Better playmaker and defender, and while he's not at Bolduc's goal-scoring peak, I don't think McGroarty's a slouch in that department at all
(ultimately, I'd say he's a potential thirty-goal-seventy-point winger with fantastic defense who can play anywhere and be helpful, and that's just as valuable as a forty-goal scorer. Like McGroarty's Buchnevich (peak) to Bolduc's Tarasenko (peak), if we had to compare Blue apples to Blue apples.
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
). Definitely a glue guy like Neighbours or Stenberg with tons of physicality (Bolduc is noticeably less physical and more of a perimeter player. Not a bad thing, necessarily; I'm into talent wherever it may be, which is why my faith in Kyrou hasn't wavered.), and that's something I could see appealing to the Blues. We're a physical forechecking team at our core. Yes, there's skill, but we've always had that physicality and defensive play when it comes to our forwards, and we won the Cup with that physicality and great defensive play from the vast majority of our forwards.
I'm not going to lie and say that putting McGroarty with Thomas, Kyrou, Neighbours, Buchnevich, and possibly Snuggerud, Dvorsky, and Stenberg, (and maaaybe Susuyev) doesn't sound extremely tempting, and while I'd gladly give up "only" Dean + Ralph/Fischer/Buchinger (EDIT: f***ing human error) for him instead of Bolduc and a third, I don't see it happening.
What I'm saying is Winnipeg would be stupid to take a deal that didn't include Bolduc; regardless of whether he wants to play there or not, he's easily their best prospect, and there's going to be suitors that will pay more than Dean + a defenseman that isn't Lindstein or Jiricek. Honestly, if Montreal and Columbus are in on it, I don't see any way we get him unless we
do give up Bolduc and a mid-round pick; both of those teams' prospect pools are far more appealing than ours, and they're probably going to be picking higher in the next draft as well. McGroarty doesn't have any leverage when it comes to a trade: just whether he signs with a team or not.