We'd be losing a first line winger with five years of team control versus three. Patches is damn good but so is Drouin and Drouin's career trajectory is only trending upward whereas Pacioretty's will likely start declining soon (and if it doesn't we won't be able to afford to resign him anyway.) Plus Drouin is a better fit both positionally (excelling at both wings while we're jam packed on the left side at the moment) and in terms of skill set (he singlehandedly sparked our power play and is probably our only hope of Stamkos even coming close to living up to his new contract.)
Nothing against Patches but he just isn't as good a fit for us.
