I think a lot of people massively underrate Farabee. He's effectively a Top Line caliber even strength producer. That's huge. I said it in some other thread about him...but his even strength production is
well within the Top-100 Forwards in the league. Top-80 actually. He's right there with guys like Giroux, Buchnevich, Kempe, Kreider, Hintze et al.
I don't know that he's necessarily exactly what Montreal needs...but he's a hugely valuable player imo. I'd kill to have a guy like that on the Canucks.
Frost on the other hand...i sort of disagree on. Maybe you can call him a "low end" #2C...but i wouldn't even stretch that far. I'd just call him a "tweener". He's one of those guys who...if he's your 2C...you always want to upgrade. And he's useless as a 3C. He's massively more powerplay and offensive minutes with quality linemates dependent. He needs guys like Tippett and Konecny who can drive their own offensive production to pick up shrapnel secondary points. And he needs to be in that Top-6C role with a buttload of top Powerplay minutes to do
anything. But if he's your 2C playing those minutes...you're not a good team and you're weak down the middle. That's not a "contender caliber 2C".
It's wild to me how a lot of people seem to view the "value" of these two, comparatively. And have it completely flipped.
But the fact that Frost really isn't that great, is why this makes next to no sense to me for the Habs...especially for the 5th overall pick. Even if that's an awkward spot without an obvious Forward to select. But heck, Berkly Catton alone is a massively better, higher upside version of Frost by himself. Even the added (underrated) value of Farabee isn't going to offset that.