechnikov as another true core piece for the team. You also eventually look to move Varlamov(If he can rebound to form and gain some decent value) and EJ as well, since neither of them will be effective when the rebuild is over in 3-4 years.
We'd have an insanely deep prospect pool, and out of all of those prospects all we would need is for 1 or 2 of them to exceed expectations and become a true #1D or an elite winger, and all of a sudden we've got a great new core and a tonne of complimentary pieces to fill out the rest of the roster with.
It's exactly what the Leafs have basically just done, and what the Sabres are in the process of doing.
