Which leads to the question: If a defensive dman who takes a lot of dzone starts and plays against tough matchups does really poorly in those matchups... how good of a defensive dman is he?
He's pretty decent. Not a top pairing guy by any stretch, despite being used as such in Montreal, but a perfectly capable complementary defenceman on the 2nd pairing on a good team. Which is exactly what Montreal's trading partners are going to be looking for.
I don't think he's a bad player. I do think he'll have some value to a team at the deadline. I wouldn't be surprised if someone gives up a 1st for him. I just think that team will regret it.
Why would they regret it? If they're getting back a #4D who brings a physical dymension and can raise his game during the playoffs, you think they will care about a late 1st rounder? To be perfectly honest, I thought there's going to be enough LD's on the market that Chiarot is not going to fetch a 1st, but it seems Lindholm, for example, is off the market and Chiarot is playing well, so that changes the landscape, especially if someone is looking to make a trade early.
I mean, sure, someone might regret it. Chiarot might turn out to not be a good fit for whatever reason (happens all the time), or he's going to be fine, but his new team will end up being eliminated early regardless. But there's a pretty large grey area between such a take and one that says "o my God, he's terrible! Nobody is going to give up that much for a 3rd pairing defenceman". That's absurd.
It's ironic that MTL has 1 real LD on the team besides Chiarot (Romanov) has no LD on the farm that's really ready, and yet here most Habs fans are happily shopping this great #3 defensive stud who played 20+ minutes on a Finals team. There's nobody to replace him... but they'd rather get a 1st than keep him.
Not sure if you're serious with this, but I'll just assume you're not familiar with our situation.
The brilliant architect Marc Bergevin has left us with 3 defencemen of basically an identical profile in terms of a role they should be utilized in (Edmundson, Chiarot, Savard). Out of these 3 Chiarot is a pending UFA. We're capped out, facing a rebuild and most of our best prospects are LHD's. The decision to trade Chiarot has nothing to do with his quality as a player. We are hardly in a position to bid for his services in the offseason. It's a no-brainer decision.
Again, he's not a top pairing defenceman. Not a core player that you build around. But let's not act like only those kind are traded for a 1st round pick at the deadline.