LW is the one position the Habs really don't need any more depth
Drouin, Byron, Domi, Lehkonen, Tatar are all top 6 left wingers --- Domi has been playing C, and Lehks/Byron can play the right side so its' been fine.
Petry being moved would need to be for a young RW; it's the only position we're actually thin (Gallagher/Armia)
Obviously defensively we need some young guys, but I am sure that's the next several draft picks unless we get that #1 this year for Hughes.
Danault, Kotkaniemi, Suzuki, Poehling --- our C depth is young and full of promise
I agree, but the point I was making wasn't about Saad as the centre piece of the deal, but getting him as a cap casualty in order to make the deal work, kind of like they did with Tatar. The idea would be to get a very good prospect and a pick in exchange for allowing Chicago to swap Saad for Petry.
Again, I just like the idea of moves like that because they are creative, and they basically work in one of two ways. Saad is barely valuable, but maybe toward the end of his deal with salary retained you get a low pick in his UFA year, but you are still happy with the return for Petry, it just ended up costing more money than you would have liked.
The other scenario is that Saad becomes a useful player with some size and SC pedigree to compliment the youth, and you can move him for more substantial return with little to no salary retained later, and you knock the deal out of the park by turning a negative value into positive one.
So the idea isn't about getting Saad, but finding a way to maximize value in a trade on an asset that is valuable but probably not part of Montreal's long term plan.
I love the Pacioretty trade because Suzuki & a 2nd was solid value for a guy that came off a terrible year, and you knew only had great value if he re-signed, which we know he wouldn't have done with just anyone. So I think taking on Tatar to make that deal work was actually very clever, as Tatar get pegged as having negative value despite really only being bad for a relatively short time frame. Now that he is playing well and Vegas has retained on him, he has a positive value again, and if he keeps it up, Montreal likely trades him again at some point for more assets.
So I wouldn't mind Montreal doing something similar if Chicago is basically looking at Saad as a camp dump. Chicago still has to add the piece Montreal values in order to do it, but Saad could be a player Chicago deals under pressure that Montreal can extract more value from later, as long as they get him kind of as a throw in.
Before Chicago fans start saying Saad isn't a cap dump, that's fine if that's not what Chicago wants to do with him, but you can't healthy scratch a guy whose previous games were on the 4th line making $6M and expect to get value in a trade if you do so right now, so for the purposes of a discussion around Saad with respect to the rest of the league, he is a cap dump.